Propaganda: Red Flags for Well Informed People

Everyone should be aware of the red flags of propaganda. For example if you have just watched a Shamwow commercial, and you rush out to buy a Shamwow - shouldn't that be a red flag? I know what you're thinking (a)Nobody's that stupid (b)See (a).

But I think there are a lot of examples of well informed people falling into the propaganda trap - sometimes they know it sometimes they don't. Let me pick two examples, and just to avoid personal problems, I will pick public figures, not my family or friends. First Canada's leader of the opposition Michael Ignatieff. He is now a strong opponent of the use of torture, and presumably from his background, he also felt that way at a younger age attending university. But when he was exposed to pro-torture propaganda, working in the USA after 9/11, he published a work arguing pro-torture. Later on returning to Canada, he has recanted, though without admitting that he fell for the pro-torture propaganda. I submit that as exhibit A that well informed people can fall for propaganda, as long as they are exposed to it. He is an intellectual by all accounts, and argued publicly for something that was apparently against his own deeply held personal values. Of course you could take it the other way - that his values do include torture, and he has fallen for Canadian anti-torture propaganda. I guess either way it makes my point.

Second example, John Moe, a liberal American writer from the liberal city of Seattle, decided to expose himself to right wing propaganda for a month to see if it could the affect him. Then wrote the book "Conservatize Me". So what happened in just one month? The book appears to be inconclusive. During Moe's journey to this enlightenment, he spent a while living in "the most republican" place in the USA, in a part of Idaho that voted 92% for Bush. Texas or Alabama or South Carolina would have been closer to the real Republican heartland. If it wasn't for the southern USA and racist issues, the Republican Party would not have elected very many presidents over the last 40 years. Anyhow this book may not really make my point, in that John Moe seems to emerge pretty well unscathed - it's debatable whether he was affected by the propaganda or not. But he certainly appeared to miss the racial issues, and one of propaganda's main goals is to take your attention off the ugly side of the sponsor's story.

John Moe did all the things that should have raised red flags, and when he was finished a month of ignoring red flags, was he conservatized or not? Hard to say, as propaganda often works like a time bomb - planting stereotypes and ideas that don't kick in until a stressful situation presents itself later (like a robbery, or terrorist attack). So thinking at the end of the month "I'm not affected by propaganda" means you are underestimating it once again. Let's see what John Moe thinks in about 20 years.


The Battle of Creation vs. Evolution

Statistics certainly back up the effectiveness of propaganda. The propaganda war over evolution vs. creation has been going on for a while, and at least in the USA over the last 30 years, the creation side has been staging a huge comeback through the use of propaganda funded by fundamentalists churches.

But are educated people more vulnerable to this particular propaganda than uninformed people? It seems that people with an education are less affected than people with high school or less. Is there a reason for that? Well, it sort of matches up to the statistic that educated people understand science better, and go to church less. But if you believe as I do that Adam and Eve is just a story, and that dinosaurs did exist before that - look at how many people with college education now believe in Adam and Eve- 25%. As far as I'm concerned that tells you loads about how easily taken in even educated people can be. That's one in four!!! Of course it proves nothing if we accept that Adam and Eve is about equally likely as evolution, or if we assume that all 25% are attending bible colleges. But if not, that's a staggering number.

This is a web page, percent of people believing in evolution vs. creation.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm