These five rules of propaganda have been known for a long time, and they are certainly not original with myself. They can be found on the internet through searches, but I don't think that the powerful really like them being known. Please send them around so that more people will be aware of them. Ideally get them posted in school classrooms. Thank You.
The Five Rules of Propaganda
1. The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
2. The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
3. The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
4. The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.
5. The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
"EVER since I have been scrutinizing political events, I have taken a tremendous interest in propagandist activity. I saw that the Socialist-Marxist organizations mastered and applied this instrument with astounding skill. And I soon realized that the correct use of propaganda is a true art which has remained practically unknown to the bourgeois parties. Only the Christian-Social movement, especially in Lueger's time, achieved a certain virtuosity on this instrument, to which it owed many of its successes.
But it was not until the War that it became evident what immense results could be obtained by a correct application of propaganda. Here again, unfortunately, all our studying had to be done on the enemy side, for the activity on our side was modest, to say the least. The total miscarriage of the German 'enlightenment ' service stared every soldier in the face, and this spurred me to take up the question of propaganda even more deeply than before.
There was often more than enough time for thinking, and the enemy offered practical instruction which, to our sorrow, was only too good.
For what we failed to do, the enemy did, with amazing skill and really brilliant calculation. I, myself, learned enormously from this enemy war propaganda. But time passed and left no trace in the minds of all those who should have benefited; partly because they considered themselves too clever to from the enemy, partly owing to lack of good will.
Did we have anything you could call propaganda?
I regret that I must answer in the negative. Everything that actually was done in this field was so inadequate and wrong from the very start that it certainly did no good and sometimes did actual harm."
...
"The second really decisive question was this: To whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or to the less educated masses?
It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses.
What the intelligentsia - or those who today unfortunately often go by that name - what they need is not propaganda but scientific instruction. The content of propaganda is not science any more than the object represented in a poster is art. The art of the poster lies in the designer's ability to attract the attention of the crowd by form and color. A poster advertising an art exhibit must direct the attention of the public to the art being exhibited; the better it succeeds in this, the greater is the art of the poster itself. The poster should give the masses an idea of the significance of the exhibition, it should not be a substitute for the art on display. Anyone who wants to concern himself with the art itself must do more than study the poster; and it will not be enough for him just to saunter through the exhibition. We may expect him to examine and immerse himself in the individual works, and thus little by little form a fair opinion.
A similar situation prevails with what we today call propaganda.
The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision.
The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect.
All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction.
The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success in pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.
The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The fact that our bright boys do not understand this merely shows how mentally lazy and conceited they are.
Once we understand how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results:
It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance.
The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.
Thus we see that propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound."
...
"There was no end to what could be learned from the enemy by a man who kept his eyes open, refused to let his perceptions be ossified, and for four and a half years privately turned the storm flood of enemy propaganda over in his brain."
...
"The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determines their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling. And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate, right or wrong, truth or lie never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing.
English propagandists understood all this most brilliantly-and acted accordingly. They made no half statements that might have given rise to doubts."
...
"But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success."
...
"The purpose of propaganda is not to provide interesting distraction for blase young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses. But the masses are slowmoving, and they always require a certain time before they are ready even to notice a thing, and only after the simplest ideas are repeated thousands of times will the masses finally remember them."
I didn't think I'd feel so at home reading this-could be any substack post!
The lesson should be that both left and right, nations and political groups, politicians and grifters use propaganda. I like this stack for its searing critique of the current times but in the comments I see the same attempts described by old H used by the right in caricaturing an issue in simple terms, with appeals to group identity etc.
It kind of depresses me as the lesson is the masses can't do nuance, ie they can't not be 'the masses'. Who cares if we are being overrun with leftist groupthink currently if in the next iteration it will just be mindless right groupthink.
That's THE biggest lesson. The propaganda we are most vulnerable to is the propaganda from our "own side" that confirms our basic belief structure. We're susceptible to it because we give voices that we believe align with ours more trust. It's in that trust that those who gain our confidence are able to deceive us. Gaining our confidence is the "con" in "conman," "con artist," being "conned."
Our defenses are up when we hear the propaganda emanating from the "other side." We know "they're" bad and trying to deceive us. It's the deceivers we believe are good - of course "our" values are good. Not like "their" bad, dangerous values. I was conned most of my life by my "side." I thought Bush was good. I sensed McCain, Romney were duplicitous, but they must've been mostly good, they were on my "side." Fox was on my "side." Drudge. Brietbart. All the mainstream conservative media was mostly good. I thought. Because I trusted them. MSNBC, CNN, NYT, etc. mostly bad. "Them." Their side peddles propaganda, deception, lies. My defenses are inherently skeptical of anything they say.
