I grew up knowing the meaning of propaganda, it was a term applied in the 1950s, to actions by Communist China and Russia to confuse the public and destabilize facts. Using repetition of slogans, through rallies, pamphlets and posters, those totalitarian governments demanded that their people be compliant, and obedient, and allow all sorts of atrocities to happen to them, without giving resistance.
We were all familiar with how Hitler manipulated his people to believe his claim that various countries were threatening Germany, and needed to be invaded. And later, in the USA how McCarthyism influenced a significant section of its democratically run government to bend to its skewed agenda.
High school teachers outlined these terrible practices, and somehow conveyed the belief that this could never happen here, in our democracy. As young students, growing up in the trusting North American culture of the 1950s,. we thought we were safe from such government manipulation.
In the early 2000s, when President Bush embarked on his campaign to invade Iraq to find ‘weapons of mass destruction’, most people trusted that their government had good reason to start a war, and few recognized it for what it was, an outright lie.
It isn’t until now, in the aftermath of the 2016 US election, and after two years of the Trump government that we can see this type of propaganda in action, blatantly displayed in media and television through a specific and simple strategy—repetition of slogans.
When the new president, the morning after his inauguration insisted on stretching the truth about the size of the audience, when we could clearly see that his crowds were significantly smaller than those at Obama’s inauguration, we shook our heads and snickered at how he thought he could get away with it. And when his PR person, came out to speak to reporters and explained his perceptions as alternate facts, we really had a laugh.
What a vain glorious fool, we thought, who is he kidding? Since then, however, we have witnessed just how far his lies can go, and how he effectively uses slogans to reach his base, repeating them again and again, speech after speech.
- “Hillary Clinton is a crook!”
- “Lock her up!”
- “The caravans are coming!”
- “Build a wall!”
- “Mexico will pay for it!”
The laugh is on us, we now realize. Trump’s tendency to repeat a lie until his audience is numb to it, is intentional, and no joke. For example, he keeps insisting that his border wall is under construction, although it is not. “We have to build a wall and we have already started the wall,” he says. As reporters demonstrate, with photos and videos that this is untrue; there is no work going on, we look at each other in disbelief, “What is he doing?”
David Graham, staff writer at the Atlantic (May 11, 2018), identifies how it works:
“Critics sometimes suggest that Trump is employing Adolf Hitler’s infamous “big lie” tactic. In fact, what Trump is using is the opposite: It’s the small lie. Through sheer repetition, Trump convinces the public and the press that what he’s saying is true, and his slogan really is new and being revealed for the first time. Piece by piece, objective reality corrodes, and facts give way to alternative facts.”
In an article in Psychology Today (January 29, 2019), Sophia Moskalenko discussed the use of slogans throughout history, and points to their power to mobilize political movements:
“Slogans are the most basic expression of one side of a political issue. They appeal to widely shared emotions, creating a perception of unity in a crowd of strangers. They prescribe a (simple) course of action that stems from these shared emotions, mobilizing the crowd.”
What is truly chilling is an excerpt that comes from the darkest pages of history—Mein Kampf, and attributed to Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda of Nazi Germany:
“If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it”
Trump may not have the intellectual ability, or the capacity to be as evil as the despots of the past. But he does has a talent for encapsulating an idea and repeating it to death, as we have seen in how he uses Twitter. He has an uncanny understanding of the slogan, and how it can be used to create fake news.
Call it propaganda, lies, or fake news, clearly it is necessary now to develop strategies which can help us sort fact from fiction.
Some agencies are responding. For example, The Research Guides at the University of Michigan Library. in an attempt to help people find their way through the maze, offer strategies to help you evaluate the likely accuracy of information, stating:
“The universe of “fake news” is much larger than simply false news stories. Some stories may have a nugget of truth, but lack any contextualizing details. Some stories may include basic verifiable facts, but are written using language that is deliberately inflammatory, leaves out pertinent details or only presents one viewpoint. “Fake news” exists within a larger ecosystem of mis- and disinformation.”
