Propaganda

Propaganda affects everyone.  You can't avoid it.  It is everywhere.  Newspapers, magazines, books, posters, TV commercials, graffiti, movies, and of course blogs.  All are used to propagate propaganda.  As politics gets more heated the more the political parties use propaganda as a means to sway public opinion. 

Propaganda can be sinister or benign.  Propaganda is intended to suspend reason and supplant it with emotion.  It targets the masses, the less educated and poor, who are more likely to respond to propaganda.  The elite in the society are fewer in number and less likely to respond to appeals to their emotions.  Being generally better educated they are more inclined to analyze anything presented to them.

My source for writing this blog is material published by the former Institute for Propaganda Analysis; an organization which engaged in educating the public against propaganda being spread by the Nazis in the mid 1930s.

Propaganda can be broken down into seven ploys; Name Calling, Glittering Generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, and Bandwagon. 

Name Calling.  A word or label that has a negative connotation to it.  It causes a person to reject or condemn an idea without examining the evidence associated with it.  Commie, socialist, liberal, conservative, Muslim, terrorist, all are omnibus words, words which have different meanings to different people. GW Bush poked fun at the French prior to the Iraq war in order to get the public to reject their information indicating the Saddam Hussein did not have WMD.

Glittering Generalities.  This is the opposite to Name Calling.  It is a virtue word having a positive connotation, which makes us accept and approve of a thing without stopping examine its meaning.  Liberty, freedom, the flag, capitalism, individualism, right to work, Rosie the Riveter, Uncle Sam, god, all can have positive connotations.

Transfer.  A ploy which carries over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something we favor, respect, revere, to something the propagandist would have us accept.  The Ten Commandments, Jesus, God, founding fathers, church leaders, policemen, firemen--all have attributes which can be used to transfer to other things or persons.  We frequently see celebrities in commercials promoting products or insurance.  Because we like or admire them we are likely to listen to them and buy the product.  This ploy can work in reverse.  Guilt by association.  A person by chance is standing next to someone or thing, who the public has negative feeling about, can influence public opinion about that person.

Testimonial.  This is a ploy in which someone is saying that something is good or bad.  You often see strangers on TV saying that such and such a product did something they liked.  Eliminated bad breath, did away with their upset stomach, made them lose 30 pounds, that is testimonial at work trying to influence you.  Say to yourself, why should I take that persons word for it, I don't know them from Adam.  I'll make up my own mind. 

Plain Folks.  This ploy attempts to convince those listening that what he/she is presenting comes from the common folk.  That the presenters are "just plain folks" like them.  A Texas drawl for instance, might convince some that that person didn't go to Harvard, or sailed around in a yacht. 

Card Stacking.  This ploy consists of selecting out particular facts or falsehoods or distractions in order to present the worst or best case for an idea. The propagandist selects only those facts and ideas which will support his cause and ignore or downplay facts or ideas which tend not to support his/her cause.  Statistics is a prime tool for propaganda use.

Band Wagon.  Everybody is doing it and so should I.  The propagandist tries to convince an audience that it is right to join an activity because many others are doing it.  No one likes to feel left out or on the wrong side. 

Propaganda works.  It works because we choose not to think rationally and to blindly let our feelings do our decision making for us. Billions of dollars are being spent every year finding out what makes us tick, what candidate we like, what words cause a positive feeling or a negative one, then we hear those words over and over again in commercials and political speeches.

There is a way to fight back, by becoming less susceptible to persuasion  Analyze before you act.  Ask yourself, what does that word really mean, what does it mean to me?  Study over the seven ploys and identify them in speeches and commercials you see and hear everyday.  Make up a scrapbook with dicey items illustrating the above ploys.  Get others to analyze with you.  Make a game out of it by seeing how many glittering generalities you can pick out of speech.  How many times did Boener use the words "the American People" or freedom.