Subliminable Propaganda--the power of the rebutted, loony stories in the MSM

[rudy23]

The right wing noise machine knows their audience--Americans who are too busy, too self-involved, too incurious to follow the news. They know they're paying a little attention, but not enough to remember the details, or to catch any logistic or semantic sleight of hand.

So it doesn't matter how absurd these stories are, where they're coming from, or how quickly they're rebuked.

For instance, the right-wing noise machine's attack on Obama. Six months from now, no one's going to remember how ridiculous the attacks were. Simply, every time they hear Obama, they'll think of the words they've been trained to associate with him "Osama", "Madrassa", "pro-slavery", "Hussein"

Six months from now they're not going to remember who rebuked the Nancy Pelosi plane story, or what facts were used to counter it. They're just going to remember "Pelosi--big plane, thinks she's a queen, San Fransisco values"

Just like the association between 9/11 and Iraq, just like the association between Katrina victims and "scum".

These people are not talking in English. They are sowing subconcious seeds with their words. They are training the public in word association. We need to stop countering them on the concious level, and thinking we can win these battles with logic and reason.

They are in the business of making impressions, not of making airtight cases based on logic. When we poke holes in their logic, we win a hollow victory. The damage is done, in the American subconcious.

[lectrobyte]

1. Yes, I believe an earlier generation called it the "big lie" -- repeat it enough

and eventually folks believe it. Not exactly your point, but close, I think, in that modern propaganda has to be more subtle in this media age we live in now.

[redqueen]

2. That reminded me of a zappa lyric...

When the lie’s so big
And the fog gets so thick
And the facts disappear
The republican trick
Can be played out again
People, please tell me when
We’ll be rid of these men!

[90-percent]

6. zappa

James Baker gave Zappa prostate cancer to silence the creator of such lyrics. Zappa made a signifigant effort in to RUNNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY in the early 90's, but then he got sick.

-85% Jimmy

[ljm2002]

3. Excellent analysis...

...and so very true.

Unfortunately, we do not have the use of the media in the same way -- we are forced to react to these subliminable seeds, as it were, yet cannot activate our own seeds -- at least not as easily as the rabid right can. Of course, it helps them that they have no scruples and are willing to outright lie in order to further their agenda.

It's kind of like asymmetric warfare in the propaganda arena. I hate to even use the term propaganda, especially when discussing what the liberal/progressive voices might do about this. But we have to deal with reality sometimes, and this is a propaganda war, which succeeds because of the forces you mentioned: most people do not have the time or interest to dig into these stories, they simply are left with an impression.

However, there are some rays of hope. It would seem that the blogosphere has been helpful -- we might look at it as our own insurgency against the seemingly more powerful tanks and bombs employed by the mainstream (read: corporatist) media. While we cannot carpet bomb the American psyche the way they can, we can detonate truth bombs that demolish their most egregious lies. And this insurgency has gained more support in the population, which has started to realize they are being lied to. The American public can be very thick headed at times, but historically they get pretty riled up when they realize they've been lied to. We can but hope... but the 2006 elections seem to vindicate that view.

Okay, so maybe "insurgency" is a loaded term in this discussion. But I really do think that we have to think outside the box on this stuff. We need to look at subconscious messages, we need to learn from our foes, we need to understand about framing; and we also have to understand that we cannot as successfully employ the tactics of the rabid right, because we do not have the same means at our disposal. BUT, what we do have is truth, and we have shown our ability to make use of the online tools at our disposal, much more successfully than the right has. It's the same old equation: they have moneyed elites controlling the levers of power, not to mention the power of the press; we have much more popular support, and sheer numbers. So we have to press that advantage, and the Internet is an excellent tool to help us do that.

[rudy23]

8. We need to start acknowledging the War on our Subconcious--playing "Gotcha" with the facts isn't

gonna cut it.

We're acting as if politics is for people like us, who want to hear the whole story, and investigate the truth.

Politics is more like the cola wars. It's based on subconcious impressions and branding. Until we fight on this level, at least enough to detonate the propaganda (like Stewart and Colbert), we will continue to lose for the wrong reasons, and lose our faith in the system.

We can sit here all day and prove the right wing noise machine wrong with our scholarly ability, and the precision of a lawyer, but that's not the right war to fight.

Airtight arguments will just get you written off as a "know it all",l as shown by the response below, and in my experience as well.

[mrcheerful]

4. I live in a house with border line republicans, they support some of the puke propaganda

such as welfare and flame democratics for the miserable economy. I get called Mr. Knowitall because I research facts that the news station they watch distorts. Last night they came up with a Lou Lou when the news caster mentioned how much gasoline and oil products NASCAR wasted going around in circles. Everyone jumped me when I said the guy had a point. One even went so far as to say NASCAR race cars used diesel fuel. I pointed out that was wrong, diesel doesn't do well on making things go fast and that it still used crude oil to make diesel fuel. Needless to say I was called Mr. Knowitall and they were getting fed up with me knowing everything. So I pulled up some sites to prove my point and they shut up. It really is a pet peeve when people talk about shit they only hear and never research facts to find out truth. 1/2 an hour later they started bitching about how Granholm of michigan was doing very little except raising taxes in michigan and how that was costing jobs here. I pointed out once again we had 13 years of republican tax cuts to businesses and the businesses still left. All the current governer can do is try to make up the tax loss or everyone will suffer from lack of state services and aid. They hate me, lol.

[rudy23]

5. We who research stories on our own for accuracy make up a small minority of the voting public

The other day, my Repuke co-workers let me know they had never heard of Valerie Plame, or Scooter Libby. These are people with Masters degrees, and although they're not too bright, that's really scary.

Even many of my smart Dem friends know nothing about the Libby trial. They do know that the first thing they should think of when they see Jack Murtha is "cut and run" though.

Yeah, giving away the MSM to the Republicans was a bad move.

[StatGirl]

15. As Ronald Reagan said . . .

"Facts are stupid things." Obviously his internal censors were deteriorating at that point, and the truth tumbled out. But it does seem to be their mantra.

[LibertyorDeath]

7. You got it....The Medium Is The Message

Rec!

[OxQQme]

9. So, then, DU is home to the

birth of the local 'Insurgent Party'.
As stated by me elsewhere, I've recently gone to my local family owned hardware store
and bought a pitch fork and down to the local indoor grow store and got some hemp oil
to burn in my torch.
I'm in.
Bring it.

[LibertyorDeath]

10. Some for me too...Thanks

"a pitch fork and some hemp oil."

[rudy23]

11. Yes, this is why they will exhaust every resource they have to shut us up! nt

[In Truth We Trust]

12. K&R for truth.

[GeorgeGist]

13. There appears to be a cure ...

for human stupidity on the horizon. I call it evolution.

[Doondoo]

14. k&r

[rudy23]

16. "Perception management"

To steal a related blurb I saw from the Robert Parry thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x190957

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles

... the Reagan people were using this phrase, "perception management." They understood that if you could manage the perceptions of the American people through the information they got, making sure it was only your side of the story and that the facts from the ground were filtered out, then they could control the American population. They did not want to see Vietnam again. If they had to do foreign policy interventions, they didn't want the American people to become an obstacle to them. -- Investigative Journalist, Robert Parry