Propaganda and how to see through it

A key feature of the context we live in today is that propaganda is part of the territory. It is ubiquitous in the “news”, the mainstream narrative, and right across western culture. Hardly anyone knows what is true and what is false. We live in the information age but also the disinformation age. There is a war of ideas going on and a battle for your mind.

If it is the truth that you seek and a clear grasp of the reality of what is happening in your world, it is vital to recognise another key component of the current context. Namely the agenda to impose total political control through global governance and absolute supremacy of the state.

Your attention is continuously courted by social media, computer games and entertainments, emails films and advertising. Your mind is constantly exposed to various persuasion techniques. You must be clued up and vigilant to discern truth just to stay sane – let alone achieve your happiness.

Populations cannot be controlled exclusively by physical means – it would be impossible. So they must be persuaded to welcome their own enslavement, even to demand it and willingly pay for it.

Propaganda is a broad concept way beyond governments announcements. Every story has a context and therefore films are an easy medium in which to sow ideas. They affect the values and therefore the choices of people. Propaganda is the means by which unwary minds are subjected to prepackaged downloads of assumptions and values, a ready-made hymn sheet of what to believe. This is the essence of the Matrix and this is why we need to think outside the box.

Rulers, kings and governments have been manipulating populations for at least several hundred years. This knowledge is not hidden. It’s not a secret, nor a conspiracy theory. It is a matter of historical record and empirical observation.

The most important thing to know about the propaganda that you are exposed to all the time every day is this. it is subtle and discreet. If it is done correctly you will not even perceive it unless you know about it and are ready for it. Your consciousness must be tuned to detect and evaluate all new incoming ideas before they are adopted or assimilated into your mental operating system and filed as “truth”.

A Definition of propaganda

This definition is from Edward Bernays who literally wrote the book – “Propaganda” in 1928.

Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.

I would add that propaganda is always UN-true. There is no need to control and manipulate people towards the truth, that is the purpose of real education. “Influencing the relation of the public to an enterprise, idea or group” means shaping their beliefs and opinions. It means altering peoples values and therefore their choices. It is manipulating people by controlling what they believe.

Propaganda techniques

Propaganda is the stealth enemy we need to know about because it dominates the mainstream narrative as well as the proclamations of many institutions and organisations and NGOs. It is the tool of those who would mislead, those who do not have our best interests as their agenda. And because the mainstream by definition is where most people look for information, that is where the propaganda is focused.

There is no rational and open debate, un-addressed presumptions and false dichotomies lead people towards the desired conclusions and opinions. But just like avoiding a coffee table in the middle of a room, awareness is key. Once we grasp that propaganda is everywhere we can act appropriately. Beliefs and ideas cannot easily be sewn into a thinking mind that consciously holds its own convictions.

Embedded messages

Propaganda can be very subtle, not IN YOUR FACE nor shouting at you. A message can be wrapped carefully in ideas that you already buy into. You can be seduced into lowering your mental defences (subconsciously) and it will feel as though a friend is talking to you, or someone who is in your camp. Then the desired message(s) can be delivered once your guard is down. Because so few people have learned to scrutinise incoming information, they will not notice this process. They will most likely have no conscious awareness of the complex package of embedded ideas and assumptions baked into the information they have subconsciously downloaded. This form of delivery is often found in cultural entertainment such as films and stories, but also in presentations or official announcements.

Controlling the narrative

Propaganda is also exercised in the form of blatant control of the mainstream media narrative. A few owners are in a position to control and coordinate the output of all the major news outlets in every country of the world. It is easy to discern this by observing the coordination of the presentation of issues that align with the narrative and the exclusion of those that do not. The mainstream media claim to be impartial and unbiased while projecting solely the viewpoint they wish you to buy into. There is nothing inherently wrong with being openly biased. A prosecutor is openly and deliberately biased towards proving a claim, while a defence lawyer is openly biased towards disproving it. The lie consists of claiming and pretending to be objective while promoting one viewpoint and rubbishing another.

