The remarkable power of propaganda

The remarkable power of propaganda

I just scanned Twitter for items about the Affordable Care Act. I estimate 99% of the Tweets were lies, contained significant errors, left out key information, or significantly exaggerated points. This included linked news stories at mainstream news services such as the Los Angeles Times and NPR and others, which contained significant inaccuracies or left out crucial information and data that refuted the thrust of the article. How many read the ACA? Probably a number approaching zero. How many researched…

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Should you make political posts on Facebook? No, you should not.

Should you make political posts on Facebook? No, you should not.

This is a MUST READ item – see the link below. Should you share political posts? The first question you should ask before sharing anything to social media, political posts in particular, is “Why? “Why are you sharing this post? What do you hope to accomplish?” We sometimes think that our Facebook shares are so brilliant, insightful, and righteous that people of opposing opinions can’t help but be swayed and won over by our argument. Nothing could be further from…

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Montana is a Democratic Party state, not Republican, contrary to news reporting

Montana is a Democratic Party state, not Republican, contrary to news reporting

(Note – this post is about the media – not about the candidates or the political parties). Actual headlines: And so on. There are more headlines implying Montana is a Republican state. Except Montana has a long history of electing Democrats 3 to 1 over Republicans for Federal office: The assertions made by the headlines are false. The media has invented a fictional meme either to create controversy or heightened emotions or is trying to offer a crude explanation as…

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Solar eclipse will increase fire danger?

Solar eclipse will increase fire danger?

“Drought over, but eclipse event will raise fire danger” That is the odd headline of a KATU local TV news report about Oregon State. Authorities think more people will visit Oregon in the summer of 2017 because of a solar eclipse. Since humans cause wild fires, this will increase the wild fire risk. To strengthen the claim, the local news story emphasizes: “According to the National Park Service, 90 percent of wildfires in the United States are caused by humans,…

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Most car crashes caused by cellular phone usage?

Most car crashes caused by cellular phone usage?

I saw an item on a Facebook group where the general meme was that everyone knows cellular phone usage while driving is the cause of most vehicle crashes. The data, however, paints a remarkably different picture. Cellular phone usage, per the government’s own data, is a minor causative factor in vehicle crashes. There are many causative factors in car crashes: one category of causative factors is “distracted driving”. Cellular phone usage is a subset of “distracted driving”. The U.S.government’s National…

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More “Look at me!” propaganda memes

More “Look at me!” propaganda memes

I am not the only one noticing this peculiar form of propaganda, now prevalent on Instagram and Youtube social media: There is an undeniable aesthetic and demographic conformity in the vanlife world. Nearly all of the most popular accounts belong to young, attractive, white, heterosexual couples. “There’s the pretty van girl and the woodsy van guy,” Smith said. “That’s what people want to see.” …. King clicked on the account’s most successful post, which has more than eight thousand likes….

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Smart people more likely to consume fake news

Smart people more likely to consume fake news

“On the left if you’re consuming fake news you’re 34 times more likely than the general population to be a college graduate,” says Green. If you’re on the right, he says, you’re 18 times more likely than the general population to to be in the top 20 percent of income earners. And the study revealed another disturbing trend: the more you consume fake news, the more likely you are to vote. It’s “fascinating and frightening at the same time,” says…

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If you have lots of friends, social media can make you feel better

If you have lots of friends, social media can make you feel better

When individuals post photos of their wonderful lives on social media, we do not typically think of this as propaganda – but literally, these are propaganda messages that say “I have a cool life” and you should follow and Like my posts. A new paper comes up with the remarkable (not really) finding that if you have a lot of friends, social media can make you feel better about yourself. Buried at the end: if you do not have a…

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How bureaucrats use passive language to escape responsbility

How bureaucrats use passive language to escape responsbility

Long article (link below) explains how corporations and governments torture language to escape culpability. By carefully crafting the message, these organizations use propaganda to intentionally mislead the target audience – and they get away with it because it works and rarely does anyone call them out for their malfeasance and lies. What became clear to me in this exchange is that the passive voice is itself unsuited for the lexical landscape of United’s email, which itself is part of a…

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National public opinion surveys are propaganda messaging in disguise

National public opinion surveys are propaganda messaging in disguise

Long ago, a survey found that 75% of Americans believe violence on television leads to violence in society. The results of that survey were then used as evidence in a Congressional hearing. Left out is that this was in the 1960s, and the survey was made after several Congressional representatives made this assertion and began talking about their assertion as if it were fact. The media dutifully reprinted their words, creating a broad propaganda message that violence on TV was…

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