Anti-propaganda manual Flashcards
Actualisation
the best antidote against any manipulation is simple actualization. That means that apathy can be tackled with activity, control with freedom, cynicism with confidence and - last but not least - lies with openness.
Openness
The strategy of tackling lies with openness was brilliantly demonstrated by two American sociologists Alfred McClung Lee and Elizabeth Briant Lee just before the Second World War.
Name Calling
Bad label is used to make us reject and condemn the idea without examining the evidence.
According to Alfred and Elizabeth Lee bad names have played a tremendously powerful role in the history of the world and in our own individual development. They have ruined reputations, stirred men and women to outstanding accomplishments, sent others to prison cells, and made men mad enough to enter battle and slaughter their fellowmen. They have been and are applied to other people, groups, gangs, tribes, colleges, political parties, neighborhoods, states, sections of the country, nations, and races.
Example:
During Russian aggression in Ukraine derogatory slogans like “ukrop” and “khokhol” started to appear in Russian public environment. Russian state controlled media started calling new Ukrainian government “Kyiv hunta” even publicly on TV.
Glittering Generality
Associating something with a “virtue word”. It is used to make us accept and approve the thing without examining the evidence.
“The Fine Art of Propaganda” explains that usually we believe in, fight for, live by “virtue words” about which we have deep-set ideas. Such words are “civilization,” “Christianity,” “good,” “proper,” “right,” “democracy,” “patriotism,” “motherhood,” “fatherhood,” “science,” “medicine,” “health,” and “love.” For purposes in propaganda analysis, they could be called Glittering Generalities in order to focus attention upon this dangerous characteristic that they have: they mean different things to different people; they can be used in different ways. This is not a criticism of these words. Quite the contrary. It is a criticism of the uses to which propagandists put the cherished words end beliefs of unsuspecting people.
Example:
After occupation of Crimea it became frequent for politicians in Russia to use publicly an argument of “historic justice” to explain the motivation behind this aggressive campaign.
Transfer
This technique carries the authority, sanction, and prestige of something respected and revered over to something else in order to make the latter acceptable; or it carries authority, sanction, and disapproval to cause us to reject and disapprove something the propagandist would have us reject and disapprove.
In the application of the Transfer trick symbols are constantly used. American Institute for Propaganda Analysis warns:
“With the Cross, the propagandist lends the sanctity of the Christian religion to his program. The flag, standing for the nation and for patriotism, performs a similar service. Cartoonists make “Uncle Sam” portray an aged consensus of public opinion. These symbols stir emotions. At their very sight, with the speed of light, is aroused the whole complex of feelings we have with respect to church or nation.”
Propagandists seldom permit a Transfer to depend upon one symbol. Music, pageantry, uniforms, ritual, scenery-all are studied and utilized when appropriate.
Example:
This technique is especially evident in Kremlin’s initiative of “Saint George ribbon”, which represents the idea of belonging to one “Russian world”. The pro-Putin fighters in Donbas region wear such ribbons.
Testimonial
consists in having some respected or hated person say that a given idea or program or product or person is good or bad.
“The CNN showed … ,” “The President said …,” “My doctor said … ,” or “Our minister said … .” Alfred and Elizabeth Lee draws our attention to the fact that some of these Testimonials may merely give greater emphasis to a legitimate and accurate idea, a fair use of the device others, however, may represent the sugar-coating of a distortion, a falsehood, a misunderstood notion, an anti- social suggestion. The rest of such sentences may, of course, have given the impression that “So-and-so, a bad man, advocates such-and-such an idea, and therefore the idea is bad,” or that “So-and-so, a good man, advocates such- and-such an idea, and therefore the idea is good.”
Example:
In the context of Putin’s campaign in Crimea sources and authors that “prove” historical rights of Russia to Crimea started to emerge.
Plain Folks
This is the method by which a speaker attempts to convince his audience that he and his ideas are good because they are “of the people,” the “plain folks.”
Politicians, public leaders too often win our confidence by appearing to be people like ourselves - “just plain folks among the neighbors” - warns “The Fine Art of Propaganda”. They show their devotion to little children and the common, homey things of life. They have front porch campaigns. For the benefit of newspapermen, they raid the kitchen cupboard and find there some of the good wife’s apple pie. In short, these men would win our votes or other support by showing that they’re just as common as the rest of us - “salt of the earth” - and, therefore, wise and good.
Example:
This technique is mastered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his team of spin doctors: he likes to do photoshoots not just with dogs, but with dangerous wild animals. This proves his masculinity in the public eyes.
Card Stacking.
This involves the selection and use of facts or falsehoods, illustrations or distractions, and logical or illogical statements in order to give the best or the worst possible case for an idea, program, person, or product.
Example:
Good example is the way all different groups from Ukrainian Euromaidan are represented in Russian state media as “extremists” and even “neo-Nazis”.
Band Wagon
“Everybody-at least all of us-is doing it”. With it, the propagandist attempts to convince us that all members of a group to which we belong are accepting his program and that we must therefore follow our crowd and “jump on the band wagon.”
The Band Wagon according to Alfred and Elizabeth Lee is a means for making us follow the crowd and accept a propagandist’s program as a whole and without examining the evidence for and against it. His theme is: “Everybody’s doing it. Why not you?” He appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to “follow the crowd.” Because he wants us to follow the crowd in masses, he directs his appeal to groups held together already by common ties, ties of nationality, religion, race, sex, vocation.
Example:
This technique was especially important for Soviet communist propaganda, which was oriented towards masses and crowds. The fear of being marginalized by the crowd because of your personal opinion made individuals stick to the official ideological agendas and narratives.
