With the political campaigns reaching their climaxes, no one would dispute that there is a lot of propaganda being thrown about. Everybody connected with a political campaign readily admits that the opposing party is using a lot of propaganda. Sometimes it is quite difficult for them to recognize that their own party is using propaganda also.
At this time it is appropriate and instructive to take a look at the various forms of propaganda. Here we define propaganda as a concerted effort to get people to see things a certain way.
One main mantra used by the conservative side is that Barack Obama is in favor of “redistributing the wealth.” This resonates with people who favor free markets and capitalism. On John McCain's side, Joe the Plumber is being cited as the shining example of the type of worker who would be hurt by an Obama tax, even though in reality plumbers aren't in the higher tax brackets.
Looking at the present campaign, it appears that a lot depends on who can put out the cleverest sound bites the most often. A good political sound bite is short, catchy and says something that the listener is prone to believe or wants to believe. The truth is a secondary consideration for a good sound bite although it is better if it is true, half true or at least believable.
Notice that many issues are economic and require economic training and the help of an accountant to really get at the truth. Figuring out whose tax plan and whose economic ideas are best for the country may be too much for many people.
Even though this blog is intended to be useful to everyone regardless of their political persuasion, the examples given favor the conservative side. I invite our readers to furnish some “juicy” examples of conservative propaganda.
To summarize, the voter in this election is challenged to figure out what each candidate will actually do and how it will effect the country. Getting a handle on these issues is no easy task.
There are mainly two methods used in propaganda. The most powerful one is to tell only one side of the story and leave out the facts that contradict the point you are trying to make. This approach has the strength that you will not be caught in a lie. When people check the facts you will be proven right.
This method can easily backfire on the people using it as they can be fooled by their own propaganda.
The second and maybe most popular method to propagandize is repetition. Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, was right when he said that people would believe a lie if they heard it often enough. It is a sad fact people will often believe a falsehood they hear often over the truth they hear seldom. This can happen even when the truth is obvious.
During the cold war the Russian newspapers never carried any information that contradicted the party line. They loved to quote articles from the American newspapers that showed that capitalism was inferior to communism.
One such article concerned an estimate by American psychiatrists in an American newspaper about how many Americans were suffering from mental problems. No attempt was made to put things in perspective by giving an estimate of how many Russians had mental problems.
One beautiful example of political propaganda here at home concerns the proposition that the rich are getting richer while the poor don’t advance.
This argument is supported by figures that show that the people in the top 20 per cent of earners have increased their incomes by double digits over the people in the top 20 per cent of earners in the previous year. Meanwhile, the income earned by the bottom 20 per cent of earners has hardly increased at all over the income earned by the bottom 20 percent of earners in the previous year.
This propaganda is very powerful because the figures quoted are both official and accurate. It seems obvious that the “rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” The people writing the article probably believe that conclusion.
The vital fact that is left out of the discussion is that people move from income class to income class from year to year. Over a ten year interval about as many people (approximately 15 percent) move from the lowest income class to the highest income class as stay in the lowest income class. This means that only about 3 percent of the poorest class stay in the poorest class over an extended period.
One mantra that is repeated over and over is “Bush is Stupid.” This resonates with people who hate Bush.
Granted Bush has done a number of stupid things, but there is ample evidence that he is not a stupid person. In fact, his IQ has been estimated around 125 or more, which would make him a lot smarter that most of those repeating the mantra (For one thing most smart people learn quickly not to run around calling people stupid).