Information Wars: Propaganda

I want to start a public service series on propaganda. This is going to be a tough slog, so I'm going to start with just the course outline. Each point may have to be explained more in depth in its own entry later.

This is not a course on brainwashing, as many of you know, the difference between brainwashing is Communists use brainwashing, Nazis used propaganda.

Outline of Propaganda Course:

- Propaganda's purpose is not to change a person's mind, it is to change public opinion, which actually can be done without changing anyone's mind if necessary.

-Propaganda attempts to reinforce ideas individuals already have of their own free will. "Propaganda does not tell you what to think, but what to think about."   

-Propaganda is most effective with intelligent, well educated and well informed people who think they are immune to being controlled.

-The immediate goal of opinion control is to provoke people into action to help spread the support of opinions - whether it be sending out letters to the editor, speaking up at a meeting, marching with banners, phoning in to talk shows.

-A converse goal of propaganda is to encourage opponents to remain passive - that their interests are not at stake, that they are not being singled out for punishment, so to simply stay out of the discussion that does not concern them.

-Propaganda avoids what is "factually wrong" for all its worth. The propaganda may be irrelevant, may be selective, may use flawed logic, and while not actually wrong, can at the same time also not be right. It is counterproductive for propaganda's purpose to deliberately use wrong or disprovable facts. Though it happens on both sides of any issue, everybody makes mistakes.

-Working off the previous point, effective opinion control vigilantly fact-checks the opposition. Sometimes fact-checking veers off into unethical tactics - for example, the "Straw man" technique which invents weak arguments and attributes them to opponents in order to knock them down. Also promoting "debates" in a controlled situation where your side can use selective editing to ensure a win.

-A goal of propaganda is to make people see how their own interests are at stake. How each person may profit by or suffer from ideas, and to convince people that their interests are best served by the propagandists's agenda.