A Propaganda Exercise
Just When You Thought MSNBC Was News
As though any of you were concerned, this is not my usual Friday night post, it will be coming out tomorrow.
Many of you have had the misfortune of watching the MSNBC video on “white, rural rage” that I have here linked.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-white-voters-2024-election-rcna141156
It's one of the most remarkable instances of propaganda out there, and has received much approbation. The myopia, if that's what it is, is astounding. Maybe we can blame urban provincialism.
I therefore hatched the idea that those of you with the interest and the time might like to apply the knowledge of the five rules of propaganda to this diatribe. Listen to it (I know that's asking a lot) then go through the list one through five and examine each point for evidence of it's use. Any such thoughts going in the comments section are welcome, but I really think your analyses should be sent around the internet to any one interested, or maybe even those not.
The Five Rules of Propaganda
The rule of simplification - reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
The rule of disfiguration - discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
The rule of transfusion - manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
The rule of unanimity - presenting one's viewpoint as if it were unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure , and by 'psychological contagion'.
The rule of orchestration - endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.
I never thought MSNBC was news.
Rich boy draft dodger Trump and the scrappy middle class boy from Scantron.
Scrappy middle class boy biden was also a draft dodger. biden does try to portray himself as working class. the propagandists probably figured they couldn't sell that. Can't have a lie too far, might raise questions.
The political class are almost all draft dodgers or have never, as the saying goes, served.
So right from the start lies and convenient omissions.
Everything that the two smarmy arrogant authors and the talking head said were calculated lies and half truths. Right down the line point by point, a great example of the five rules of propaganda.