Propaganda ‘til You Puke

I’m sick of all the false stories, lies, half-truths, omitted evidence… in short: propaganda that attempts to alter my beliefs every day in the media. 

Little things like… Covid19 Orwellian newspeak: Social Distancing (which is actually anti-social physical distancing), New Normal (which is as far from normal as possible), We’re All in This Together (which ignores how divided people are over wearing masks), Essential Workers (as if everyone’s job is NOT essential to them), and Sheltering in Place (used to explain why healthy people are quarantined). 

Or big things like… calling store owners, who raise their prices during shortages, Price Gougers; when common sense tells us that if prices are raised, then people won’t hoard or buy more than they need, and fewer people will go without. 

Depending on how much media you voluntarily attend (television, radio, print, plus all the social media on the Internet), the daily propaganda we’re presented with can be overwhelming. And I’m not even including the nearly 5000 advertisements the average American is exposed to every day, because even though advertising can use subtle techniques to speak to our subconscious minds, it is rarely propaganda. Typically advertisers want to demonstrate how their product or service will solve a customer’s problem. Most tell the truth because, while a deceptive ad may get a lot of people to try their product in the short run, when customers discover the fraud they will spread the word to everyone they know. There’s a saying in the ad industry: Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. 

I recall when I was 8 years old; I asked Santa Claus for a Green Ghost Game which had been heavily advertised on TV. You played it in the dark on a game board that glowed. The TV commercials made it look so cool; showing game pieces that mysteriously disappeared from one place on the game board, and then magically reappeared by rising back onto the board in a different place. When I saw that — I had to have it! 

Never before had I wanted something so much. Santa delivered; and I couldn’t wait to play it. I opened the box and found that the game board had 6 long legs which propped it up off the ground like a small table. I was curious how the magic happened because I didn’t see any conveyor belts or machinery under the board. 

As I read the instructions, I learned there wasn’t any. You would spin a green ghost which would point to the number of spaces you could move your game piece. Along the spaces, there were holes in the board, and if you landed on a hole you dropped your piece through it, caught it in your hand underneath the board, then manually shoved it back up out of the next hole which advanced your piece forward several extra spaces — kind of like landing on a ladder in the board game Chutes & Ladders. There was nothing magic or automatic as the commercial implied. I felt completely deceived, and warned my friends not to buy it. 

Advertising seeks to persuade you to buy a product or service, however if it seeks to change your beliefs then it falls into the realm of propaganda. An example of such is the DeBeers diamond marketing campaign in the late 1930s which promoted the belief, that in order to become engaged to be married, a man had to give a woman a diamond ring. The marketing campaign further pushed the idea that a man should spend 2 months’ salary on the ring. Both concepts are entrenched in public belief today. 

Propaganda seeks to persuade you to accept a belief or change an attitude toward an issue (when it is done repeatedly it is also known as Indoctrination or Brainwashing). Some have called it psychological warfare because it has been used to manipulate feelings of patriotism as well as demoralize an enemy. Wartime propaganda has been nicknamed Paper Bullets. Propaganda is a form of communication that is intentionally used to spread information (or disinformation) and ideas that can promote a cause or discredit an opposing one. And it often preys on our fears.