I learned in the past decade that the truth is we must be even *more* skeptical of sources that confirm our basic belief structure, that align with our values. Those are the ones we're more likely to be conned by. We must question everything, there's no short cuts to thinking, no "trusted sources." Any source that claims to be trustworthy is most likely where the biggest con artists are conning the most people.
Another word with "con" in it is "controlled opposition." Aka Frenemies. Fake friends. Who earn our trust over time, gaining our confidence. Seen in the trenches with us fighting the "other team." When they help take out an adversary with us they earn our trust. Until they pull off The Sting.
Thing is, we're naturally tribal, we've evolved to seek the safety of our tribe, believing our tribe membership protects us from the dangers that lurk outside it. And it's impossible for a tribe to be cohesive without high trust. So we align with those who share our values to the best of our ability.
That alignment doesn't mean we can turn off our discernment and trust other tribe members to be telling us the truth. We must question everything, no matter the source. Even from friend. Especially from friend. And for anything that asks for sacrifices or promises riches, requires an "other" to make sacrifices on our behalf it will be our questioning, our discernment that reviews the information through our own understanding of the world, agendas, cui bono, etc to be accepted as truthful and gain our trust. That is the only protection from groupthink that will ultimately hurt the group.
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." - Thomas Jefferson.
Which is how they get us. We rally to protect "our" tribe's leaders.
Take the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. R's rallied to defend him, MSM so biased, the attacks so ludicrous. The tribe on the "right" rallied to defend him.
Turns out he's controlled opposition. He gives a few bones to the right that no D would. But he's no constitutional freedom and liberty defender. He's sided with D's on many leftist rulings. He could care less about election integrity, propaganda, censorship, mandated speech, mandated medical interventions, businesses forced closure, open borders. He may mouth some platitudes but they are empty.
Ditto Coney-Barrett, John Roberts. R's rally to protect their tribe rep from unjust media assaults that actually serve to gain our emotional investment in said tribal rep. A Kavanaugh/ACB/Roberts gain our confidence. And then The Sting of a stolen election or gutted First Amendment, censorship, etc is dropped on us. The betrayal.
Even the protestors allowed to intimidate and terrorize the justices over Roe is cosplay to make the tribal "right" believe those R-appointed justices are "ours." Builds our emotional loyalty, the unfairness. But part of the Con.
Tribalism loyalty is a basic human instinct that those in power put most of their energy into building. To their advantage. For their purposes, their agenda. Is where we are weakest to propaganda. And they know it, exploit it, protect their right to do so at all costs. Hence, Murthy decisions, "no standing" decisions, etc. They're in on The Sting.
Heck, Trump could be the biggest con artist salesman for one-thousand years of darkness planned ahead. "Our side." Attacked from all sides, builds our loyalty and trust. Compared to the alternative he seems to be the best option. Still not to be completely trusted. He made the poison jabs. He ordered the murderous ventilators. He suggested the masks. And he still believes all those things saved lives - just said so during Hannity interview. No. I don't trust him. I won't do or believe something just because he says I should. I will use my discernment. My best defense to being conned. Thank God for that gift! Which takes practice to use as he intended.
Thinking about your question, and I think it's inherently unknowable. We cannot know the motivations of another person, especially a politician. We have to assume that all politicians are in it because of a desire to control, and if one is not, so much the better. (Old saying, you can never go wrong underestimating your own motives.)
I think the writers of the Constitution worked on that assumption, so the Republic as designed by them assumed the worst of the politicians and tried to make it so that, by serving himself he would be serving the people. Politicians have been working to undermine controls on them ever since.
All you can do is look for who is advancing policies that undermine, or at least do not advance, control by the politicians, and look to see if they are against controls on them. (They pretend the Tenth Amendment doesn't exist.) That person may be a hypocrite, but oh, well.
Governments amass power by fostering dependency, so that is a thing to look for.
You might want to check out this short essay of mine.
Lenin was a master of propaganda. Hitler and the National Socialists in general were very effective in combining social welfare, nationalism and intense propaganda, integrating popular leftist propaganda and organizing with national and ethnic pride. This is the problem that many on the left do not understand. Once you take liberal freedoms away, there is nothing stopping fascists or communists from killing the nice people and taking power. It happened in Russia and it happened in Germany. I hate when people claim that Hitler was "elected" the leader of Germany. He never was. He lead a party that got 33% of the vote for the Reichstag (parliament). Then he seized control. Liberal protections exist to protect against threats from the right as well as the left. We are becoming ever more reckless when we remove the protections built against these possibilities (freedom of speech/press, right to bear arms,...).
Great contribution! Correct, Hitler's Nazi Party highest vote percentage it ever got, even after outlawing his most popular opposition was about 42%. His 33% was the last free election, his 42% was the last election period.
