TL;DR Summary: You can defend yourself against the propaganda onslaught but to do so is hard work. We tend to let others tell us what to believe, and we believe them! We are at our most susceptible when we are busy and tired – say in the evening while reading Facebook. That makes it easy to become a target of propaganda, and worse, we mindlessly share what we were just told to believe, with all our friends! “The media has…
TL;DR Summary: You can defend yourself against the propaganda onslaught but to do so is hard work. We tend to let others tell us what to believe, and we believe them! We are at our most susceptible when we are busy and tired – say in the evening while reading Facebook. That makes it easy to become a target of propaganda, and worse, we mindlessly share what we were just told to believe, with all our friends! “The media has…
TL;DR Summary: By sharing social media propaganda posts we become a cog in the chain of propagandists trying to tell our friends how to think. …“essentially, propaganda is really no more than the communication of ideas designed to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way.” That means that, when engaging in social media, promoting ideas from politicians, intellectuals, friends, musicians or corporations through likes, shares, retweets and more, we are promoting that information and attempting to influence…
TL;DR Summary: By sharing social media propaganda posts we become a cog in the chain of propagandists trying to tell our friends how to think. …“essentially, propaganda is really no more than the communication of ideas designed to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way.” That means that, when engaging in social media, promoting ideas from politicians, intellectuals, friends, musicians or corporations through likes, shares, retweets and more, we are promoting that information and attempting to influence…
TL;DR Summary: TV news, especially, but print news too, relies on a concept of “emotional jolts per minute” to engage their viewer or reader. An emotionally jolted viewer or reader is more likely to retain the story in their head. An emotionally jolted person is more susceptible to advertising messages, which is good for the business. The Washington Post ended their Internet meme fact checking column because they discovered that no one cares if the meme is false; as long…
TL;DR Summary: TV news, especially, but print news too, relies on a concept of “emotional jolts per minute” to engage their viewer or reader. An emotionally jolted viewer or reader is more likely to retain the story in their head. An emotionally jolted person is more susceptible to advertising messages, which is good for the business. The Washington Post ended their Internet meme fact checking column because they discovered that no one cares if the meme is false; as long…
TL;DR Summary: Example of a simple to understand poster that is out of date and misleading but lives on forever on the Internet! The post is from 2014 but was still being shared in 2015 and 2016. The $15 a month figure is the minimum payment if you are making too much money to qualify for more assistance. State governors largely reversed the changes. The issue has nothing to do with taxing the wealthy and the U.S. still has a future…
TL;DR Summary: Example of a simple to understand poster that is out of date and misleading but lives on forever on the Internet! The post is from 2014 but was still being shared in 2015 and 2016. The $15 a month figure is the minimum payment if you are making too much money to qualify for more assistance. State governors largely reversed the changes. The issue has nothing to do with taxing the wealthy and the U.S. still has a future…
TL;DR Summary: The numbers are wrong, but numbers give propaganda an aura of authenticity! This poster, like so many, is out of date, but lives on years later. The issue the poster attacks is moot – a law to address the issue was passed in 2012! This poster was shared into my newsfeed on Facebook.
TL;DR Summary: Kafkatrapping[1] is an argumentative form used frequently in propaganda messaging to convince you of someone’s agenda. If you have seen the movie, Monty Python’s The Holy Grail, you may remember that “only a witch would deny she is a witch”. That’s kafkatrapping! A denial is confirmation! There is no possible defense to the accusation. The argument is framed in a way that to deny the argument is admit that you are guilty!