I ran across this little jewel whilst researching some of the methods that are used to sway John Q. Citizen into going one direction or the other in a political atmosphere or rather, methods of propaganda in politics. The film was published in 1948 and was shown to high school students who were probably studying government or civics but as one of the comments indicates, the video not only highlights methods of propaganda but is actually an introductory course in Critical Thinking. Of note is that it’s only about 7+ minutes long or in my way of thinking, it takes up about the same amount of time to view as it takes to perk up a 12 cup pot of coffee.
Fine. This simple information holds true even now. But his suggested solution is to "find out the facts." Where it differs now? Groups being financed by dark money pushing "alternative facts." One is told to never trust investigative newspaper reporters, or books, or the media, and they even rewrite history. Yet people will believe what anyone makes up on a YouTube video now. So how do you discover the facts?
I pretty much look at who is publishing the information as to the past history and what agendas, if any, has the source been involved in. Secondly, fact finding is fairly easy provided that one is aware that not all facts are complete facts. For that, one has to consult multiple sources, even opposing sources in order to fill in the necessary blanks to get the whole picture. Third, as in the caveat of buyer beware, if the information has even a tinge of being too good to be true or leaves something to be doubted, it needs to be researched more heavily. As is stated on numerous occasions on the series called “House”, one has to assume that everyone lies so the best course of action is to find the information that seems the most credible. That procedure doesn’t always work 100% of the time but if one can bypass whatever bias’s one has already developed, the human brain is quite capable of sorting out the truth from the false if given enough information to connect the necessary dots.
Who is it that has the advantage, major media od course. Like the "Good Night ,Good Luck " Murrow toon. Everybody loved him and his propaganda. Yes he said good luck because he knew we were going to need all the luck we could muster if we listened to him. I had a fun heated debate about his and Joe Macarthy communist arguments. Although we both ended up with the same opinion still. This ended up being one of the worst political persecutions of our time, like Trump is going through now.
Good evening to all- It's really quite simple. Propaganda is what someone on the "other side" says. Solid information is what someone you support says. That's why it is important to support people who see things for what they are- not what they want things to be. you all be safe and keep well- Ed
We are a nation of hero worship. Just look at what most American men will fight over, athletes in stadiums. Yet they will not stand up to enemies in their streets selling drugs, molesting children and looting their resources. foreigners invading their nation. Nothing new under the sun, Take Rome for example. All nations are the same once we get comfortable with our 'Bread and Circuses' we forget how we got here. Just human nature.