All right, all right, settle down guys. I can't waste all day turning you jokers into powerful right-wing propaganda operatives. To review the point of yesterday's lesson: people talk about what a genius I am, but actually I just rely on classic techniques that have been around for centuries. Has everyone finished yesterday's assignment, to bring in an ad or soundbyte from the McCain-Palin campaign; that corresponds to a type of propaganda off the list of commonly used techniques? What? How did you lose the list, DRILLZ4PALIN? It's online, at wikipedia's page on propaganda.
Let's get started. We'll see how far we can get today and then resume next time.
Now, the first category on the list is the Ad hominem attack. We like to use this when the opponents arguments are convincing, but there's something vulnerable about the opponent themselves. Who brought something in? Okay, KissMyMagnum, what have you got?
Ah yes, the Celebrity ad. Has little to do with Obama's real policies or positions, but compares him to Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton. Very effective. What's that McCain4Evah22? Maybe we shouldn't be dissing celebrities with Palin on board? Sit back and learn, my son, sit back and learn.
Next on the list is Ad nauseam, in which we repeat something often enough that it begins to be seen as the truth. Anyone? No, you've missed the point, IheartLobbyists. McCain did repeat during the first debate that he was not Miss Congeniality, but that's not propaganda, that's just stating the obvious. Excuse me, FREEmArKEtsROOL? That's true, they have been trying to drill it into our little brains, without end in sight, that they are mavericks. When you go out campaigning, remember, every other sentence should contain a carefully-chosen nickname for the candidate, and if you say it enough times, people might actually start calling them that.
Okay, the next one is appeal to authority - the concept is pretty much in the name. Very good, MOVEONfromMoveOn - McCain and Palin do often bring General Petraeus into the picture. It's easy to say what he thinks and just quote the parts we like, because he's never actually on stage to speak for himself! See how that works? Now, if you can, try to bring in a military man or a Nobel laureate - those are the best. Remember, you just need one to say your economic plan is "backed by Nobel prize winners" - no need to mention that more of them support your opponents plan.
Now listen up, because the next one is a very important concept, appeal to fear. This is probably the best one we've got - Remember, Americans live by the motto "Better safe than sorry" - not "Better sorry than bored" or "Better sorry than stupid" or even "Better sorry than unjust". So if you're going to describe your opponent's plan for foreign policy, what word should you use? No, FOLKSandSMOKES, "impractical" won't cut it. Are you kidding me, dieDarwindie? You would call it "short-sighted?" God help me, what am I going to do with you people? Did you even see John McCain in the debate?
That's right NUKE-EM! The opponent's plan is dangerous (about 5:40). We can always get away with this because all foreign policy plans are dangerous to some extent - I mean, you can't rule out that there could be a war in the future, right?
Okay, on to appeal to prejudice. John McCain and Sarah Palin have been relying heavily on this one. Can you idiots name any prejudices in the electorate that we've been exploiting? Yes, DontMessWCheney, Obama is black, but I would have expected a three year old to be able to name that one. Clearly we're not going to let that go by unnoticed. What else? Come on, people, I'll give you a hint - it kind of sounds like "smiley medicated". That's right, STOOPIDS4SARAH, he's highly educated! and that makes a lot of people suspicious. Sorry, what, libRULZdrool? How do we get people to think he's both a shiftless lazy black man and an elite overschooled smarty pants at the same time? How do we get people to think he's a scary African who will rape our white women as well as thinking he's an effeminate pansy Democrat who will turn our country over to the terrorists? Easy! Write this down : the subconscious is illogical. If we do it right, people will see in the opponent whatever they distrust most.
The next tactic is bandwagon - don't all answer at once! (Haha, just a little propaganda humor). But seriously, kids, this technique is very powerful even though it is based on the logical fallacy (for you elite types, the argumentum ad populum) that if many people believe something, it must be so. The best way to use this technique is to bully congressmen, because they care about getting reelected. Anyone have an example? Excellent, ManMadeMyAss! Offshore drilling is not going to help the situation, as we all know, for many years and even then not much - but it's such a popular position that you can now insult someone by saying they're against it.