What people fail to understand about elections is majorities are regularly ignored in most of history. The results, like in 1930's Germany reflect the Triumph of the Will. The winner possessing the Will to seize power and hold onto it no matter what the voters say. With just a few key positions under their control backed up by zealots willing and able to control the streets a minority can seize power and destroy a nation.
The Triumph of the Will. Who wants it most. That's what will determine the results of the 2024 election. Not ballots. Not courts. As we saw in 2020 the Roberts court is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. Even Trump appointees, aka McConnell appointees. The military is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. DOJ is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. The media is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. The streets in the biggest cities are key positions held by the FBI's Antifa division.
Will. Opposition to minority tyranny rule must possess the Will to oppose Antifa, the DOJ, the DOD, SCOTUS and MSM controlled by the minority to Triumph. I can't say the majority Will matches the minority Will. Yet. If we don't find it this will surely be the last semi-free election we ever have. I don't believe most people even on the side of freedom believe and fully understand the stakes.
Mark Elias and MSNBC declaring their Triumph of the Will. They are truly Hitlerian. Who has the greater Will? Who wants it more? The courts won't save us. We already saw that proven. 2024 will be no different than 2020. It will be who's Will triumphs. They're ready. Are we?
There are eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a socialist state. The first is the most important.
Healthcare--Control healthcare and you control the people
Poverty—Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
Debt—Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
Gun Control--Remove people's ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
Welfare—Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income)
Education--Take control of what people read and listen to - take control of what children learn in school. Think: "Common Core"
Religion—Remove the belief in God from the Government and schools,
Class Warfare--Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor, This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax)
But the good news is, crickets have dropped from $7 to only $5 per pound. Just what we need to enjoy Mom’s favorite cricket broth stew😉, and the Peoples Power Commission has agreed to allow all approved households to have 1 extra kilowatt of power to cook it with. Let the good times roll!!
"I removed my pants at a civic function, invited the mayor’s wife to “take an all-night ride on the love train,” and passed out in a tub of ambrosia salad."
LOLOLOL
They're truly better off masturbating in public. That's about as "self aware" as they'll ever get.
Yup. We've moved from immigrants to dreamers to migrants to asylum seekers to newcomers. So, yeah, pilgrims, pioneers, Daughters of the American Invasion, The Knights of the Rio Grande.
They have 330 million people to replace, so they're going need a lot of name changes.
It's a done deal mathematically. Time to deport the criminals, contain the terrorists, and win the other 40 million to freedom of thought, individualism, and other traits I won't share here.
I am completely fine with admitting all the gay, lesbian and transgendered Venezuelans. My issue is with the monsters who let anyone cross the border without a visa. We should have immigration, but why anyone would have allowed random, unknown individuals to cross the border is truly insane. These same officials turn down visas for actual human rights activists. It is insanity.
Remember, you only beat them and lock them up if they are African-Americans. Migrants get a pass. The same is true with emergency housing. Those over-priviledged African-American homeless were hogging all the good shelters for too long. Throw them out for poor migrants (who left a country with a right to housing, free health care and five cent chickens). Nothing feels as good as Progressive values. Now let me tell you all of these "Ghetto" jokes about how stupid and lazy "ghetto" people are. Isn't is great how we can tell those great southern Democrat jokes from the 1950's now by swapping the n-word with "ghetto." It feels great to be an Anti-Racist.
“-While there are claims that some attendees at the gathering rioted, causing damage to businesses, passing vehicles and causing harm to passersby in the area, APD has received no such reports to date.
-An Aurora patrol unit was hit by an unknown object while driving in the area, and it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering. The object caused minor damage, and APD is still investigating the incident.”
How could they write this with a straight face? Are they deliberately undermining their own credibility or are they just dumber than a bag of hammers?
From the people who continue to tell us that the mRNA gene injections are safe and effective. And that Kamala is an underappreciated genius with an unprecedented command of public oratory.
I’m actually wondering if the Aurora PD is afraid of these Venezuelans. Just looking at the photos of the shopping center parking lot…many of the driving aisles are completely blocked off (since when is it okay to block parking lot/street traffic?), plus all the garbage dumped, etc…note the police did nothing to stop any of this. It does NOT appear that the police in that town are in control of the situation at all. Could it be any more obvious that these people do not respect our laws, or the rights of others? This PD is shirking their duty. If they need help from the National Guard, fine. Ask for it.
Denver has a SWAT team that would probably love to get in on some action. The upper echelons of the police are woke leftists, the ground level cops can’t go against their superiors, that’s the problem.
Remember - correlation does not equal causation. The vaccine situation has learnt us this truthiness. Re: "An Aurora patrol unit was hit by an unknown object while driving in the area, and it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering. The object caused minor damage, and APD is still investigating the incident.”
Not sure what you're saying. The APD statement said that "while there are claims" that passing vehicles were damaged during the disturbance, the APD has received no such reports. In the very next item, they said "An [APD] patrol unit was hit by an unknown object" that caused damage.
