General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo true. Propaganda works. We should use it.
Goebbels himself stated the fundamental idea behind the Nazis' propaganda
machine: "the great mass of people in the simplicity of their hearts are more
easily taken in by a big lie than by a little one."
walkingman
(10,370 posts)EarlG
(23,400 posts)Everybody is capable of making shit up to some degree. Politicians are often people who are better at it than others. But in the days before Trump, it definitely seems like there was only so much BS the public would take before a politician would get shamed to the point of resigning.
Trump makes shit up, but he also seems to have unlimited energy when it comes to maintaining his lies, 24/7/365 for literally years -- or decades -- on end. I think you have to be a deeply, deeply disturbed person to be able to maintain falsehood after falsehood on a daily basis for that length of time without ever cracking. Trump has created an aura of lies around himself that is so powerful, it's turned the country on its head. The entire world in fact.
Trump will get what he wants, in the sense that he will go down as one of America's most consequential presidents. He's the Abraham Lincoln of bullshit. If "making shit up" was a hand grenade, Trump would be a 50 megaton nuke.
yellow dahlia
(4,665 posts)Can I use it? Copyright fees required?
EarlG
(23,400 posts)If you liked it enough to share it, I appreciate that
yellow dahlia
(4,665 posts)P.S. I love classic smilies. Thank you for those, as well.
Trueblue Texan
(4,213 posts)...we shouldn't have any need to make things up. MAGA actually ARE inferior citizens. They would be an easy-stand in for immigrants and Jewish people if we were using Hitler's model. (The Nazis actually used the American model of racism against black people to marginalize and murder 6 million Jews--doesn't that make you a proud American?
)We can merely speak the truth about MAGAts, and do it often enough that anti-semitism and racism against people of color pales in comparison.
Maybe what we've missed is the repetition part. There is no shortage of heinous acts, no perversion too disgusting for them; no lie too big for them. But they commit too many vile acts, too rapidly for us to drive much of it home. Before we've had a chance to express outrage over one (or 10) of their violations of decency and law, they've committed another dozen. Things happen too fast for repetition, which is necessary for it to stick in the minds of citizens. The public has a very short memory, especially when hit with a fresh outrage daily, sometimes hourly.Overwhelming the people conditions them to accept the outrages. Hitler understood that.
We need a systematic way of driving home the reality of the horrors this regime is committing. We need a way of forcing people to remember. We need a way of putting the regime on the defensive. We need a way to make the images STICK in the minds of the forgetful masses.
Maybe we need to assign stories to people by date. For example, if your last name begins with A, you take responsibility for reporting and repeating the outrages committed Jan 1-7. If your last name begins with B, take the outrages committed on Jan 8-15...and so on. Repeat reporting on your assigned outrages frequently throughout each day of the calendar year. You get the idea. There must be a way to do this effectively--I'm just too tired to think of it tonight.
Maybe others can help brainstorm a system to MANAGE the reporting of the daily outrages. Unlike the Nazi propaganda programs, we don't need to tell lies. We just need to find a way to repeat the truth effectively and consistently in a way that doesn't allow people to forget who MAGAts are.
bucolic_frolic
(54,108 posts)Because that's what the GOP will be telling us by November.
rampartd
(3,889 posts)being used for propaganda. it may still be there,
Diraven
(1,832 posts)Like 90% of the media is owned by the right.
markodochartaigh
(5,061 posts)Between the airwaves and now techbros' control of social media most people get their "information" from reich-wing sources.
It takes an incredible number of individuals shouting from soapboxes to counter those sources. Especially when they can alter their narrative to be as colorful and hive-mind reinforcing as they like and even have resources to tell them what the crowd wants to hear.