The Science of Propaganda and How the Left Uses it to Dupe its followers into Totalitarianism

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The Science of Propaganda and How the Left Uses it to Dupe its followers into Totalitarianism

By: David Deschesne

Editor/Publisher,

Fort Fairfield Journal

June 2, 2021

Say what you will about Nazi party leader, Adolph Hitler, but he knew how people think and he knew how to effectively use propaganda to dupe the masses into following him. However, as admitted in the book he wrote, entitled Mein Kampf, he did not invent modern day propaganda. He acknowledged the revolutionaries in the communist party who overthrew Russia and turned it into a totalitarian dictatorship had made great strides in that art even before he did.

Hitler did understand how people think and he understood the differences between them well enough to leverage them to his advantage. He recognized early on that a large portion of society are not deep thinkers, but function on a more simplistic level. He wrote, “The broad mass of a nation does not consist of diplomats, or even professors of political law, or even individuals capable of forming a rational opinion; it consists of plain mortals, wavering and inclined to doubt and uncertainty.”¹

In that respect, Hitler suggested the message of propaganda should be very simple-minded and the greater the number of people you’re trying to propagandize, the simpler the message needs to be. “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.”²

Friedrich Hayek, who was a proponent of libertarianism and a staunch opponent of Hitler’s socialist ideas, agreed at least with Hitler’s premise on the masses. In his book, The Road to Serfdom, Hayek points out, “if we wish to find a high degree of uniformity and similarity in outlook, we have to descend to the regions of lower moral and intellectual standards where the more primitive and ‘common’ instinct and tastes prevail. This does not mean that the majority of people have low moral standards; it merely means that the largest group of people whose values are very similar are the people with low standards.”

Hayek also pointed out that a would-be dictator would have to appeal to this group of uneducated masses in order to attain and retain power; “He will be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently. It will be those whose vague and imperfectly formed ideas are easily swayed and whose passions and emotions are readily aroused who will thus swell the ranks of the totalitarian party.”⁴

Three Types of News Consumers

In Hitler’s day, newspapers were the primary mode of information delivery. Radio was still in its infancy, television hadn’t been thought of yet and there certainly was no internet, much less smartphones or social media sites. But, the principles of group dynamics remain the same, despite what the mode of information delivery is.

Hitler understood that there were three types of newspaper readers;

1.) those who believe everything they read;

2.) those who have ceased to believe anything; and

3.) those who critically examine what they read, and judge accordingly.

Hitler said the first group was by far the largest while the third group was the least among society.⁵

The Poster

Hitler likened propaganda to the layout of an advertising poster. “The art of the poster lies in the designer’s ability to attract the attention of the crowd by form and color...The poster should give the masses an idea of the significance of the [subject] it should not be a substitute.”⁶ He said propaganda should function like the poster with a simplified message. “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.”⁷

Keep the Message Simple, Appeal to Emotions, Repeat it Often

As Hayek explained, a set of values or ideas can be imposed on the minds of a group of people simply by having them “drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently.” Hitler understood this rule, too, when he wrote, “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 blasé young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses. But the masses are slow-moving, 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.”⁸

Modern Day Media’s Adaptation of Propaganda

Now that you understand the fundamentals of propaganda are “keep the message simple, make it appeal to emotions, repeat it often,” you will be able to more easily identify when the media is doing it to you.

I’ll cite a few examples from the left wing media’s COVID-19 psychological warfare campaign we all just suffered through. But you’ll find it in all topics they present to us.

First, the government and their media mouthpieces kept the message very simple, made it appeal to the emotions (of fear, in this case) and repeated it over and over and over again. That message was COVID-19 is “Deadly and Dangerous.” While repeating that mantra in the opening months, the television and online media overlaid it with stage-managed images of overrun hospitals and corpses stacking up in order to give teeth to the words they were drilling into the minds of the people. As it turns out, COVID-19 is not much more “deadly and dangerous” than the common seasonal flu - but that was easily and systematically ignored by the media and government because it conflicted with their propaganda message.

Another propaganda meme applied to face masks. This one was equally as simple: “Stop the Spread.” Using fear and emotion, rather than science and intellect, the media and government were able to convince the public that the vast majority of those who tested positive for COVID-19, but had no symptoms, must have a face mask put on them to prevent them from spreading the disease. The real science was those types of people don’t spread viruses and even if they did, the cloth and surgical face masks the public was forced to use weren’t designed to stop respiratory viruses, anyway. But, the propaganda won out and everyone ran around (and some still are) wearing those ridiculous and highly ineffective face masks.