Are you aware that Carribean and Latin countries have emptied their jails before? For decades? The Haitian boatlift had many as did the Cuban one.
Do you think these young, skinny teens with rifles are "Dreamers?" Boys that young willing to work for a gang are already trained to not be normal socially.
I know and hire real, honest, hardworking illegals if I have too. I treat them well and have THIS generation legal immigrants in my family.
Is there something about this article or the ridiculousness in points out that bothers you?
No way. They just stated a little differently that Chris removed his pants at a civic function, invited the mayor’s wife to “take an all-night ride on the love train,” and passed out in a tub of ambrosia salad.
Who you gonna call?....MisinformationBusters! ‘Misinformation experts’ are very concerned about how we need to be protected from all this here ‘fake news’ and ‘misinformation’. I on the other hand, can think of nothing more chillingly Orwellian than the concept of a misinformation expert. Anyone with a reasonable grasp of the interface between human nature and man’s inherent epistemological limitations could not seriously entertain such a notion without choking on their hubris sandwich. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/take-me-to-your-experts
In 2020, violent anarchists for hire burning down cities, churches and caused mayhem, but reporters told us, as buildings were on fire right behind them, that the “protesters” were “mostly peaceful.” However, people who peacefully entered the Capitol and took selfies are violent insurrectionists.
Looks like it was a really cold day in August, in that last photo, which is why they’re all wearing hoodies as they visit their friend in the apartment building.
Oh, we have EXACTLY the same problem here in the UK....our PM two tier Kier now calls illegal migrants "irregular migrants" 🙄 We've just had 2 murders at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, both innocent bystanders, a young mother killed on Children's day. For those who don't know, NHC is an annual "celebration " of afro-Caribbean culture, featuring blood feuds, drug wars and sexual assaults...."largely peaceful" was how Sky News described it. Over 800 arrests and 300 emergency service workers assaulted tells its own story. Nothing from our dear leader cos, diversity 🙄
I would argue that it’s what the MSM industrial complex has always been. (Just research Watergate and Bob Woodward for example.) In 2016, due to the new era of social media, their illusion of viability was cracked. The vail of legitimacy was ripped away, and the Bernays inspired propaganda machine has been desperately searching for fig-leaves ever since. These leaves come in the form of MediaMatters and alike.
These five rules of propaganda have been known for a long time, and they are certainly not original with myself. They can be found on the internet through searches, but I don't think that the powerful really like them being known. Please send them around so that more people will be aware of them. Ideally get them posted in school classrooms. Thank You.
The Five Rules of Propaganda
1. The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
2. The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
3. The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
4. The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.
5. The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
https://drp314.substack.com/p/propaganda-thoughts
Great posts
Similar
8 steps in a totalitarians playbook:
1. Politicizing independent institutions
2. Spreading disinformation
3. Aggrandizing executive power
4. Quashing dissent
5. Marginalizing specific groups
6. Corrupting elections
7. Stoking violence
8. Making absurdities reality
Does any of this sound familiar?
Yeah, every week.
When I watch the "news" to see what *they* are NOT talking about.
What did literally, Hitler, have to say about the rules of propaganda?
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Volume One - A Reckoning
Chapter VI: War Propaganda
https://web.archive.org/web/20230307140929/https://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch06.html
"EVER since I have been scrutinizing political events, I have taken a tremendous interest in propagandist activity. I saw that the Socialist-Marxist organizations mastered and applied this instrument with astounding skill. And I soon realized that the correct use of propaganda is a true art which has remained practically unknown to the bourgeois parties. Only the Christian-Social movement, especially in Lueger's time, achieved a certain virtuosity on this instrument, to which it owed many of its successes.
But it was not until the War that it became evident what immense results could be obtained by a correct application of propaganda. Here again, unfortunately, all our studying had to be done on the enemy side, for the activity on our side was modest, to say the least. The total miscarriage of the German 'enlightenment ' service stared every soldier in the face, and this spurred me to take up the question of propaganda even more deeply than before.
There was often more than enough time for thinking, and the enemy offered practical instruction which, to our sorrow, was only too good.
For what we failed to do, the enemy did, with amazing skill and really brilliant calculation. I, myself, learned enormously from this enemy war propaganda. But time passed and left no trace in the minds of all those who should have benefited; partly because they considered themselves too clever to from the enemy, partly owing to lack of good will.
Did we have anything you could call propaganda?
I regret that I must answer in the negative. Everything that actually was done in this field was so inadequate and wrong from the very start that it certainly did no good and sometimes did actual harm."
...
"The second really decisive question was this: To whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or to the less educated masses?
It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses.