I don’t like the way Fake News has landed right into our laps—no longer something that happens remotely in other countries and mostly in history, it’s now become an urgent problem, destabilizing our understanding of events, and even threatening democracies.
As we begin to question every news report on social media, every newscast on television, we can’t help but be vaguely aware that a new page in our history has been turned, and we need to pay attention.
Oh my goodness how true. I would question who is most suseptable to Fake News and why and thought it was at first just people I think of as racists but now see in a much more complex way. I recently watched “Brexit” the 2019 movie (HBO). It was very compelling and puts me square in the drama. The issue we must all face is thinking about Everyone, how do we form a new and more perfect political system being guided by the truth.
I’m tempted to say, “The truth—what is that?” It’s getting rusty from lack of use, these days! The current situation makes us all uneasy, right now. For example, I’m very conscious about who I quote, more so than a few months ago. I have a few sources I trust, and stick to those. As for anything on Twitter, and even Facebook, forget that! Thanks, Alexandra, very thoughtful, as usual!
Oh it is hard to find sources to trust especially as people can get hacked. I have this gut reaction I hope guides me towards “true north” but nothing is pure nor easy. In some ways knowing what is actually true can lead me astray because it may be too narrow and not encompass the opinions of those not in the conversation. That’s why watching “Brexit” struck me so much.
I understand that ‘Brexit; is an eye-opener—we don’t have HBO, so of course I won’t see it—worse luck!
Unfortunately good journalism costs money. That’s why I support a number of publications that are noted for their accuracy. As I wrote below, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ is a good way to check accuracy and also editorial bias — the types of words used to engage our emotions and the topics they decide to publish.
One interesting tidbit — the site says they have never caught The Atlantic failing a fact check. The New York Times occasionally doe, but it corrects itself as soon as it finds out.
It also has a list of least-biased publications.
I’ve always thought the Atlantic to be a stellar publication. Thanks, Jean!
How true. But it’s not just the “others” who fall for political propaganda. Sometimes we have to look in the mirror as well.
Yes, Tom, I totally agree! We can all be swept away by a convincing argument. I think we will have to get used to questioning sources of everything we read or hear. It will be more work, but worth it.
I had a great history teacher when I was 15 — in 10th grade (1955). He had us question the term propaganda. Well, of course, it was false information used by our enemies to manipulate people. He had me look up the term:
An eye opener. Our government did it too.
That was the year I started searching for my philosophy of life by reading Plato’s The Republic and some of his other dialogues. They were over my head, of course, but I was impressed that he hated democracy — we had always been taught how great it was. I realized I had no way of judging, I needed more facts. Which is why I’ve always been interested in history and biographies and tend to look for facts in articles and books, not just heated opinions.
One website I like is https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Here’s what it says about the New York Times:
LEFT-CENTER BIAS
These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.
Overall, we rate the New York Times Left-Center biased based on word and story selection that moderately favors the left, but highly factual and considered one of the most reliable sources for information due to proper sourcing and well respected journalists/editors.
Good to know that about the New York Times, which I really like. Of course, I’m moderately left center as well, as I’m sure everyone can see by now! I tend to read at least ten sources for every article. That doesn’t guarantee that none of them have a tinge of Fake News about them, but it does give me a cross section of facts and opinion.
Get your binoculars out and look further left, and you might get a glimpse of what turns out to be my white hair in the distance
We are ata crossroads with this. If the truth loses it will mean chaos.
These are very critical times, Virginia.
Yes, a new page in our history has been turned. For us in the U.S., it’s a whole new chapter since America will survive this atrocity but it will never be the same.
It’s clear to me that something has shifted, Virginia, and not in a good way. There’s a lot to be discouraged about right now, but I remain hopeful that this will pass, and something better will emerge.
UK’s Blair Years really opened my eyes to the truth of this
Hmmmm, Blair—I’m not aware of his level of untruthfulness at that time, but I do remember that he was a very convincing man!
