It can be difficult to tell if you’re being influenced by propaganda because it’s often subtle and designed to appeal to your emotions or existing beliefs.
Here’s why:
- Crafted to fit in: Propaganda can be disguised as news, entertainment, or even social media posts from friends or acquaintances.
- Appeals to emotions: It might use fear, anger, or patriotism to cloud your judgment and make you more receptive to the message.
- Confirms existing beliefs: Propaganda often reinforces what you already believe, making it feel familiar and true.
Here are some things to look out for that can help you identify propaganda:
- Highly emotional language: Words that trigger strong emotions like fear, anger, or outrage can be a red flag.
- Us vs. them mentality: Propaganda often divides the world into “good guys” and “bad guys,” making compromise seem impossible.
- Omission of facts: If information seems incomplete or certain viewpoints are never mentioned, be cautious.
- Repetition: Constant repetition of a message can make it seem more believable, even if it’s false.
By being aware of propaganda techniques and developing critical thinking skills, you can become more resistant to its influence.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Well…it takes two to dance socially. A large percentage of people will identify their self-interest with whatever propaganda strikes their chord. That’s why the appeal is so effective. Mr. Quinn: since you are a retired aging person, any perceived threat to reducing benefits from Social Security or Medicare makes you angry and you lash out accordingly. It’s understandable; but being the reasonable and rational person you are (?), you know the current benefits are not sustainable for the future. “But don’t you dare touch my benefits now!!!”
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I lash out not at the reality of reducing benefits, but at the misleading rhetoric about it and how it scares people, that and the inaction by one Congress after another when the problems could have gradually and easily been avoided. Playing politics with peoples lives is inexcusable.
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Mr Quinn, I wish you would say – just once – that propaganda comes from both sides of the political aisle.
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Well, politicians being politicians certainly does, but right now pure propaganda repeated daily using key trigger words, targeting scapegoats, etc. is pretty much one sided and masterfully being done and effective. If you want to see what I mean, read TruthSocial for a few days and then compare for yourself.
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“one-sided”? Perhaps you should watch MSNBC, CNN, Meet the Press. Then say one-sided.
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If you live in a left wing bubble, so easy to do, then that’s the slant you will receive and communicate with. Having dinner with lefties Sunday who only watch the news on CNN–MSNBC and read left wing publications. You just have to laugh or you will go crazy. “What’s the issue with the border?” Well, to begin with ……
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would agree with Paul Oliver
in my opinion propaganda is the eyes of the beholder–usually a topic one disagrees with–would telling us the rich don’t pay their fair share be an example of propaganda? Would the constant denigration of MAGA Republicans be propaganda?
Would three years of denying the border was broken and if you think otherwise you are a racist / bigot? Was there an appeal to emotion by Old Yeller and his party? Were facts left out by these same folks? Did you miss Joyless Reid on MSNBC telling white folks how racist they were for even mentioning illegal immigration.
Maybe you missed 3-years of the Russian collusion hoax. Was that a good example of propaganda? Were any facts left out? Appeal to your emotion? Let me know what precincts the Russians infiltrated and dropped in Trump ballots. Of course Trump now returns the favor saying he didn’t lose in 2020–prove it says me.
What about how our democracy is at risk, which we hear constantly, unless Old Yeller is elected? Elections, just one example, have run smooth as silk since 2020–from local to national with some happening just this month. No appeal to fear and emotion??
Ever hear of attorney running in an election you tells folks she will get someone even though she does not know for what? Just elect me and I will find something!
Why not do as Paul suggests–give us examples of left wing propaganda?
Maybe go to the transcript for examples from the Three Stooges who were in NYC last night raising $. This from the folks who told us for years that there was too much $ in politics so we should have the government provide the dollars. Not now though as they have tons of dough.
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Mr Quinn is correct about the propaganda being one-sided. A good to assess the effect of propaganda might be to look at the average voter for Trump and Biden. I might disagree with some policy issues with the Biden voter, and say they need a stricter immigration policy, or the student loan forgiveness went too far. But the average Trump voter literally believes demonstrably false propaganda, such as the 2020 election was stolen, that there were no wars during Trump’s presidency, that climate change is a hoax, that Jan 6th perpetrators were not Trump supporters, and there is even a clear trend toward conspiracy theories like the anti-vaccine movements and harvesting adenochrome from young children. Yes, you may disagree with the opinion shows on CNN, MSNBC, etc, as do I, but that is opinion, not factual news reporting. The difference is that it bleeds over into factual news reporting on the right wing propaganda networks.
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So when lefties give their opinion of say illegal immigrants invading the country that is not a fact–but when conservatives state their opinion it is a fact. Now the smart folks on the left just have opinions but the dummies on the right are telling us facts.
Defunding the police was an opinion the left had but never moved into the “fact” column?–I bet in your eyes it never happened.
Yes, some people have opinions about vaccines–so what. Want to bet every child in your town has been vaccinated for school attendance reasons.
Denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election is no big deal–didn’t Hillary tell us Trump was an illegitimate president? What does that mean? Denying the result of the 2016 election?
Didn’t big ole Stacy Abrams tell us she was the legitimate governor of GA even though she lost by 54,000 votes in 2016? She’s a hero in the Democratic Party.
We should admit that there are loons on both sides of the isle. My folks have plenty but looking at the other side there are crazy ones there also. Check out Barbara Lee who in the recent CA Senate primary (to replace Feinstein) proposed a $50 minimum wage. What about the “Squad”?
You mention “propaganda networks”–I think discussions are diminished when one does not realize that both right and left (MSNBC) put forth what you might say is propaganda–I say it is opinion much like you find in the “op-ed” page of your newspaper.
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But once again you never say it unless someone call you out!
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most of the propaganda bubble these days are people voluntarily choosing to put themselves into a bubble and not hear any information they disagree with, calling it the evil Main Stream Media or biased government or biased science, though whatever source they choose almost never has the same safeguards like fact checking, retractions, and liability for libel. Sadly most people can’t understand the difference between op-ed reporting and the real articles, so maybe traditional media would be better served to drop the opinion pieces and commentary, even though it gets better readership or ratings than hard news.
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Using a variety of sources is important.
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Let us know when you start?
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