What the intelligentsia - or those who today unfortunately often go by that name - what they need is not propaganda but scientific instruction. The content of propaganda is not science any more than the object represented in a poster is art. The art of the poster lies in the designer's ability to attract the attention of the crowd by form and color. A poster advertising an art exhibit must direct the attention of the public to the art being exhibited; the better it succeeds in this, the greater is the art of the poster itself. The poster should give the masses an idea of the significance of the exhibition, it should not be a substitute for the art on display. Anyone who wants to concern himself with the art itself must do more than study the poster; and it will not be enough for him just to saunter through the exhibition. We may expect him to examine and immerse himself in the individual works, and thus little by little form a fair opinion.
A similar situation prevails with what we today call propaganda.
The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision.
The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect.
All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction.
The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success in pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.
The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The fact that our bright boys do not understand this merely shows how mentally lazy and conceited they are.
Once we understand how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results:
It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance.
The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.
Thus we see that propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound."
...
"There was no end to what could be learned from the enemy by a man who kept his eyes open, refused to let his perceptions be ossified, and for four and a half years privately turned the storm flood of enemy propaganda over in his brain."
...
"The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determines their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling. And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate, right or wrong, truth or lie never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing.
English propagandists understood all this most brilliantly-and acted accordingly. They made no half statements that might have given rise to doubts."
...
"But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success."
...
"The purpose of propaganda is not to provide interesting distraction for blase young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses. But the masses are slowmoving, and they always require a certain time before they are ready even to notice a thing, and only after the simplest ideas are repeated thousands of times will the masses finally remember them."
I didn't think I'd feel so at home reading this-could be any substack post!
The lesson should be that both left and right, nations and political groups, politicians and grifters use propaganda. I like this stack for its searing critique of the current times but in the comments I see the same attempts described by old H used by the right in caricaturing an issue in simple terms, with appeals to group identity etc.
It kind of depresses me as the lesson is the masses can't do nuance, ie they can't not be 'the masses'. Who cares if we are being overrun with leftist groupthink currently if in the next iteration it will just be mindless right groupthink.
That's THE biggest lesson. The propaganda we are most vulnerable to is the propaganda from our "own side" that confirms our basic belief structure. We're susceptible to it because we give voices that we believe align with ours more trust. It's in that trust that those who gain our confidence are able to deceive us. Gaining our confidence is the "con" in "conman," "con artist," being "conned."
Our defenses are up when we hear the propaganda emanating from the "other side." We know "they're" bad and trying to deceive us. It's the deceivers we believe are good - of course "our" values are good. Not like "their" bad, dangerous values. I was conned most of my life by my "side." I thought Bush was good. I sensed McCain, Romney were duplicitous, but they must've been mostly good, they were on my "side." Fox was on my "side." Drudge. Brietbart. All the mainstream conservative media was mostly good. I thought. Because I trusted them. MSNBC, CNN, NYT, etc. mostly bad. "Them." Their side peddles propaganda, deception, lies. My defenses are inherently skeptical of anything they say.
I learned in the past decade that the truth is we must be even *more* skeptical of sources that confirm our basic belief structure, that align with our values. Those are the ones we're more likely to be conned by. We must question everything, there's no short cuts to thinking, no "trusted sources." Any source that claims to be trustworthy is most likely where the biggest con artists are conning the most people.
Another word with "con" in it is "controlled opposition." Aka Frenemies. Fake friends. Who earn our trust over time, gaining our confidence. Seen in the trenches with us fighting the "other team." When they help take out an adversary with us they earn our trust. Until they pull off The Sting.
Thing is, we're naturally tribal, we've evolved to seek the safety of our tribe, believing our tribe membership protects us from the dangers that lurk outside it. And it's impossible for a tribe to be cohesive without high trust. So we align with those who share our values to the best of our ability.
That alignment doesn't mean we can turn off our discernment and trust other tribe members to be telling us the truth. We must question everything, no matter the source. Even from friend. Especially from friend. And for anything that asks for sacrifices or promises riches, requires an "other" to make sacrifices on our behalf it will be our questioning, our discernment that reviews the information through our own understanding of the world, agendas, cui bono, etc to be accepted as truthful and gain our trust. That is the only protection from groupthink that will ultimately hurt the group.
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." - Thomas Jefferson.
Strongly agree, well said.
But in your defense, the MSM was so biased that criticism of Bush and etc. could not be taken seriously.
Which is how they get us. We rally to protect "our" tribe's leaders.
Take the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. R's rallied to defend him, MSM so biased, the attacks so ludicrous. The tribe on the "right" rallied to defend him.
Turns out he's controlled opposition. He gives a few bones to the right that no D would. But he's no constitutional freedom and liberty defender. He's sided with D's on many leftist rulings. He could care less about election integrity, propaganda, censorship, mandated speech, mandated medical interventions, businesses forced closure, open borders. He may mouth some platitudes but they are empty.
