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Propaganda From History was So In Your Face
799 sats \ 6 comments \ @kepford 10 Apr Politics_And_Law
From time to time I will listen to a podcast called "The Dangerous History Podcast" and in the most recent episode he plays some "music" from the WW1 propaganda machine. Its wild how on the nose it is. I think people forget how in your face propaganda was in the past. Its more subtle today and people sometimes act as if news, media and entertainment were once reliable sources of information. When I hear people complaining about bias or propaganda in media today I usually push back and say, its better than it was in the past. At least now we have more choice as well as tools to check things for ourselves.
Don't forget, the state has always been about manipulating you. Sure, it changes its tactics but there really isn't some golden era where this wasn't happening. They have just become more sophisticated as the people get more keen on the old tactics.
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91 sats \ 0 replies \ @nkmg1c_ventures 10 Apr
Dig the HTML/CSS design of the page
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @LowK3y19 10 Apr
It’s good to look at the past and see we did make progress even if it’s just little bit
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68 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress 11 Apr
I highly recommend Jacques Ellul's book Propaganda, The Formation of Men's Attitudes for anyone seriously interested in this kind of stuff.
It is a dense text, but basically the handbook on propaganda in the 20th century. He makes some fascinating arguments such as it is those who think they are immune from propaganda who are most susceptible, in particular the intellectuals with their facts and figures (See, Covid).
Propaganda can only ever enhance or tweak deep-seated existing prejudices or beliefs. Some propaganda is designed to lay mental frameworks (telegraphing something prior to it happening), where as others are designed for calls to action (you need to ACT now).
The WW1 music you mention might not designed for thinkers like you, it is the Tik Tok dancing nurses equivalent during covid. But then as now there were also very sophisticated arguments floating around that attempted to make geopolitical or other moral / economic arguments to satisfy the intellectuals for the necessity of war, etc.
I did an episode that touches a little bit on this on The Transformation of Value.
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60 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 11 Apr
as well as tools to check things for ourselves.
This! Not many people I interact with on the daily actually care to dig into things though. Or even hear their bias challenged. But the tools are there and its very attainable to actually get to the bottom of something nowadays.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 11 Apr
A lesson I am ashamed to say took me years to learn is that many many people have zero desire to find truth. They never want their existing thoughts challenged. It's very frustrating but also liberating once you realize it's not worth you effort to try to change their minds.
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96 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 11 Apr
I think it's more subtle now too, but I also wonder if it's just that it's hard to see where you're most vulnerable.
How blatant and obvious will people in the future think our propaganda is?
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