1 in 7 Americans do not go to bed hungry every night
Every year, Feeding America puts out a fundraising campaigns making misleading, if not outright false, claims.
Obama not attending First Lady Funeral is not unprecedented; social media poster is similarly ridiculous
TL;DR Summary Conservative media said that President Obama not attending the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan is unprecedented or wrong; it is neither. Defenders of Obama published this propaganda poster on social media but cherry picked the data to draw you to their desired conclusion. Why is the death of Jacqueline Kennedy omitted?
Logic will get you from A to B" – Einstein
TL;DR Summary This poster comes through my FB feed frequently: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you Everywhere”-Albert Einstein. There is no evidence that Einstein ever said this. These “popular sayings” posters appear often, tend to contain fictional quotes or quotes out of context, or quotes attributed to the wrong person. From a propaganda perspective, they use appeal to authority or celebrity endorsement, but they often advocate nothing in particular. At best, they may be…
Online advertisers manipulate your brain using Behavioral targeting
The more that online advertisers learn about you, the more effective their targeted propaganda becomes in urging you to take action. A study finds that when consumers know they are being targeted they become even more receptive to the propaganda messaging!
The most spectacular example of social media propaganda – so far!
TL; DR Summary This poster is elegant in its design, use of “anchoring” and logical fallacy – but the poster is a work of fiction and an outright lie. Yet it successfully engaged System 1’s quick and intuitive thinking to lead viewers into a false conclusion, and whose viewers then quickly shared it with their friends, encouraging their friends to reach the same false conclusion. Read through to learn how false this poster is – yet why it worked as…
Transferring dislike for one on to another using a false quote
TL;DR Summary Poster suggests that Hillary Clinton is advocating the same policies as Adolf Hitler by pairing up alleged quotes from both. There is no evidence that Clinton said this. The quote comes from a book whose author admits he made up quotes. The goal is to transfer one’s dislike for Hitler to Clinton via logical fallacy.
1950s training film – Propaganda Techniques
Fake celebrity endorsement and appeal to authority – Dalai Lama did not say this
TL;DR Summary Interesting quote attributed to The Dalai Lama using an “appeal to his authority” propaganda method. But he never said this. The quote is actually from David Orr, the editor of a book on sustainability. Dr. Orr is a professor of environmental studies at Oberlin.
Context matters – poster from unions4workers deleted a key word to tell a lie
TL;DR Summary The poster conveys that James Madison believed in 1817 that business corporations are inherently evil regarding accumulation of property. The person who created this poster left out one word: “in perpetuity by [ecclesiastical] corporations” which completely changes the meaning. The quote is contained in a paragraph about the power of religious bodies, in a document that is entirely about “Ecclesiastical Bodies” (Churches). Unions4Workers is telling an outright lie.
The reality was bad enough, so why lie to make a propaganda poster?
TL;DR Summary This an odd one. This poster about former Republican Presidential candidate Scott Walker asserts 2 untrue facts and 1 true fact. This is odd because the truthful backstory is not so great, so why use lies to get the point across? Once caught, it makes the propagandist look rather bad.