3 ms·

that distinct smell of ideological propaganda - reality distorting wrong or completely missing facts in support of self-proclaimed grand high-moral standing and

by trhway 5y ago

that distinct smell of ideological propaganda - reality distorting wrong or completely missing facts in support of self-proclaimed grand high-moral standing and request for sacrifice delivered with pathos and hysteria - takes me right to my childhood back in USSR. Having been exposed so much to the propaganda in the childhood, i'm pretty immune to it is as a result. It is fascinating though to observe (and many former communist countries immigrants that i've talked to are similarly taken aback) how these days it has been successfully infecting and quickly taking over societal groups which don't have immunity to propaganda. One can hope though that after current debacle with covid such immunity will get a bit more widespread.

a0-prw 5y ago
You should not have been downvoted. I grew up in apartheid South Africa, where I also learned to recognise government propaganda. I have also been somewhat surprised by how gullible people are being. But I've seen it before several times, usually as a prelude to attacking some other country: examples are the build up to the Iraq war, the bombing of Serbia, Libya and of course Syria.
- mandmandam 5y ago
  It seems to me that the people with little PR immunity - the majority, apparently - are susceptible to dismissing ideas outside of their bubble. Along with that, they dismiss the people who contradict their chosen propaganda stream, no matter how many times they've been proven wrong. As someone with a higher immunity to disinfo, have you had any success convincing others toward your conclusions?
  - 13years 5y ago
    Propaganda works best through fear. Fear results in cognitive dissonance making it literally impossible to process information correctly. Somehow the fear needs to be addressed first and I as of yet haven't found any particular great way to do that. The second contributor, is that people are reluctant to back out of a heavily invested position. Once they are in that position long enough, they identify that as part of who they are.
  - a0-prw 5y ago
    No, I have not had much success at all. I agree with you. Most people don't even want to think for themselves, sadly.

by trhway 5y ago

a0-prw 5y ago

You should not have been downvoted. I grew up in apartheid South Africa, where I also learned to recognise government propaganda. I have also been somewhat surprised by how gullible people are being. But I've seen it before several times, usually as a prelude to attacking some other country: examples are the build up to the Iraq war, the bombing of Serbia, Libya and of course Syria.

mandmandam 5y ago
It seems to me that the people with little PR immunity - the majority, apparently - are susceptible to dismissing ideas outside of their bubble. Along with that, they dismiss the people who contradict their chosen propaganda stream, no matter how many times they've been proven wrong. As someone with a higher immunity to disinfo, have you had any success convincing others toward your conclusions?
- 13years 5y ago
  Propaganda works best through fear. Fear results in cognitive dissonance making it literally impossible to process information correctly. Somehow the fear needs to be addressed first and I as of yet haven't found any particular great way to do that. The second contributor, is that people are reluctant to back out of a heavily invested position. Once they are in that position long enough, they identify that as part of who they are.
- a0-prw 5y ago
  No, I have not had much success at all. I agree with you. Most people don't even want to think for themselves, sadly.