I think it's hilarious at how long "Republican" & "Conservative" types have caved in to the fear mongering, as a prelude to everlasting wars.
War on drugs.
War on terrorism.
War on immigration.
Etc...
And how "Liberals" often criticized that seemingly perpetual fear mongering.
And yet now those same "Liberals" are caving into similar fear…
I think it's hilarious at how long "Republican" & "Conservative" types have caved in to the fear mongering, as a prelude to everlasting wars.
War on drugs.
War on terrorism.
War on immigration.
Etc...
And how "Liberals" often criticized that seemingly perpetual fear mongering.
And yet now those same "Liberals" are caving into similar fear mongering tactics.
And now many "Conservatives" are criticizing them for behaving near exactly as they have.
Both are demonstrations of Groupthink at their finest.
Often, one of the best tactics of war is a multi-fronted offensive, i.e. attacks from multiple/all sides.
Surrounding your target.
I grew up during the "Cold War", a time when public schools regularly held Bomb Shelter drills, in preparation for the oft promulgated nuclear Armageddon.
The Doomsday Clock was often the news narrative du jour.
And yet there is now growing substantial evidence that the realistic chances of a nuclear war was quite low.
But it sure help prompt anxiety spending, as many households looked to stock their pantries, shelters, and other cubbies, with excess durables in anticipation of war & shortages.
The perpetual war economy of the U.S. is based on far more than just fighting foreign wars.
The funny thing about propaganda is that most everyone thinks they can recognize it, but most everyone still succumbs to it, regularly.
They're often all so busily distracted looking for the phallic symbols in the ice cubes (or similar such cliché ) that they're missing the more effective, albeit covert, methods.
There's an entire school of Marketing dedicated just to uses of colors in packaging to manipulate perceptions (dark colors on chocolates packaging to infer "richer", "finer" taste, and such).
And this holds true to the upper-echelons of society (Corporate Executives, Politicians, the Elite, Military Leaders, etc.).
Effective propaganda only works when it isn't recognized as such.
And those that seek to drive "instincts" of the herds, spend billions revising & improving their methods.
The "Father of Spin", Edward Bernays, whom often bragged about learning to use his Uncle Sigmund Freud's developments of psychoanalysis to manipulate human minds, described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct—and outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them.
"If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway. But men do not need to be actually gathered together in a public meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to the influences of mass psychology. Because man is by nature gregarious he feels himself to be member of a herd, even when he is alone in his room with the curtains drawn. His mind retains the patterns which have been stamped on it by the group influences."
-Edward Bernays-
But of course effective propaganda has been used for thousands of years.
The ancient Greco-Egyptian Inventor Heronis of Alexandria reportedly used (or was used to use) early pneumatics and other Engineering methods to deceive the masses into worship of gods, into loyalty to the government, into fear mongering.
Imagine if the rest of the world judged every single citizen of the U.S. as if they were all Ted Bundy's, or Timothy McVeigh's, or David Berkowitz's. or Jeffrey Dahmer's, or Wayne Eaton's, or Albert Fish's, or John Wayne Gacy's, or Ed Gein's, or Dennis Rader's, or Henry Lee Lucas's, or any one of the hundreds of American serial killers.
Imagine how absurd.
It would be as ridiculous as saying that every single person from the Southern U.S. is racist.
And/or that all Confederate Fighters were pro-slavery (when there were many, many other issues underlying the Civil War).
Most Afghani's are regular people whom are caught up in a terrible nightmare.
The Taliban are estimated at some 60,000 core strength.
The population of Afghanistan is over 32.8 million people.
There's a logical fallacy called "Hasty Generalization", i.e. the bad habit of judging all or most things solely on the basis of a relatively few, that is employed quite often in truly covert propaganda.
It seems to me that a lack of true, well-developed Critical Thinking skills is far more dangerous to the U.S. than some Afghanistan people.
I think it's hilarious at how long "Republican" & "Conservative" types have caved in to the fear mongering, as a prelude to everlasting wars.
War on drugs.
War on terrorism.
War on immigration.
Etc...
And how "Liberals" often criticized that seemingly perpetual fear mongering.
And yet now those same "Liberals" are caving into similar fear mongering tactics.
And now many "Conservatives" are criticizing them for behaving near exactly as they have.
Both are demonstrations of Groupthink at their finest.
Often, one of the best tactics of war is a multi-fronted offensive, i.e. attacks from multiple/all sides.
Surrounding your target.
I grew up during the "Cold War", a time when public schools regularly held Bomb Shelter drills, in preparation for the oft promulgated nuclear Armageddon.
The Doomsday Clock was often the news narrative du jour.
And yet there is now growing substantial evidence that the realistic chances of a nuclear war was quite low.
But it sure help prompt anxiety spending, as many households looked to stock their pantries, shelters, and other cubbies, with excess durables in anticipation of war & shortages.
The perpetual war economy of the U.S. is based on far more than just fighting foreign wars.
The funny thing about propaganda is that most everyone thinks they can recognize it, but most everyone still succumbs to it, regularly.
They're often all so busily distracted looking for the phallic symbols in the ice cubes (or similar such cliché ) that they're missing the more effective, albeit covert, methods.
There's an entire school of Marketing dedicated just to uses of colors in packaging to manipulate perceptions (dark colors on chocolates packaging to infer "richer", "finer" taste, and such).
And this holds true to the upper-echelons of society (Corporate Executives, Politicians, the Elite, Military Leaders, etc.).
Effective propaganda only works when it isn't recognized as such.
And those that seek to drive "instincts" of the herds, spend billions revising & improving their methods.
The "Father of Spin", Edward Bernays, whom often bragged about learning to use his Uncle Sigmund Freud's developments of psychoanalysis to manipulate human minds, described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct—and outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them.
"If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway. But men do not need to be actually gathered together in a public meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to the influences of mass psychology. Because man is by nature gregarious he feels himself to be member of a herd, even when he is alone in his room with the curtains drawn. His mind retains the patterns which have been stamped on it by the group influences."
-Edward Bernays-
But of course effective propaganda has been used for thousands of years.
The ancient Greco-Egyptian Inventor Heronis of Alexandria reportedly used (or was used to use) early pneumatics and other Engineering methods to deceive the masses into worship of gods, into loyalty to the government, into fear mongering.
Imagine if the rest of the world judged every single citizen of the U.S. as if they were all Ted Bundy's, or Timothy McVeigh's, or David Berkowitz's. or Jeffrey Dahmer's, or Wayne Eaton's, or Albert Fish's, or John Wayne Gacy's, or Ed Gein's, or Dennis Rader's, or Henry Lee Lucas's, or any one of the hundreds of American serial killers.
Imagine how absurd.
It would be as ridiculous as saying that every single person from the Southern U.S. is racist.
And/or that all Confederate Fighters were pro-slavery (when there were many, many other issues underlying the Civil War).
Most Afghani's are regular people whom are caught up in a terrible nightmare.
The Taliban are estimated at some 60,000 core strength.
The population of Afghanistan is over 32.8 million people.
There's a logical fallacy called "Hasty Generalization", i.e. the bad habit of judging all or most things solely on the basis of a relatively few, that is employed quite often in truly covert propaganda.
It seems to me that a lack of true, well-developed Critical Thinking skills is far more dangerous to the U.S. than some Afghanistan people.