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Propaganda

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Discussion, analysis and deconstruction of propaganda, spin, public relations, marketing, disinformation and psyops: its use and abuse and you.

Website: http://www.propagandacritic.com/
Location: Earth
Members: 88
Latest Activity: Jun 11

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Postcards from the Ministry of Truth

PROPAGANDA

prop⋅a⋅gan⋅da [prop-uh-gan-duh] /ˌprɒpəˈgændə/ –noun; 1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. 2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc. 3. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement. 4. Roman Catholic Church. a. a committee of cardinals, established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, having supervision over foreign missions and the training of priests for these missions. b. a school (College of Propaganda) established by Pope Urban VIII for the education of priests for foreign missions. 5. Archaic. an organization or movement for the spreading of propaganda. Origin: 1710–20; < NL, short for congregātiō dē propāgandā fidē congregation for propagating the faith; propāgandā, abl. sing. fem. gerundive of propāgāre

“See in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” -- George W. Bush to students in Rochester New York on May 24, 2005

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” -- Joseph Goebels

“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” -- George Orwell

"Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves." -- Eric Hoffer

"Terrorism is in good part an effective government propaganda; it serves to deflect attention from governmental abuse toward a mostly imagined, highly dangerous outside enemy." -- Mark Poster

"The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment." -- Jacques Ellul

"Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?" -- Bertrand Russell

[For the reality challenged, the last two posters are parody]

Propaganda Tools

Bullfighter: The rumors were true. Bullshit now has a number. And you now have the power to calculate it, using the freeware** originally produced by Deloitte Consulting but now distributed as a standalone product.
A neat plugin for MS Office that analyses theistic, corporate and political rhetoric for bullshit.

SpinSpotter: A relatively new browser extension for IE 7 and Firefox. Sort of like StumbleUpon in theory - rests entirely on a user community feeding back spin and disinformation to the SpinSpotter database, then scanning your web content for correlations. May develop into a useful tool. Or maybe it won't. Only one way to find out.

Propaganda Online Resources

Fact Check: A site that monitors the factual accuracy of things said by U.S. politicians (thanks cj the cynic)

Snopes: Not just an urban legend archive - its a valuable resource for all manner of information abuse. If you read something and it smells funny, this is a good place to start.

Center for Media and Democracy: [about][SourceWatch][FrontGroups]

Iron Chariots - Counter-apologetics: Logical Fallacies Reference [IronChariots.org][Wikipedia]

Discussion Forum

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Comment by Chris G on November 6, 2012 at 7:21pm: As it is propiganda the U.S. releases in foreign countries occationally makes it to the President as though it's real news.

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 6, 2012 at 12:38pm: Chris G

If next year’s NDAA clears the US Senate and is signed by President Obama with the Thornberry-Smith provision intact, then restrictions on propaganda being force-fed to Americans would be rolled back entirety.

That's scary, using tax dollars to propagandize US citizens.

Comment by Chris G on September 10, 2012 at 11:28pm: NDAA 2013: Congress approved domestic deceptive propaganda
http://rt.com/usa/news/propaganda-us-smith-amendment-903/
Reauthorizing the indefinite detention of US citizens without charge might be the scariest provision in next year’s defense spending bill, but it certainly isn’t the only one worth worrying about.
An amendment tagged on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 would allow for the United States government to create and distribute pro-American propaganda within the country’s own borders under the alleged purpose of putting al-Qaeda’s attempts at persuading the world against Western ideals on ice. Former US representatives went out of there way to ensure their citizens that they’d be excluded from government-created media blasts, but two lawmakers currently serving the country are looking to change all that.
Congressmen Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA) introduced “The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012” (H.R. 5736) last week during discussions for the NDAA 2013. It was voted on by the US House of Representatives to be included in next year’s defense spending bill, which was then voted on as a whole and approved. The amendment updates the antiquated Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, essentially clarifying that the US State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors may “prepare, disseminate and use public diplomacy information abroad,” but while also striking down a long-lasting ban on the domestic dissemination in America. For the last several decades, the federal government has been authorized to use such tactics overseas to influence foreign support of America’s wars abroad, but has been barred from such strategies within the US. If next year’s NDAA clears the US Senate and is signed by President Obama with the Thornberry-Smith provision intact, then restrictions on propaganda being force-fed to Americans would be rolled back entirety.
Both Congressmen Thornberry and Smith say that the amendment isn’t being pushed to allow for the domestic distribution of propaganda, but the actual text of the provision outlines that, if approved by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama, that very well could be the case...

Comment by Steph S. on September 10, 2012 at 12:18am: I just found out about this group!

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on March 12, 2011 at 7:05pm: From Episode Two of the film series "The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays started his business life as a publicist. While still in his twenties, he was part of the propaganda effort that drove the United States into in World War I (WW I.)

He personally advised several US presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson and counseled numerous corporations and business associations. Hitler's propaganda chief and Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels was a reader and fan of Bernay's writing in particular Bernay's book "Crystalizing Public Opinion."

In this short excerpt from Curtis's film we see one example of Bernays at work.

Bernays was one of the engineers of the Cold War. He perfected the technique of manufacturing a distant but ever-threatening enemy and then creating a constant state of fear by generating false news reports that endlessly re-stated and exagerated the threat.

The stated purpose of Bernay's methods was to give those in power greater control over what he called "the mass mind." It worked well in the 1950s and sadly, it appears to be working quite well today... but maybe not forever.

Comment by Chris G on January 19, 2011 at 11:39pm: Here's a new one about how the recently passed health care legislation is going to bankrupt the U.S. and allow China World domination.

Chinese Professor

Comment by Napoleon Bonaparte on January 19, 2011 at 9:20pm: I was a student of history. Magda was an interesting character and a subject of Nazi propaganda.

For further information please see my comment on 'Why journalism is in the toilet' Damz