4 ms·

Honestly curious - does the US spread propaganda to the rest of the world? If I had to guess it would be that hollywood historically did most of the work - exp

Honestly curious - does the US spread propaganda to the rest of the world? If I had to guess it would be that hollywood historically did most of the work - exporting "American" values and culture to other nations, but I don't know if that's still the case. Anyways, it would be interesting to know if there is any kind of US presence on Chinese/Russian social networks (like, is there some bizarro mirror world /r/the_donald in Russian with posts pushing some kind of US agenda?)

wyldfire 9y ago
Yes, see Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, etc. for overt examples. IMO we should not do covert activity that reciprocates Russia's in this case. We should do overt things like trade sanctions or embargoes.
- retailbuyout 9y ago
  I’m not so sure—propaganda can be both ethical and useful. The question is, can groups be ethical at the scale of government? If it’s about spreading information about freedom of speech, evading censorship, etc, it’s hard to see how this could hurt humanity. If it’s spreading “freedom”, that seems to be a dogwhistle for protecting domains of influence—pure imperialism. I mean, i think it comes down to whether or not you can sleep at night knowing what you’re doing. Much of the “voice of america” actions of the last century do not pass this sleep test.
jdoliner 9y ago
The US certainly does spread propaganda to the rest of the world. Voice of America [0] has historical been the main vehicle for this. They also seem to have pioneered a lot of the internet based methods that are being used now with their concept of memetic warfare. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America [1] http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf
owebmaster 9y ago
House of Cards? Brazil faced a coup d'etat with the same script of the series, at the same time it was aired. I'm skeptical so I don't believe in coincidences.
- r00fus 9y ago
  You think that's coincidence? Remember "The Lone Gunmen" [1] - spinoff X-files series aired in 2001 where planes (flown by wire) nearly hit the WTC. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  There was no coup. And really. People joked about it being equal to House of Cards. But the real facts were way too outrageous to get into a fictional script.
  - owebmaster 9y ago
    This is what we call Propaganda, my friend.
    - marcosdumay 9y ago
      Do you honestly the Brazilian Justice and Congress joined forces to do a coup and used a US TV series to manipulate the people into supporting them? Really?
      - owebmaster 9y ago
        Do you genuinely believe that what I said is about a plot between a TV Series and the corrupt congress and brazilian justice? Really? I bet you are these kinds that think Brazil was been "left-wing" brainwashed and the federal universities are all bolivarian. But a TV Series is just a TV Series.
xienze 9y ago
> (like, is there some bizarro mirror world /r/the_donald in Russian with posts pushing some kind of US agenda?) Probably nothing like that at all. Remember, the Russian ads everyone is going on about were basically clones of the ones domestic groups had created related to various social issues (BLM, gun violence, etc.). So really US propaganda in other parts of the world would just be cloning and amplifying social commentary...
- owebmaster 9y ago
  Here in Brazil there are hundreds of american NGOs organizing groups and events about libertarianism, free market, capitalism, neoliberalism and most of them if not all support selling national companies and resources to foreign (aka american) companies.
wu-ikkyu 9y ago
Yes, they have a history or doing it at home, too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
penistives 9y ago
Lookup Operation Earnest Voice. It's the US version of China's "50 Cent Army" and Russia's "Troll Farm."
- hidenotslide 9y ago
  A number of countries run these types of programs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_Internet_propaganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_Internet_propa... All promote their own propaganda and many also attack their rivals via sock puppets. As far as I know the only country using trolls to push general unrest is Russia.
BeetleB 9y ago
https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-meddling-in-foreign-elections https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-his...
richardknop 9y ago
There are overt examples like Radio Free Europe etc. But I would argue the entire Hollywood industry is to a large degree intertwined with propaganda and US government has ways to inject its ideas into content being produced in big movies. If you are more cynical, also media such as NYT or WaPo could be considered propaganda similar to Russia Today or some other state propaganda outlets of foreign countries (just in case of NYT it is not overt and directly funded by government).

wyldfire 9y ago

Yes, see Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, etc. for overt examples. IMO we should not do covert activity that reciprocates Russia's in this case. We should do overt things like trade sanctions or embargoes.

retailbuyout 9y ago
I’m not so sure—propaganda can be both ethical and useful. The question is, can groups be ethical at the scale of government? If it’s about spreading information about freedom of speech, evading censorship, etc, it’s hard to see how this could hurt humanity. If it’s spreading “freedom”, that seems to be a dogwhistle for protecting domains of influence—pure imperialism. I mean, i think it comes down to whether or not you can sleep at night knowing what you’re doing. Much of the “voice of america” actions of the last century do not pass this sleep test.

jdoliner 9y ago

The US certainly does spread propaganda to the rest of the world. Voice of America [0] has historical been the main vehicle for this. They also seem to have pioneered a lot of the internet based methods that are being used now with their concept of memetic warfare. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America [1] http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507172.pdf

owebmaster 9y ago

House of Cards? Brazil faced a coup d'etat with the same script of the series, at the same time it was aired. I'm skeptical so I don't believe in coincidences.

r00fus 9y ago
You think that's coincidence? Remember "The Lone Gunmen" [1] - spinoff X-files series aired in 2001 where planes (flown by wire) nearly hit the WTC. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
marcosdumay 9y ago
There was no coup. And really. People joked about it being equal to House of Cards. But the real facts were way too outrageous to get into a fictional script.
- owebmaster 9y ago
  This is what we call Propaganda, my friend.
  - marcosdumay 9y ago
    Do you honestly the Brazilian Justice and Congress joined forces to do a coup and used a US TV series to manipulate the people into supporting them? Really?
    - owebmaster 9y ago
      Do you genuinely believe that what I said is about a plot between a TV Series and the corrupt congress and brazilian justice? Really? I bet you are these kinds that think Brazil was been "left-wing" brainwashed and the federal universities are all bolivarian. But a TV Series is just a TV Series.

xienze 9y ago

> (like, is there some bizarro mirror world /r/the_donald in Russian with posts pushing some kind of US agenda?) Probably nothing like that at all. Remember, the Russian ads everyone is going on about were basically clones of the ones domestic groups had created related to various social issues (BLM, gun violence, etc.). So really US propaganda in other parts of the world would just be cloning and amplifying social commentary...

owebmaster 9y ago
Here in Brazil there are hundreds of american NGOs organizing groups and events about libertarianism, free market, capitalism, neoliberalism and most of them if not all support selling national companies and resources to foreign (aka american) companies.

wu-ikkyu 9y ago

Yes, they have a history or doing it at home, too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

penistives 9y ago

Lookup Operation Earnest Voice. It's the US version of China's "50 Cent Army" and Russia's "Troll Farm."

hidenotslide 9y ago
A number of countries run these types of programs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_Internet_propaganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_Internet_propa... All promote their own propaganda and many also attack their rivals via sock puppets. As far as I know the only country using trolls to push general unrest is Russia.

BeetleB 9y ago

https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-meddling-in-foreign-elections https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-his...

richardknop 9y ago

There are overt examples like Radio Free Europe etc. But I would argue the entire Hollywood industry is to a large degree intertwined with propaganda and US government has ways to inject its ideas into content being produced in big movies. If you are more cynical, also media such as NYT or WaPo could be considered propaganda similar to Russia Today or some other state propaganda outlets of foreign countries (just in case of NYT it is not overt and directly funded by government).