HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE PROPAGANDA?
How do propagandists know when their “narratives” are working?
ANSWER: When the public believes and acts on their lie.
The opposite of propaganda is honest, collaborative problem-solving.
Americans for Innovation
Here some basic propaganda-pornography strategies:
- FEAR PORN: Elicit a fear response—You’ll kill me if you don’t get the COVID shot!
- EMPATHY PORN: Elicit empathy with tear-jerker anecdotes—The hungry children! The starving puppy!
- DISEMPOWERMENT PORN: Elicit helplessness, beyond the target’s control—WWIII is inevitable! The next pandemic will kill us all (proclaimed by a crystal ball)!
- PREJUDICE PORN: Usually unproven accusations of prejudice—racist, xenophobe, homophobe, sexist, transphobe, misogynist ….
- ISOLATION PORN: Isolate the target from his/her family, neighbors and colleagues—wear your mask!
- AD HOMINEM PORN: Ridicules individuals and does not focus on solutions—She is uneducated for disbelieving Fauci!
- VOLUME PORN: “Narrative (lie)” distributed widely, all at once—overnight explosion of fake stories with gossipy details from the mainstream distributors like Reuters, Associated Press, Daily Mail, New York Times, Washington Post….
- SCIENCE PORN: Appeals to “the science” without specifics—“the science is settled”
- DEBUNKED PORN: Attacks criticism as “debunked” without facts—”that has been debunked”
- TECH PORN: Flickers, colors, and motions more effective than drugs
- AUTHORITY PORN: Cites cloudy “authorities” that must not be questioned
- HISTORY PORN: Repeats censored history to “debunk” truths—lies about British spy Alexander Hamilton and his opening of America’s first banks to the British monarchy
- REPETITION PORN: Repeat messages ad nauseum—Jussie Smollett
- FOLLOW-THE-HERD PORN: “Everybody does it”
- CELEBRITY PORN: Celebrity endorsements
- GOOGLE PORN: Search verified—First search result believed as true