The third, and potentially most destructive propaganda to come out of the COVID-19 psych-warfare campaign was in regard to the ‘vaccine.’ The simple message they repeated often was: “Safe and Effective.” You couldn’t turn on a newscast without hearing “safe and effective” dozens of times. Then, the politicians were all lining up to ostensibly get the COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ in front of a massive banner littered with the phrase “Safe and Effective” emblazoned all over it (their ‘shots’ were likely just harmless saline). The reality is the ‘vaccine’ is actually a form of experimental gene therapy and the public is now unwittingly participating in the largest human Phase III testing in history for a drug that looks like it’s designed to induce mass sterility for global population reduction.

Regardless of the topic, you can just scan a left-wing newspaper headline or website, or even listen to ten seconds of a television newscast and, armed with this knowledge, be able to identify propaganda as it’s being pushed at you.

The Bangor Daily News’Most Recent Propaganda Putsch Against Reality

Now comes the Bangor Daily News, Maine’s leading daily left-wing newspaper. Their front page, above the fold, was filled with propaganda headlines throughout 2020. Newspaper publishers in general understand that most people who don’t read or buy newspapers will at least glance at the headline and they have learned to sell their entire story in just those few bold-printed words. That, in-and-of itself is not propaganda, it’s simple marketing. What is propaganda is when the intent of the headline is not to draw the person to read the article to learn more about it, but instead to implant an idea into the minds of people who don’t even bother to read the article at all. What makes it propaganda is the idea thus implanted is not necessarily true, or defended by objective or scientific rationale, but is designed to appeal to emotion.

That’s what this headline did in the March 24, 2021 Bangor Daily News.

First, notice the main headline (above photo) “Parents Wary about Maine’s New Mask Policy” They are suggesting that parents are worried about Governor Mills rescinding her face mask mandate on that day, but nothing is said of the fact that the U.S. CDC came up with that guidance after evaluating all the data.

The sub-headline is just as propagandistic by stating “Many unsure how to protect their unvaccinated children.”

Well, that’s pure BS propaganda on a number of levels. First, define “many.” How many? That is open-ended and undefined. Secondly, the Bangor Daily News seems to believe face masks being imposed on everyone somehow were protecting the children (and by extension, everyone else) but none of the scientific data - even some from the U.S. CDC - supports that position. The cloth and surgical face masks used by the public - most often improperly worn, stored and reused - did nothing to protect anyone to begin with. This sub-headline is simply propaganda spewing by a news organization frantically trying to grasp onto their fear and hysteria campaign as it rapidly disintegrates in their hands.

The whipped cream and cherry on this Bangor Daily News propaganda puff piece is the picture of a mother and son, both wearing matching face masks. Since you can’t see them smiling, the Bangor Daily News staff thought it was newsworthy to publish this picture and tell you in the caption that both “smile as they watch something on Lisa’s phone…” Huh?

The subliminal cues in this propaganda poster are; 1.) people like wearing face masks; 2.) since they are smiling, they are happy wearing face masks; and 3.) face masks are normal and accepted articles of clothing since they can be either color coordinated or matched with each other.

The photo and caption suggest nothing of the fact that one of the primary means of subliminal communication humans use is facial recognition/features which are covered by masks. Also, the enforced use of masks remained widely unpopular throughout much of the country despite the left’s constant propagandizing for the mandated use of them.

Finally, what’s lost in the minutia is the scientific data which shows kids are the least likely to get sick or die from COVID-19, with or without face masks.

Conclusion

Now that you can identify when you are being propagandized with stimuli that appeals to your emotions, you can choose to realize that and engage the intellect portion of your thinking to see the world more objectively, questioning the source and validity of all news presentations.

Here, in the Fort Fairfield Journal I make that easy for you to do by citing my sources and giving the hyperlinks to the scientific and medical journals that you can go check out for yourselves. While the general rules of propaganda with regard to appealing to the intellect might make it seem more difficult to sell the message of truth, my increased sales at news stands and paid subscriptions seem to indicate the opposite.

Notes

2. op cit., p. 180

4. ibid

5. Mein Kampf, pp. 240-2

6. op cit., p. 179

7. op cit., p. 180

8. op cit., pp. 184-5