How to be a Succesful Propagandist
Glenn Greenwald lays out the saga of the right wing and Plamegate.
I think this is a great example of how propaganda works. The smart propagandist knows that you don’t need to convince the people that a lie is the truth. You only need to sew enough doubt that people stop believing the actual truth. If you ask many people that came of age in china after Tienemen square what they think happened, even those who have lived overseas and heard the actual story of what happened tend to view it as a wash: people say many things, who knows what is true. When people doubt reality happened it might as well not have.
Evolution opponents exploit this, even though they don’t realize they aren’t telling the truth. They throw long lists of untrue or discredited criticisms of evolution. To refute them is long and tedious so evolution goes from reality to “disputed”.
May 30th, 2007 21:46
Yes, propaganda works on people who lack a drive to question, on people who are uncomfortable with uncertainty and lack the capabilities to ask questions about supporting reasons and evidence. If people are not taught how to interrogate the world, then they tend to accept whatever authorities tell them, whether by deified Chinese government officials, or Christians who think they have a personal connection with God, or FoxNews talking heads who invoke the name of a defied president.