You’re Either the Propagandist, or the Propagandized

Every single one of us believes something that isn’t true. Sometimes it’s because we aren’t remembering the event, date, or whatever correctly. But much more often it’s because we were fed a line by skilled propagandists. The father of modern propaganda, Edward Bernays, went so far as to state that "free speech" was one of the best tools in the propagandist’s arsenal:

Freedom of speech and its democratic corollary, a free press, have tacitly expanded our Bill of Rights to include the right of persuasion. This development was an inevitable result of the expansion of the media of free speech and persuasion, defined in other articles in this volume. All these media provide open doors to the public mind. Any one of us through these media may influence the attitudes and actions of our fellow citizens.

In Bernays’ most popular book, Propaganda, he uses the term "advertising" interchangeably with propaganda. The individual—and hence the collective—is being sold something. When it comes to propaganda, the collective is being sold what someone else wants them to believe and feel. This realization should cause alarm among those whose beliefs are precious to them.

Propaganda has always existed, but for our purposes, let’s concentrate on what has been experienced during most of our lifetimes. How many people believe that Sarah Palin said that she could see Russia from her house? Or that Donald Trump said there were very fine people on both sides in reference to Charlottesville? The Palin line is a distortion of a statement she made, while the Trump line was edited out of context. What’s most important is that a sizable portion of the populace believes that both the fabrication and the distortion are true. Why? Because they heard a lie or distortion repeated continually by people they deemed to be authority figures.

In a clip that immediately went viral, Tucker Carlson recently confronted former Vice President Mike Pence about his support for Ukraine. Here’s a link to show how the clip was initially presented on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1679914391783735307?s=20

The clip is edited to make it appear that Vice President Pence is saying that Ukraine is his priority and American cities aren’t his concern. Later that day, Vice President Pence released a longer version of the clip to show context. Here’s a link:

https://twitter.com/Mike_Pence/status/1679950656235356161?s=20

In my opinion, he is saying that Tucker’s opinion is not his concern. The fact check underneath the Tweet contradicts me, but I’m sticking with my opinion being correct.

By the time Vice President Pence released the in-context clip on his Twitter account, the propaganda of the earlier release of the edited clip had already done its magic. People promoted the "American cities are not my concern" message under VP Pence’s in-context tweet, and I’m fully convinced people who knew better were doing it on purpose.

The question is then raised as to whether promoting purposeful distortions is a good thing or a bad thing. I have to go with the former. The regime that has ruled over us, along with their apparatchiks, for 100+ years are master propagandists who have used lies and distortions to mold our minds and morality, possibly even our souls, to bend to their will. Watching a regime toady like Pence have it thrown back in his face has been glorious.