India is no less exposed to such fake news now that our general elections to our parliament is coming up in April / May. Both camps make extensive use of digital media and it is quite a job to sift through the genuine stories from the fake ones. Photoshopped graphics add to the narrative as well making it quite challenging.
It was easier to get at the truth before social media—the ability to alter visual media also makes it a nightmare. It seems to me that we have lost a great deal as a society!
The nagging questions is, how will all of these lies end…and when?!
Wish I had an answer, Donna. Maybe when corporations, and people in power feel that they, also, are being affected. Meanwhile, we can just keep on being vigilant, and holding people who lie to account, as best we can.
thank you for this well researched and thought out blog! We need more people, and I nthe places that really count, to become aware of these truths you pointed out here! I too am asking where does it end, when is enough, enough?
Thanks, Cheryl-Ann, for your vote of confidence! Your support is very much appreciated!
Being British, I’ve watched from a distance how Trump has manipulated his supporters to the point where they are sufficiently gullible and receptive to believe anything he tells them. But the same thing is happening here and, I suspect, in most other countries too. We have Brexit, the winning vote for which was based on a combination of lies and illegality, as was Trump’s election. Both countries have become more divided and are suffering as a result. The role of the media in this cannot be understated: newspapers and broadcasters have always had their bias, nothing new in that. But the degree of vested interest in those who run these has, I think, never been more blatantly obvious to anyone who cares to check their ‘facts.’ But the masses don’t do that check, do they? We find a source which is compatible with, and reinforces, our beliefs and prejudices, and this becomes self-perpetuating. The sheer abundance and availability of sources assists this spread – the days of my youth, where we had one radio broadcaster, two tv channels and relied more on a newspaper, with the inbuilt delay, are a far cry from the wall to wall instant and constant bombardment of today.
My belief is that print media is more reliable, always has been, and still is! But it takes time to read newspapers and magazines, and newspapers just aren’t as prolific as they used to be. In fact, many of them are dying out. I depend on our television news(CBC) to be well researched and truthful, although it can also miss the mark at times—and I don’t trust news on Twitter and Facebook at all. I still use the internet (a lot), but have my trusted sources. We are in a dangerous place, as far as news is concerned—and I think it will get worse before it gets better. I know that sounds negative, but there you are! Thanks for this, Clive!
It’s hard to find any source that is really trustworthy. Our main broadcaster, the BBC, is regularly accused of bias from both the right and left wings, which probably means it is doing a reasonable job at impartiality. I don’t know what the Canadian press is like but ours is largely owned by rich media tycoons, whose sole aim is to enrich themselves further and see Brexit as a way to enjoy less control over their activities. The national papers are almost entirely right wing, some rabidly so, and they have done much to poison minds both before and after our referendum. The worst offenders are the Mail, Sun and Express, but the Telegraph and Times aren’t far behind. It frightens me that the old belief that ‘it was in the paper, so it must be true,’ is in the hands of these publications. They use the ‘enemy of the people’ phrase when it suits them but, in this case, it really is they who are the enemy – of truth and facts.
Our ABC here in Australia is in the same boat as the BBC the pollies here don’t like or appreciate it,
Our Liberal Govt are the right wing conservatives; trying their damnedest to sell it off,
They do like to sell off what doesn’t belong to them; and who do they want to sell it to?
Mr rupert murdock!
The most evil creature spawned in this country,now supposedly an American or whatever he feels like being on the day. I wonder why?
Interesting use of the word, ‘Liberal’, Bear. It’s always seemed odd to me that here, in the province of British Columbia (Canada), our Liberal party is right wing conservative as well. Misnaming parties seems to be catching! And yes, we all hear about Rupert Murdock, although we’re not so invested about his reputation here!
We suffer Murdoch’s influence here too: he owns the Times and the Sun. At least we can be grateful that his attempt to take control of Sky TV was barred by the government.
You paint a tough picture of the British press, Clive—I think they had a better reputation in the past. But something is going on there, since the Brexit issue has revealed a disfunction for sure, although we can’t pin that entirely on the press. Television news and the internet must surely play their parts as well. I still trust our Globe and Mail in Canada, but no other printed media, which seems to be veering right. Thanks, Clive.