Problems reaction solution

This is the technique outlined by David Icke and is seen all through history to the present day. It is a very broad stroke approach in which events are orchestrated. For example, in order to engage in wars governments need popular support.  Consider events such as the ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ precipitating the Vietnam War, the sinking of the Lusitania precipitating the United States government entering the conflict of World War One, or Pearl harbour precipitating its entry into World War Two. You also have the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, the climate emergency, and all the scaremongering with alleged epidemics all the way up to the present Coronavirus narrative. The agenda is already in place and an event is created to steer public opinion towards wanting an outcome consistent with that agenda. It works beautifully every time on a population of unthinking people.

Logical fallacies

Propaganda takes many forms and operates at many levels. However, it is at a disadvantage to the extent that it is false. If it were true then the term propaganda would not apply. And because the message is not the truth it cannot stand up to scrutiny in open rational debate. So various tricks and logical fallacies must be used to offer the pretence of a rational argument to the gullible target audience.

Logical fallacies are the means to create an illusion of a sound logical argument where there is none. There are a great many ways this can be achieved and the truth-seeker must familiarise him or herself with these techniques, as well as developing a habit of ALWAYS proactively LOOKING FOR any actual logical argument.

I consider the baseline logical fallacy to be equivocation. It requires that you be particularly vigilant because it deals with meanings of the terms being used in any discussion. Equivocation is the art of switching meanings with multiple definitions of a word used in one argument, or the insertion of a special definition that you will be unaware of. This means that a key word in the subject will not mean what you would correctly assume it to mean in common language usage. An example of this is the IPCC special definition of climate change to frame it in terms of human causes.

“a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over considerable time periods.”

There are many logical fallacies. There are appeals to emotions to pull you into accepting something as true. There are appeals to authority where someone impressive and knowledgeable is telling you to believe something. There are appeals to tradition in which it is argued that because something has always been believed you should also believe it. The many forms of logical fallacy are not hard to understand and once you are familiar with them you recognise them straight away. The common denominator is that there is no sound logical connection between the propositionand the conclusion. Meaning, there is no actual reason to believe the claim. The number of people who believe something is clearly not a reason in logic to believe it, however many people find it compelling because they dont have the intellectual confidence to ‘go it alone’.

Package dealing

Another very common technique is burying ideas within other ideas and smuggling them into the minds of the listeners/viewers. It works by selling you one idea and smuggling in a second or third without you realising. It can be achieved by simply mixing issues together. For example everyone would rationally agree that pollution is to be avoided, but the issue of pollution is mixed in with CO2 on the climate emergency issue. Polluting smoky chimneys are featured in Al Gore’s disingenuously titled film “An inconvenient truth”.

But package dealing is often far less obvious. To accept the idea of needing to wear a mask or wash your hands all the time to protect yourself against coronavirus is to implicitly buy in to the theory of contagion. To accept the idea that children need to go to school is to implicitly buy in to the idea that schools are places where education happens.

When did Propaganda Start?

Niccolò di Bernardo Dei Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) has been referred to as the father of modern political science. He was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer of the Renaissance. He is quoted as saying…

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.

Politics have no relation to morals.

In 1532 he wrote a book called ‘The Prince’ that was basically a handbook for kings and Political leaders for how to control the masses. ‘Machiavellianism’ is widely known as a derogatory term for unscrupulous politicians. Machiavelli allegedly described immoral behaviour such as dishonesty and even killing innocent people as being acceptable means to political ends. His book was widely cited as a manual for tyrants advocating various evil means of control.

The father of modern Propaganda – Edward Bernays

Fast forward a few centuries and let me introduce Edward Bernays, nephew of the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud. Bernays picked up the ball and ran with it. He developed the art and craft of subtle persuasion and mind control. He literally wrote the book “Propaganda”. He was an influential figure in the early part of last century and famously managed the campaign for US President Woodrow Wilson to sell the idea of involvement in World War 1 to the American people. He knew that the art of mass persuasion lay not in appealing to men’s rational faculty but to their subconscious mind. His clients also included Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. Others included Procter and Gamble, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Enrico Caruso.

