Propaganda
The first casualty, when war comes, is truth
Hiram Johnson
I find propaganda fascinating, being a student of 20th century history, a period which gave us some of the most evil propagandists of all time I'm well versed in spotting propaganda when I see it, but sometimes its not so easy to spot and it happens a lot more often than we think. The best propaganda is when you don't even notice you've been exposed to it. Joseph Goebbels was a master of it, while a lot of his work involved obviously cynical overt propaganda he was also a master at covert propaganda, twisting narratives and re-imagining history in a manner that was eagerly lapped up by the masses who might not have believed everything he was telling them, they simply wanted to believe it.
Of course, Goebbels wasn't the only propagandist during the second world war, neither is it something only one side participated in. The allies were no strangers to propaganda themselves. In most cases, it takes an awful lot of persuasion to convince one man to go and kill another man he has never met. In fact I recall reading some years ago (and I wish I could find it again but alas) that among the best soldiers among combat troops are actually serial killers, which makes sense when you think about it. Anyway, if someone does remember it can they link me to the article that would be great. Of course, serial killers typically have their own agenda, but who's to say that serial killers are immune to propaganda? Anyway...
So, propaganda is the best tool for rallying the masses, it always has been, people will fall for anything if they're convinced what they're fighting for is for the greater good. But more often than not, they'll fall for it if it gives them confirmation bias
"I knew I was right, what you have just said proves to me I was right"
So how can we break this down. I was looking for a good example, I found loads, but I wanted something specific, something so simple and obvious, and of course I managed to find it in the most obvious of places, in academia. This is a twitter exchange. The original tweeter has this in their bio
"Causes of war & the conditions of peace, Graduate of the realist school of International Politics. Economic history, Keynesian Economics War Propaganda"
No I have no idea what the "realist school of International politics" is either. This is because it doesn't actually exist. How you graduate from a non-existent school is anyone's guess. What this person actually is, is an economics graduate (probably)
Tweet begins (see if you can spot the propaganda)
"The Peace march is called the Hate March
The violent thugs of the EDL are called counter protestors.
This is how propaganda works."
Reply
"Peace march or Palestinian supporters march, all very subtle but words matter"
Response from original tweeter
"Words are all we have"
Second reply
"And the BBC are using that narrative"
Response from original tweeter
"And Sky"
The thread then divulges into a litany of confirmation bias I wont bore anyone with the inane tweets.
So did anyone spot the obvious propaganda?
It was in the first 2 lines of the original tweet
The peace March is called a hate March << Textbook propaganda
The "peace March" was called a "hate march" because it contained significant amount of people expressing hate. Go look at some video, see for yourself violent clashes between the police and hate marchers. Any march that descends into chaos and has groups of people actually hunting down Jews can hardly be classed as marching for peace.
Try turning up with a "condemn Hamas" placard (as one person did) and you'll quickly see how peaceful these marchers actually are
"The violent thugs of the EDL are called counter protestors" <<<<< Propaganda 101
The EDL hasn't existed for almost a decade and I recall very little framing of the footy fans who turned up at The Cenotaph to pay their respects as "counter protestors" in fact the BBC and pretty much all media outlets framed them as far right, violent footy thugs.
A mere 2 days ago, far left nutjob James O'Brien said that violent football thugs "stormed The Cenotaph"
The fact that these footy fans paid their respects by standing in dignified silence as a mark of recognising what those who came before them gave up flies in the face of them "storming The Cenotaph."
So this is how propaganda actually works. Of course nobody actually believes that the BBC and Sky framed the days events in this manner, its all nonsense.
The key here is, subconsciously you don't necessarily have to believe in what someone is telling you, sometimes merely wanting to believe them is enough. Ironically one of the later replies brought up Orwell's 1984 suggesting that the media are acting like the ministry of truth. The irony being it is they who would likely be the ones in control at the ministry of truth. Orwell being one of my favourite authors would roll his eyes at the state of todays socialist left.
Don't believe something simply because you want it to be true.
Now, of course propaganda is normally something the state (your government) or a political movement would engage in, but it isn't always exclusive. The BBC & Sky aren't under the control of the state, neither are they political movements, but they are powerful tools to use in the spread of propaganda, which of course filters down to the individual. If you scroll back up and look at the words of far left nutter James O'Brien "they STORMED the Cenotaph" What kind of image does that conjure up in your mind? When you imagine people "Storming" something, what do you think their actions would be when they get there? Do you imagine them observing an impeccable 2 minutes silence? No you don't.
When I refer to far left nut job James O'Brien as a far left nut job, I want to imprint in your mind "far left nut job" every time you think of James O'Brien that's another trick of how a propagandist operates.
Now, with my tiny online presence me calling James O'Brien a far left nut job is going to have zero effect. But what if I had a following of millions? What if I had my own radio show? What if I was in government and was able to introduce legislation that not only allowed me to call far left nut job James O'Brien a far left nutjob with impunity I was also able to have him arrested and locked up under a trumped up charge of being an enemy of the state? (and a far left nut job)
A true story.
I used to run a small, security operation. Most of which was centred around compiling CCTV footage in order to present to clients in a manner which would help explain how an event happened, how did things escalate, where the flashpoints were etc etc. Simple right?
No!
The power of confirmation bias can be overwhelming, you would not believe how many times people refuse to see what is in front of their own eyes simply because it paints someone they personally dislike in a favourable light (or vice versa) Its why many companies outsource all of their security requirements. But that doesn't always work. It doesn't work for the NHS.
Sometime around the mid 90's I was looking for a change in direction. Its how I got started in security in the first place. A applied for a few jobs, one was for my local NHS hospital. But this wasn't an interview in the normal sense, this was a recruitment process that tied me up all day. I quickly realised the people actually working the job were nothing more than former low grade night club bouncers, I'm sure you know the type. It was little wonder to me then as to why their staff turnover was so high. I was offered a job, yet declined it, I had much better offers
Fast forward 20 years yet the same job kept coming up over and over, so out of curiosity I applied again. It was almost the EXACT same group of people, I walked out half way through. Adverts for security in my local NHS hospital still dominated my emails, I'm sure they would still dominate to this day had I not changed my search interests.
So where am I going with all this? Nowhere special, I'm merely pointing out how easily susceptible people are to confirmation bias and propaganda. I find the cleverer people believe themselves to be, the more susceptible they are to covert propaganda, this is not always the case, and sometimes its merely hubris. But it does happen a lot more often than I ever thought it did.
And my NHS story? that's how I like to deal with something I feel might be true. if someone were to tell me that this is still going on in the NHS I would readily agree, I already have my bias, their opinion has just confirmed it to me. But sometimes that's not enough (it rarely is for me) so I have to confirm my own bias before I can say "yes you are so right" I have 2 personal experiences that span 20 years and I also have empirical evidence to back up my belief (extreme high staff turnover and the same low grade people are in the same positions elevated way above their skillset)
If there is a topic you feel passionately about dig deep into the subject, but don't go looking just to confirm your own bias, also look for the dissenting voice, do they have a point? Are they arguing in good faith, many times I have had to tweak my opinion because. the dissenting voice has made a very good counter argument.
If you can do that, you will quickly hone your critical thinking skills and insulate yourself from propaganda, just beware, its not an impenetrable forcefield.
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