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Month: May 2016

Another of Lincoln’s Celebrity Endorsement quotes

Another of Lincoln’s Celebrity Endorsement quotes

TL;DR Summary This poster uses the method of Celebrity endorsement and appeal to authority  to deliver its message. This quote is – surprisingly – accurate and not taken out of context. There are numerous fake Lincoln quotes appearing in propaganda posters, however.  

Another of Lincoln's Celebrity Endorsement quotes

Another of Lincoln's Celebrity Endorsement quotes

TL;DR Summary This poster uses the method of Celebrity endorsement and appeal to authority  to deliver its message. This quote is – surprisingly – accurate and not taken out of context. There are numerous fake Lincoln quotes appearing in propaganda posters, however.  

Denmark has the world’s highest personal debt – surprised?

Denmark has the world’s highest personal debt – surprised?

A popular and widely distributed social media propaganda poster proclaims Denmark as the happiest nation on earth because of a host of mostly false assertions about life in Denmark. Read the entire series about that nonsensical yet highly effective propaganda here. As yet another counterpoint to that silly poster, Danish households also have the world’s largest level of personal debt: “Danish households owe their creditors 321 percent of disposable incomes, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s…

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Do more people go to jail than to college?

Do more people go to jail than to college?

TL;DR Summary This type of quote is known as a “glittering generality”. The clearly implied assertion is that more people go to jail than to college but this is false. The quote makes for good propaganda but it is a lie. Comparing “instant in time” measures, there were 20.6M in college in the fall of 2012 to about 2.4 million in prison or jail or detention. 41% of those aged 18-24 are in college! Poster source: Occupy Democrats Even though the quote is…

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Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Facebook Nation president Mark Zuckerberg to request that Facebook Nation censor certain kinds of speech on social media: Speaking to the European leader at a luncheon, Zuckerberg was heard saying ‘we need to do some work’ in reference to the German push against racist and xenophobic posts on the Internet. ‘Are you working on this?’ Merkel, who has seen an increase in violence against immigrants in her country during a massive intake of Syrian…

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