In the book, Bernays speaks of the necessity for propaganda in a democratic society and attempts to clean up the reputation of the word and remove its negative association with deceit and manipulation. Although he fails in this attempt he succeeds in positioning himself as the key figure in the (then) newly emerging industry of public relations. In spite of his efforts to clean up the term propaganda, he admits that it is open to misuse.

The book opens with… “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government that is the true ruling power of our country. [the USA]”

“We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organised. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.”

He goes on, “…it is they [The invisible government] who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.”

It is important to discern that a free world does not involve or require unseen guidance of any kind. It consists of individuals making informed choices. Propagandists are at best disingenuous, at worst deceitful and manipulative. They most often have an agenda at odds with those who they seek to influence.

Political control  is the reality of the modern world

Writing almost a century ago, Bernays sheds some light on the political process from the perspective of an influential member of the establishment.  He informs us that “A presidential candidate may be “drafted” in response to “overwhelming popular demand” but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room.”

“There are invisible rulers who control the destiny of millions. It is not generally realised to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes. Now, what is still more important, the extent to which our thoughts and habits are modified by authorities.”

None of this stuff has gone away. Here in the UK the term ‘spin doctors’ became widely recognised as referring to those who organised the public relations and news management. For example, Alistair Campbel working for Tony Blair’s socialist government from 1997. These days issues of false flag terrorism, bogus climate disaster and COVID-19 are all supported by huge amounts of propaganda. The campaign has to be BIG and relentlessly ongoing because the underlying message can easily be seen as false!

We live in a culture of control. We are conditioned into it from childhood with controlling parenting techniques and with compulsory schooling. Later in life, we accept the controls of government and the theft of our money in the form of taxation by rationalising it as necessary. To break out of the Matrix we must reject control. We must cease to control others – our children – and resist being controlled peacefully and effectively by simply educating ourselves.

The antidote for propaganda – Independent thinking and Intellectual Sovereignty

People who habitually use their own capacity to make rational judgments as a trusted guide to what is going on are less likely to be swayed by propaganda than those who do not. People who think for themselves about all relevant issues, and who choose their sources of information will be less likely to accept an ‘official line’ without question. Whereas those who habitually defer to the group for the latest update on what to believe, those who Nathaniel Branden referred to as social metaphysicists, will readily adopt the ideas of the group.

This is because everyone needs to know what to do, and how to live. It’s essential for even basic everyday living,  we have to find out from somewhere or someone. Of course, we don’t have to rediscover everything for ourselves all the time. If we do not have sufficient confidence in ourselves to manage our affairs we quite naturally feel anxious. If we don’t think for ourselves, either because we have never learned how or because we prefer not to exert the effort,  we have no choice but to accept the ‘group think’  or conclusions of others on every issue, whether in the form of an official explanation or some other group consensus. We tend to default to adopting the easy answer or ready-packaged solution in the absence of thinking things through for ourselves. So the number one tool against propaganda is curiosity – wanting to know.

It is not a question of intelligence. Curiosity is the first cause of knowledge. And wanting to know and truly understand for ourselves is a sure way to avoid having our opinions chosen for us by someone else, an ‘authority’, the group, or by any persuasive and articulate person who delivers an idea with apparent conviction.

When we habitually arrive at our own conclusions consciously and deliberately we claim the mental space for which someone else’s ideas must compete. A mind that has considered an issue already is unlikely to adopt the conclusions of others on the same issue without consideration. Propaganda cannot work on those who think for themselves. There are many ways in which you can improve your thinking.

There is a method to discerning truth. You don’t generally just stumble across it, or find it. It must be distinguished from all the other competing claims around it. There are principles to guide you and specific techniques to use.

Nigel Howitt, Treehouse Farm

November 27th, 2020