U.S. cities fall behind in wealth measure! :)
TL;DR Summary Poster SourceSince the post asks, “What’s wrong with this picture?“, let’s take a look!
Effective propaganda posters that do not actually mean much
TL;DR Summary President Obama selected as the most admired man in the world, per Gallup Poll of U.S. residents. Analysis: True! And it is good that the US President is selected for this, in this poll. Almost every year since 1946, the current sitting President has been identified by this Gallup poll as the most admired man in the world. Doesn’t matter who is in office (except for Gerald Ford – it sucks to be Gerald Ford, apparently). This works…
“No, it wasn’t always on our money!”
TL;DR Summary The phrase “In God We Trust wasn’t always on our money” states the propaganda poster. This poster is both true and false, depending on how you define “money”. It has been on some coins since 1909, for example. The goal of the poster was to argue about separation of state and church (we think). It works due to (a) a true assertion, and (b) “What you see is all there is” and the viewer is not aware that…
False: Trump Administration deleted “Climate change”, “LGBTQ” from WhiteHouse.gov
TL;DR Summary The Daily Beast reported the Trump administration deleted references to “climate change”, “LGBTQ”, “health care” and “civil rights” and other topics from the whitehouse.gov web site. Fake news and “real” news web sites promoted the theory that these topics were deleted as part of an upcoming period of darkness under the Trump administration. My Twitter feed was absolutely filled with links to these stories. Reality: As part of the change in administrations, the U.S. National Archives archived the Obama record…
False: President Roosevelt on why the minimum wage must be a living wage
TL;DR Summary A true quote but taken out of context – the quote is referring to something completely different than a modern day “minimum wage”. As a propaganda message, this has been widely shared, which makes for successful propaganda, even though the message is untrue. Roosevelt did say this quote, but it was not about the minimum wage but about creating opportunities to become skilled, employable and have the ability to earn good wages. The speech was about the need…
Accurate quote, but the quote itself is false
TL;DR Summary Good, simple design, good eye contact, simple message, easily processed. Former President Bill Clinton really did say this in a speech in 2013. The Washington Post, however, says the claim is not true: Three Pinocchios. As a propaganda poster, this uses the “Appeal to Authority” method. The poster was shared on Facebook. I like the poster design – clean with a simple message. Bertrand Russell noted that facts are either true or false, and their truthfulness is independent…
How “public relations” uses propaganda
While much social media propaganda is created by amateurs, much is also created by professionals who have titles like “Public Relations Officer”, “Communications Director”, “Press liaison”, “Spokesperson” and what not. Here is an example of how the MPAA planned to organized a propaganda campaign against Google (because Google searches enabled people to find copyrighted material): “Media: We want to make sure that the media is at the NAAG meeting. We propose working with MPAA (Vans), Comcast, and NewsCorp (Bill Guidera)…
The Fairness Doctrine never applied to cable TV
TL;DR Summary A long time ago, there was a law known as the Fairness Doctrine that required over the air broadcast stations to give equal time to different perspectives, typically meaning left versus right on political topics. This rule applied only to over the air broadcasters and never applied to cable television “broadcasters” who do not use the over the air spectrum. This propaganda poster asserts that Fox News came about because Reagan vetoed a bill to re-instate the already…
Mrs Thompson and the boy named Teddy
TL;DR Summary Glurge: A touching tale about a troubled boy named Teddy Stoddard and the teacher who turned his life around. Source: Teddy Stoddard : snopes.com Of course, many great teachers have big influences on their students. As a work of fiction, this is a great story (click through the link to read it). Sharing it as a cute work of fiction is fine, but we have not seen it shared that way! But why share it as if it…
Part 6: Paying for Denmark’s Free Health Care
TL; DR Summary Part 1: Denmark is the world’s happiest nation because of the following reasons (Not true) Part 2: Denmark has a $20/hour minimum wage (No, it does not). Part 3: Denmark has a 33 hour work week (No, it does not) Part 4: Denmark has Free University ? Yes but read why – it’s not why you think) Part 5: Denmark has Free Childcare? No, it does not – this claim is a lie). Part 6: Denmark has…