You may be a bit disoriented right now if you are watching politics, thinking “what the hell is going on?” Students of history may recognize the propaganda techniques used successfully by the old Soviet Union, Joseph Goebbels and Putin’s Russia being used on the American public right now. They work fairly reliably unless people are aware of them. Then they can easily be spotted. Sort of like when a magician reveals how a trick is done. Trump is using a mix of techniques.
As an example, right now he keeps repeating “no collusion” sometimes 5 times in a minute of speaking time. This is not him being inarticulate, it’s a propaganda technique. The nick names, the whataboutisms when talking about his opponents, false equivalency, repetitive lying. These aren’t character flaws so much as a strategy designed to manipulate our reality. Skewing our perceptions about what’s real and what’s not.
You don’t have to be smart to use the propaganda techniques effectively. It’s a learned skill. He learned it from a master, Roy Cohen who studied what they did in Nazi Germany to convince the people to go to war with the world and agree to be complicit in the subjugation of a segment of German society. He mentored Joseph McCarthy and Trump. You will see some similarities between how Trump vilifies certain segments of society (Muslims, immigrants) and McCarthty’s foil, the communists. In Nazi Germany it was the Jews. It’s meant to fracture society and turn people against each other.
Putin utilized them effectively to install himself as essentially a dictator in Russia in short order. They are being used on the American people right now. Russia aided Trumps election using social media as a delivery mechanism for these techniques. given that Trump beat out an impressive field of challengers and is president is evidence of their effectiveness.
Also, If you are not familiar with the term “gaslighting” you may want to read up on that. You’ll need it.