Ditto Coney-Barrett, John Roberts. R's rally to protect their tribe rep from unjust media assaults that actually serve to gain our emotional investment in said tribal rep. A Kavanaugh/ACB/Roberts gain our confidence. And then The Sting of a stolen election or gutted First Amendment, censorship, etc is dropped on us. The betrayal.
Even the protestors allowed to intimidate and terrorize the justices over Roe is cosplay to make the tribal "right" believe those R-appointed justices are "ours." Builds our emotional loyalty, the unfairness. But part of the Con.
Tribalism loyalty is a basic human instinct that those in power put most of their energy into building. To their advantage. For their purposes, their agenda. Is where we are weakest to propaganda. And they know it, exploit it, protect their right to do so at all costs. Hence, Murthy decisions, "no standing" decisions, etc. They're in on The Sting.
Heck, Trump could be the biggest con artist salesman for one-thousand years of darkness planned ahead. "Our side." Attacked from all sides, builds our loyalty and trust. Compared to the alternative he seems to be the best option. Still not to be completely trusted. He made the poison jabs. He ordered the murderous ventilators. He suggested the masks. And he still believes all those things saved lives - just said so during Hannity interview. No. I don't trust him. I won't do or believe something just because he says I should. I will use my discernment. My best defense to being conned. Thank God for that gift! Which takes practice to use as he intended.
I am always suprised that most people believe the first thing they here then stop looking into anything.
Why would anyone believe the show we are watching is even close to the actual truth of what these sides want?
I am a very conservative person but Trumps mug shot was the fakest acting I've seen in a while. From "our" side. It's just silly and easy to spot.
There are two types of people, those who want to control others and those who don’t. Look for that rather than party affiliation.
So who do you think doesn't want to control others in the current election (US)? I'll take one out of four if you can come up with one.
For what it’s worth, when in office Trump worked to decrease the power of the Federal Government.
Thinking about your question, and I think it's inherently unknowable. We cannot know the motivations of another person, especially a politician. We have to assume that all politicians are in it because of a desire to control, and if one is not, so much the better. (Old saying, you can never go wrong underestimating your own motives.)
I think the writers of the Constitution worked on that assumption, so the Republic as designed by them assumed the worst of the politicians and tried to make it so that, by serving himself he would be serving the people. Politicians have been working to undermine controls on them ever since.
All you can do is look for who is advancing policies that undermine, or at least do not advance, control by the politicians, and look to see if they are against controls on them. (They pretend the Tenth Amendment doesn't exist.) That person may be a hypocrite, but oh, well.
Governments amass power by fostering dependency, so that is a thing to look for.
You might want to check out this short essay of mine.
https://drp314.substack.com/p/hydraulic-despotism
You know that meme where the point flies over the head? You just made it.
Lenin was a master of propaganda. Hitler and the National Socialists in general were very effective in combining social welfare, nationalism and intense propaganda, integrating popular leftist propaganda and organizing with national and ethnic pride. This is the problem that many on the left do not understand. Once you take liberal freedoms away, there is nothing stopping fascists or communists from killing the nice people and taking power. It happened in Russia and it happened in Germany. I hate when people claim that Hitler was "elected" the leader of Germany. He never was. He lead a party that got 33% of the vote for the Reichstag (parliament). Then he seized control. Liberal protections exist to protect against threats from the right as well as the left. We are becoming ever more reckless when we remove the protections built against these possibilities (freedom of speech/press, right to bear arms,...).
Great contribution! Correct, Hitler's Nazi Party highest vote percentage it ever got, even after outlawing his most popular opposition was about 42%. His 33% was the last free election, his 42% was the last election period.
What people fail to understand about elections is majorities are regularly ignored in most of history. The results, like in 1930's Germany reflect the Triumph of the Will. The winner possessing the Will to seize power and hold onto it no matter what the voters say. With just a few key positions under their control backed up by zealots willing and able to control the streets a minority can seize power and destroy a nation.
The Triumph of the Will. Who wants it most. That's what will determine the results of the 2024 election. Not ballots. Not courts. As we saw in 2020 the Roberts court is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. Even Trump appointees, aka McConnell appointees. The military is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. DOJ is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. The media is a key position held by NeverTrumpers. The streets in the biggest cities are key positions held by the FBI's Antifa division.
Will. Opposition to minority tyranny rule must possess the Will to oppose Antifa, the DOJ, the DOD, SCOTUS and MSM controlled by the minority to Triumph. I can't say the majority Will matches the minority Will. Yet. If we don't find it this will surely be the last semi-free election we ever have. I don't believe most people even on the side of freedom believe and fully understand the stakes.
Mark Elias and MSNBC declaring their Triumph of the Will. They are truly Hitlerian. Who has the greater Will? Who wants it more? The courts won't save us. We already saw that proven. 2024 will be no different than 2020. It will be who's Will triumphs. They're ready. Are we?
https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1836778160869830795
Also this:
HOW TO CREATE A SOCIALIST STATE
BY SAUL ALINSKY
There are eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a socialist state. The first is the most important.
