Propaganda Thrives on Simplicity

Another good friend, Eric, shared his notes with me after reading “If We Are Brainwashed, How Would We Know?”

His notes had many salient points which can be summarized as:

• Propaganda thrives on simplicity

Necessary AND Sufficient Conditions

This made me wonder…. what are the necessary AND sufficient conditions for propaganda to thrive?

• Uniformity of the message

  • Repeated often

  • By multiple disparate sources

• Simplistic message

  • “Safe and effective”

  • “Horse dewormer”

• Simplistic problem statement and solution

  • Invariably a “false dichotomy”

  • Not only is the problem mal formed, it nearly always is contrived

• Emotional appeal

I believe all 4 points are necessary and sufficient.

Have I missed any? or, do you think one (or more) could be removed?

Let me know in the comments.

Implications

For propaganda to work, these conditions must be carefully guarded.

The implications are often the “tell-tale” signs we are in the midst of a fierce propaganda campaign, which result in:

• No discussions

• No debates

• No alternative views are allowed to be entertained

  • Both in the proposed solution

  • AND the contrived problem

  • NOR the underlying assumptions

• The WHOLE narrative is sacrosanct and cannot be questioned

• Emotional arguments replace any reasoned and well balanced analyses (Especially “risk-benefit” ones ;-)

  • Pay special attention to emotional appeals being used to immediately squash any dissenting views. (Not to mention taking the moral high ground and shaming all other views)

• A sharp polarisation of society (entirely due to the false dichotomy)

  • Which, (unfortunately) the majority will not even notice

• Dissidents are censored and ostracized. (This can not be emphasized enough. It is always a HUGE give away.)

Questions

Once we understand the implications we can ask ourselves the following questions to establish whether we are in the midst of a propaganda campaign:

• Are all the news channels, and social media platforms parroting the exact same message and “catch phrases”?

  • Pay special attention to the “catch phrases”

  • Is the message uniform?

  • Is it repeated incessantly?

• Are any public and open discussions and televised debates allowed?

• Have any rational and balanced analyses been presented to the general public?

  • We are not just talking about one. We need many.

• Is the atmosphere emotionally charged?

• Are people being outraged about topics they know absolutely nothing about (until just a few days ago)

  • Are celebrities being unleashed on their unsuspecting fans to tell them how to think and which sides to take?

• Is the problem definition and proposed solution overly simplistic?

  • Within minutes a false dichotomy is established and the “good” and the “bad” parties are (conveniently and “magically”) identified.

  • Are the definition of words being changed to suit the narrative?

• Are people being banned from Twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc… for simply offering an alternative point of view?

Summary

Propaganda thrives on simplicity.

The message must be simplistic for people to understand and remember it.

It must be repeated often and no alternative views can be tolerated.