Allright, who has an example of the Black and White Fallacy? Good grief, DEMSWILLMUGYOU, you're not supposed to take it literally. We're not talking about the color of the candidates skin here - is everything about race with you? We're talking about suggesting that if you're not for something 100%, you're 100% against it. We saw a lot of this used to great effect after 9/11 - if you weren't for dropping some bombs on defenseless civilians, you wanted the terrorists to blow up more American buildings. Gotit? So who has seen some examples in the campaign?
Wow, look at all those hands. Very nice. We'll start with you, IcuddleCoulter. Either you want to be in Iraq for as long as McCain says, or you're raising the white flag of surrender? That's pretty good, and I'll tell you, that one works wonders for us. No one wants to be seen as raising the white flag, and most people don't understand that that notion doesn't even make sense in the context of this war. Let's keep it that way. Who else? Yes, outstanding, protectWHITES, to bring up the drilling issue again, we have framed the conservation as "you're either for offshore drilling, or you're for dependence on foreign oil and consequently on our cities being blown up." The left keep bringing up this cute idea of "alternate forms of energy" - when they start talking like that I just like to hum "Camptown Races".
The next one on the list is Beautiful people. It says on wikipedia that this technique "is more used in advertising for products, instead of political reasons" - but no one ever accused the Republicans of ignoring an advertising technique that might work, and this year we're lucky enough to be able to use this one too. Who am I talking about? Why, our lovely VPILF, of course! With Sarah Palin we can send the subtle message that, if you want to be hot and sexy, you'd better vote Republican. This technique is used so widely in successful product advertising (anybody seen a car commercial lately?) and we're making it work for us.
Okay, the Big Lie. Remember, the definition is the "repeated articulation of a complex of events that justify subsequent action". We used this one to death in preparing for the Iraq War - do any of you believe 9-11 was tied to Iraq? The fact that most of you are raising your hand is thanks to my "Big Lie". Examples from the present campaign? What, SurgeIfYouGotzTheBallz, you mean how we keep saying the "Surge principles will work in Afghanistan?" Very good. Now listen up, folks - this is key. In the vice-presidential debate Sarah Palin said McKiernan thought the surge would work in Afghanistan, countering Joe Biden. This was a straight up lie, but it was what the public wanted to believe, so it registered for them. Furthermore, 70 million people watched the debate - how many people do you think read the small print correction the next day? Exactly.
We'll end for the day on a technique we had no idea would be so successful, but has been working wonders for us. It's called Common Man and it revolves around using subtle cues to make the people think the candidate is one of them. We've taken it even farther this election and made it even less subtle than we have the last two with Bush. You don't know what I'm talking about, JOE6PAK? Did you watch the VP debate? Do you think we didn't choose Palin for a reason? That folksy talk is great, but the winking is genius, it's genius! We really know how to reach those dirt picking numbskulls.
Your assignment for tomorrow is to find examples from McCain-Palin footage/ads of the rest of the techniques on the list. Place them in the comments below and I'll compile them for the next lesson. As you're looking for examples, remember this quote from the wikipedia page : "What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the propagandist to change people's understanding through deception and confusion rather than persuasion and understanding." It's wrong. What sets propagandists apart is that we have balls. Contradict me if you dare.
Remaining uncovered techniques (descriptions on wikipedia's page on propaganda and all over the web)
Demonizing the enemy
Direct order
Euphoria
Disinformation
Flag-waving
Glittering generalities
Half-truth
Intentional vagueness
Obtain disapproval or Reductio ad Hitlerum
Oversimplification
Quotes out of Context
Name-calling
Rationalization
Red herring
Labeling
Scapegoating
Slogans
Stereotyping or Name Calling or Labeling
Testimonial (hint, this should be from a famous person!)
Transfer
Unstated assumption
Virtue words