Healthcare--Control healthcare and you control the people
Poverty—Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
Debt—Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
Gun Control--Remove people's ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
Welfare—Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income)
Education--Take control of what people read and listen to - take control of what children learn in school. Think: "Common Core"
Religion—Remove the belief in God from the Government and schools,
Class Warfare--Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor, This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax)
This describes the "Trans Women are Women" crowd to a tee.
#4 is definitely the most important, or least in the current culture.
In other news, the chocolate ration will be increased again from 100 grams to 85.
But the good news is, crickets have dropped from $7 to only $5 per pound. Just what we need to enjoy Mom’s favorite cricket broth stew😉, and the Peoples Power Commission has agreed to allow all approved households to have 1 extra kilowatt of power to cook it with. Let the good times roll!!
In urban areas. Rural areas will not be so lucky.
That just lit my brain into a fit of dendritic synapses of supernova laughter.
Dendritic good. Anastomosing bad.
Totally "Tubular"....
I agree with Ryan. This is the funniest thing I have read today in the cesspool of really depressing stuff out there. Many thanks.
Right up there with 2+2 = 5. Well done.
Except when it's 22.
Living standards are rising inversely as we speak.
You've outdone yourself:
"I removed my pants at a civic function, invited the mayor’s wife to “take an all-night ride on the love train,” and passed out in a tub of ambrosia salad."
LOLOLOL
They're truly better off masturbating in public. That's about as "self aware" as they'll ever get.
🤣
^^This!^^ I needed the laugh today - Chris’s post, and the comments, have come thru like champions. 😆
"Newcomers" is beginning to have a negative connotation. I think we should call them pilgrims.
Yup. We've moved from immigrants to dreamers to migrants to asylum seekers to newcomers. So, yeah, pilgrims, pioneers, Daughters of the American Invasion, The Knights of the Rio Grande.
They have 330 million people to replace, so they're going need a lot of name changes.
It's a done deal mathematically. Time to deport the criminals, contain the terrorists, and win the other 40 million to freedom of thought, individualism, and other traits I won't share here.
I think we should speak the truth and call them invasion forces.
Criminal trespassers.
Just say “I think it’s great so many gay men have come here from Venezuela so they can live their lives as their true, men-loving selves.”
The newcomers love that
I am completely fine with admitting all the gay, lesbian and transgendered Venezuelans. My issue is with the monsters who let anyone cross the border without a visa. We should have immigration, but why anyone would have allowed random, unknown individuals to cross the border is truly insane. These same officials turn down visas for actual human rights activists. It is insanity.
LOLOL
well, the actual people who live in Denver know the truth, anyway. the "debunking" is just so those nasty Republicans don't have "talking points."
You know, if it weren’t for substack, I would have never been allowed to read this column. I’m very grateful that substack exists.
Like!
me too!
You haters. It was just a big social gathering with a little gun play.
It’s just like your family reunion with fireworks. Racists.
"Light to moderate gunfire," like a brief shower on an otherwise sunny day. Maybe it was just some light caliber hail that hit the police car.
Remember, you only beat them and lock them up if they are African-Americans. Migrants get a pass. The same is true with emergency housing. Those over-priviledged African-American homeless were hogging all the good shelters for too long. Throw them out for poor migrants (who left a country with a right to housing, free health care and five cent chickens). Nothing feels as good as Progressive values. Now let me tell you all of these "Ghetto" jokes about how stupid and lazy "ghetto" people are. Isn't is great how we can tell those great southern Democrat jokes from the 1950's now by swapping the n-word with "ghetto." It feels great to be an Anti-Racist.
This literally made me lol. Not figuratively.
“-While there are claims that some attendees at the gathering rioted, causing damage to businesses, passing vehicles and causing harm to passersby in the area, APD has received no such reports to date.
-An Aurora patrol unit was hit by an unknown object while driving in the area, and it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering. The object caused minor damage, and APD is still investigating the incident.”
How could they write this with a straight face? Are they deliberately undermining their own credibility or are they just dumber than a bag of hammers?
From the people who continue to tell us that the mRNA gene injections are safe and effective. And that Kamala is an underappreciated genius with an unprecedented command of public oratory.
I'm guessing someone on the Aurora PD took a course on information management at FBI Quantico.
This^^^^
I’m actually wondering if the Aurora PD is afraid of these Venezuelans. Just looking at the photos of the shopping center parking lot…many of the driving aisles are completely blocked off (since when is it okay to block parking lot/street traffic?), plus all the garbage dumped, etc…note the police did nothing to stop any of this. It does NOT appear that the police in that town are in control of the situation at all. Could it be any more obvious that these people do not respect our laws, or the rights of others? This PD is shirking their duty. If they need help from the National Guard, fine. Ask for it.
