The Value Of Propaganda
February 12, 2009 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Communism, Congress, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Media Bias, News, President, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Welfare | 3 Comments
-By Dan Scott
President Obama went on the road this week to sell his supposed economic rescue bill and naturally talked up the need for the bill. What was fascinating were the Orwellian like claims he used and the stark terms of catastrophe if we don’t do as he demands. He made demonstrably false claims like there is no pork in this bill and he did so with a straight face. It seems pork is not pork if Obama says it’s not. His entire case rested on the premise, “we must do something, doing nothing is not an option.” The premise is also false since the CBO scored the bill as totally ineffective in the long run and in fact harmful to the economy as it would reduce, not increase economic output over the years of it’s implementation. President Obama would have you believe there aren’t any alternatives to the one that is on the table, a demonstrable falsehood. The GOP alternative is half the price with twice the results and even Obama’s own economic advisor admits to it.
Setting aside the reasons for President Obama’s false statements, whether that be of sheer incompetence and ignorance of economics or his willingness to say anything to sell something to which he stakes his name (ego) or if he has a hidden agenda of malice, it is the tactics in which he and his associates uses that should be at issue. Making demonstrably false claims by public officials is a violation of the public trust no matter how well intentioned (political direction) and rationalized (fear) they may be. The MSM is also complicit in supporting this never-ending stream of misstatements. Lying, misrepresenting or deceiving is not an act of Transparency.
What we are seeing being waged is a disinformation campaign using serial one liner falsehoods. It only takes 10 words or so to make a false statement, it takes more than a hundred words to expose the falsehood. Due to time constraints of TV broadcasts, by the time you finish exposing the first falsehood, your opponent has already spewed 10 more falsehoods leaving you no time to make your own point. This is what I call the Joe Biden propaganda method. Remember the VP debate? Joe Biden literally uttered one misstatement after another to the point Sarah Palin had to acknowledge there was no way to counter each and every point with the time allotted. Now who wants to listen or read through a seemly never-ending cascade of explanations? The public is ADD, they will never fully hear the exposing of each and every falsehood because after 10 minutes or so their eyes glaze over. In the liberal worldview, if you don’t refute an (false) assertion it becomes the accepted truth by repetition. Liberals like Obama will continue to assert a false statement until he sees the position is no longer tenable. This is why reacting to a series of lies is futile, you must proactively set out in a conscious manner to brand the perpetrator as a liar instead of responding to each and every lie, by discrediting the perp you inoculate the audience against their lies.
With this understanding listen to the debate between Steele (RNC chair) and Kaine (DNC chair) you will see what I mean. As I listened to a number of news broadcasts I was struck by the similar methodology (serial one liners) used by those who promoting the so called economic stimulus package whether that be Kaine of the DNC or the rest of the MSM pundits.
Disinformation by spewing one-liners has the effect of derailing discussion. Where there is no discussion implies the debate is settled and there is no difference of opinion, just one accepted opinion and therefore one solution. (Sound familiar to the AGW claims?) Disinformation is also about sewing doubt. When false statements are not adequately exposed due to time or attention constraints they have the effect of dividing the sheep and keeping them from coming to a conclusion that is contrary to the Party line. It’s called waging a disinformation war by word attrition. If one spews enough disinformation, as one lie builds upon another people become lost as in a maze. When someone is lost they ask for direction, which brings us to the real purpose of disinformation. Those with the loudest most authoritative voice will attract the most people and people having a herd instinct will follow the crowd. If you act and talk like you know what you are doing people will follow like sheep. Disinformation is about manipulation and it is a dysfunctional form of leadership.
As a rule, those who use disinformation to run a country are not benefactors of the public good but are dictators with malevolent selfish interests. You can fool all of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time. A dictator must continuously engage in disinformation in order to retain power. Transparency is the hallmark of a Democracy as it allows members of society to collectively arrive at the most appropriate solution and policy by seeing all the facts. Dictatorship by one person or an elite group (as in the case of Democrats) is all about controlling the masses and disenfranchising them in regards to the decisions which affect the whole. Lying, misstatements, and deception characterized by using Orwellian claims that cumulatively add up to a propaganda program are the antithesis of Democracy. The only way to break a propaganda program is to confront the perpetrators as liars. As each lie is exposed, the public must be reminded that if they were lying about one thing, what else are they lying about? Those who are known to be serial liars ceased being believed.
The point of lying is to manipulate other people’s opinion or thought process, otherwise why do it? The success of a manipulator is totally dependent upon their credibility with the public, destroy the credibility and you defeat the manipulator. The question is, does the GOP have the backbone to call Obama, Pelosi and Reid a liar? Can the GOP leadership set aside their political self-preservation instincts for the good of the country to confront the lies and expose it to the public without succumbing to the fear they will be marginalized if they fail in their efforts? Let me put this in another way for the GOP leadership. If you don’t proactively confront Obama, Pelosi and Reid now, how do you expect to successfully oppose them reactively for the next two years? The best defense is a good offense.
———-
Dan Scott calls himself a “Member of the Global Capitalist Cabal preaching Capitalism and personal responsibility as the economic solution to world poverty.” He is also a member of the 14th Amendment Society — victimhood is a liberal code word for denying the civil rights of others. He is also a proud member of the Global Warming Denier Cabal, insisting that facts not agendas determine the truth.
Dan can be seen on the web at http://www.geocities.com/fightbigotry2002/ as well as http://www.geocities.com/dscott8186/saidwebpage.htm, And can be reached for comments at dscott8186@yahoo.com.
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please register to do so. I hate to do that but there are so many spam-bots out there that deleting spam comments would be a full time job if I were to just open it up for anyone without asking them to jump through a few hoops first.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. Anyone can register. No registrant's information is kept, used, or sold. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Social Networking
Help the Soldiers!
American Genius
Our Founding Ideas- The Declaration of Independence
- The Federalist Papers
- The U.S. Constitution
- Debates of 1787
- The Anti-Federalist Papers
- The Writing of John Locke
"Governments are instituted among men,deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Recently Written
Featured Sites
What THEY Say:
Foreign News In English
Illini Alliance
Blogroll
of Thinking
Political Parties
Contact Us
Email Publius' ForumArchives
Links
Other Blogs
MilBlogs
Religion
Gun Rights
Education
Separation of School
from State
Radio Hosts
| Blog: |
| Publius' Forum |
Topics: |
| Politics, News, Commentary |