Tough, maybe, but you only have to look at some of the extreme ‘reports’ they produce to see what I mean. I recently saw a graph analysing (mostly) American and British newspapers on scales relating to their bias and veracity. The Mail was borderline fake news, which is pretty dire for a mainstream paper! They are also currently defending themselves against one of the major fact checking sites, which has judged them to be unreliable. These papers may not have created the dysfunction but they are certainly fuelling it. It seems as though that right wing bias is everywhere!
Agreed, Clive. Thanks!
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play” … Joseph Goebbels … Can you imagine him on ‘social media’ ?
Ugh, He was dangerous enough just speaking and writing!
Your post concerns an old problem – the manipulation of the people’s mind. Edward Bernays born in Austria in 1891 was called the “father of public relations” which was a new name for propaganda. He was the nephew of Freud. He had developed his method which he called “the engineering of consent.” He said, in his work called “Propaganda” “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” You mention Goebbels – but where do you think Goebbels got his ideas? Well he was an ardent fan of Bernays and, in the 1920s, decided to use those methods to help Hitler. So you see the public has been subjected to this form of propaganda, be it with merchandising, sports or politics for a long time and has been happy buying and believing it all, at least in the US. As for the New York Times I like the paper but I do not trust it totally. I remember in 2003 during the start of the Iraq War, being French I read all the French newspapers and noticed how the NYT did not translate exactly what was said by the French, or omitted important facts. I noticed that several times – they would translate what agreed with their views to the detriment of the French views, but with what the Americans wanted to hear.
Thank you for the background about Goebbel’s source, Bernays. Sounds like G. was merely a mouthpiece for Bernay’s admittedly brilliant ideas. I don’t know if Bernay could foresee how his ideas could be used in the service of evil, but these words, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” are chilling. Good point about the New York Times. Thanks, Vagabonde.
The biggest worry that I see, is the number of supposedly well educated people who get suckered in by propaganda, and go on to become the country’s leaders. Obviously never taking History in their education or if they did are blind and cannot see or understand the insidious nature of propaganda
I’m not so sure that our educational system teaches children how to handle propaganda. I think schools should teach how to be curious and become life long learners, and trust that they are being given the tools to think for themselves.
Such a dispiriting post! Wait, that is not a criticism, more a statement of fact. The topic of what represents truth is huge. Whose point of view? What is to be gained by not telling the truth? If the public are lied to but the lies fit in with their beliefs, it is highly unlikely these lies will be challenged as this equates with challenging and examining your own beliefs. How unpalatable!
The age of the Big Lie has always been with us, it is now spread around at the speed of light to undiscerning listeners/readers.
The last five words in your post – we need to pay attention – are very pertinent; together with my response to some of the more outrageous statement as I hear. Just two words – Prove It.
Alphie
It is dispiriting! These are dispiriting times. I agree, Alphie, that what has changed recently is the speed and extent of the Internet, and how we are powerless to stop a lie once it is out there. We could demand that people “prove it”, but the sheer volume of the audience makes it impossible to apply. So until some great authority begins to monitor those lies, it’s left to each of us to do our own sifting for ourselves.
I’m with you. I’ve known propaganda and generally been on the wrong side of it for most of my life. My fear is that the internet has made efforts to stop it almost impossible.
We can only hope (probably in vain) that some collection of people with the best intentions will begin to address it in some way. Long shot, I know, but what else would possibly work?
This is one of those arenas where, without blushing, I have to plead complete ignorance. I don’t know how this internet age (the sophisticated realization of the 1984 and Brave New World prophesies) will be able to find anything like “truth” or something close to it.
It’s a slippery slope—on one hand, we hope someone would take control and ‘clean up’ the Internet. On the other hand, we know that free will and free speech is one of the tenets of democracy, and turning the policing of fake news over to the ‘authorities’ would be nothing short of dangerous. So, what now?
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