I saw on X that the Hells Angels are heading to Aurora per citizens request for help. Now that event would make for an interesting police report.
Criminal bikers are now better than many other sectors of our society, lol.
It’s more likely to be the Sons of Silence since they are based out of Colorado.
Denver has a SWAT team that would probably love to get in on some action. The upper echelons of the police are woke leftists, the ground level cops can’t go against their superiors, that’s the problem.
I have to observe - at least hammers can be useful.
Remember - correlation does not equal causation. The vaccine situation has learnt us this truthiness. Re: "An Aurora patrol unit was hit by an unknown object while driving in the area, and it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering. The object caused minor damage, and APD is still investigating the incident.”
Are you saying the Aurora P.D. statement you are quoting is false?
Not sure what you're saying. The APD statement said that "while there are claims" that passing vehicles were damaged during the disturbance, the APD has received no such reports. In the very next item, they said "An [APD] patrol unit was hit by an unknown object" that caused damage.
… of which they say “it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering”
Are you aware that Carribean and Latin countries have emptied their jails before? For decades? The Haitian boatlift had many as did the Cuban one.
Do you think these young, skinny teens with rifles are "Dreamers?" Boys that young willing to work for a gang are already trained to not be normal socially.
I know and hire real, honest, hardworking illegals if I have too. I treat them well and have THIS generation legal immigrants in my family.
Is there something about this article or the ridiculousness in points out that bothers you?
You don’t seem to be responding to anything I actually wrote
No way. They just stated a little differently that Chris removed his pants at a civic function, invited the mayor’s wife to “take an all-night ride on the love train,” and passed out in a tub of ambrosia salad.
Who you gonna call?....MisinformationBusters! ‘Misinformation experts’ are very concerned about how we need to be protected from all this here ‘fake news’ and ‘misinformation’. I on the other hand, can think of nothing more chillingly Orwellian than the concept of a misinformation expert. Anyone with a reasonable grasp of the interface between human nature and man’s inherent epistemological limitations could not seriously entertain such a notion without choking on their hubris sandwich. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/take-me-to-your-experts
The label “Misinformation Experts” alone says it all. I mean, I interpret it as “those who are experts in spreading it.” 🤷🏻♀️
If you keep your eyes closed, you won’t have so much cognitive dissonance.
This will be a bad scene if people take the law into their own hands, or if they don't. The first option gives hope for the future.
It would be in the suburbs or outskirts or the first small town. Not in a city.
In 2020, violent anarchists for hire burning down cities, churches and caused mayhem, but reporters told us, as buildings were on fire right behind them, that the “protesters” were “mostly peaceful.” However, people who peacefully entered the Capitol and took selfies are violent insurrectionists.
Looks like it was a really cold day in August, in that last photo, which is why they’re all wearing hoodies as they visit their friend in the apartment building.
Or maybe the apartment building has their air conditioning turned down too low to be comfortable.
To give him some bullets.
The Denver Mayor doesn't look old enough to be served alcohol much less be mayor. Where do they find these clowns?
I believe the most prudent recruitment channel is a university. It’s a Bourgeois Socialist honey hole.
A future WEF Young Global Leader (a Klaus Schwab jugendführer), if he isn't already.
He looks related to the Portland mayor.
Probably his brother. It’s all in the family.
Send Dana Bash to report!!! 😂😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Oh, we have EXACTLY the same problem here in the UK....our PM two tier Kier now calls illegal migrants "irregular migrants" 🙄 We've just had 2 murders at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, both innocent bystanders, a young mother killed on Children's day. For those who don't know, NHC is an annual "celebration " of afro-Caribbean culture, featuring blood feuds, drug wars and sexual assaults...."largely peaceful" was how Sky News described it. Over 800 arrests and 300 emergency service workers assaulted tells its own story. Nothing from our dear leader cos, diversity 🙄
That’s the thing about irregulars: no returns
Surprisingly good piece. Lippmann speaks to us from 20 years ago and tells us that things haven’t changed much, but have gotten worse.
A fire-hose of information, but very little truth. I wonder what Mencken would say about what the press has become?
If you say something important and true, but nobody hears or listens, have you said anything; do you matter?
I would argue that it’s what the MSM industrial complex has always been. (Just research Watergate and Bob Woodward for example.) In 2016, due to the new era of social media, their illusion of viability was cracked. The vail of legitimacy was ripped away, and the Bernays inspired propaganda machine has been desperately searching for fig-leaves ever since. These leaves come in the form of MediaMatters and alike.
Or that when the truth finally does come out, it’s too late to matter. Walter Kirn just discussed this with Matt Tiabbi on their podcast this week.
https://x.com/americaweek/status/1829912880164028588?s=46&t=9YJZM2N17VyDdpTsKva0uA