I have never really felt at a loss for words the way I do right now. I sit contemplating the reactions to Trump’s attack on Venezuela, and I realize one disturbing truth. Either the conservative movement is so far gone, so easily distracted, so willing to accept anything this man does simply because they believe he isn’t a liberal; or everything is a controlled narrative, and mass support for this is only a perception. A perception created by clever propaganda campaigns, which reflect back to a confused and desperate audience a once popular belief that the administration is desperately clinging to, in the hopes of retaining any legitimacy. The belief that Trump is the greatest president ever, engaged in a brilliant game of four-dimensional chess in his efforts to save our country from the left. Some of the memes floating around on social media support this narrative by saying ridiculous things like — “And for my next trick, I will make the democrats support a deranged narco terrorist.” Memes like this have been used all throughout both of Trump’s presidencies to reinforce the idea that the left suffers from what they like to call — Trump Derangement Syndrome. The truth is that the conservative support for Trump becomes more unbreakable the more the left opposes what he is doing. Trump could kill a puppy on live TV, and his base wouldn’t know what to think about it until they see the left’s opposition, then they would make excuses for it. Just like they do with everything else. That is the true Trump Derangement Syndrome. Another example of the memes pushing this type of narrative compares Trump’s military action to Bush’s wars, suggesting that Trump is some type of strategic genius. This is ridiculous and shows — presuming it is accepted by the conservative base — just how detached we are from any ability to critically think. Therein lies the point, though. Throughout the pages of this website are numerous links, references and citations which show what is known about the human response to propaganda and persuasive messaging. The study of mass persuasion, which the book Propaganda and Persuasion compares to Psychological Warfare, has been undertaken by the fields of psychology, sociology, communications, rhetoric, philosophy and law. Yet, the majority of us have no clue as to how these techniques affect our perceptions, and our abilities to think freely — outside of the constructed box that traps our thoughts in a this or that paradigm. For example, we either support Trump’s actions and are on the right, or we oppose and are deranged leftists who support narco-terrorist dictators. The truth is that these messages are directed to audiences who are not expected to think at all, only follow along.
We are living at a time where illiteracy rates are high, and people’s opinions are formed and controlled by quick a minute headlines, memes, and stories that do little more than reinforce popular sentiment. There is a sad reality underlying all of it. We allowed this to happen to ourselves because we have become an entertainment addicted nation, fixated on quick satisfaction, shallow explanations that support our own beliefs, and easy answers which demand as a little of our own responsibility as possible. We are losing our country, our freedom and our own self-identity not because of left-wing authoritarianism or right-wing “fascism, if there even is such a thing. But because we have opted to turn our brains off and accept comforting lies that make us feel safe. The conservative movement, for instance, as soon as Trump won the presidency — both times — did the same thing the liberals do when their guy wins. They went to sleep under the misguided notion that Trump was fighting for them. They sat back and accepted everything he did because the popular perception was that every move he made infuriated the left; therefore, it must be a great move. We became willing participants in a self-sustaining propaganda campaign, which pushed state-supported narratives under the guise of popular opinion. This is called participatory propaganda, and it is permeating social media. Every meme shared and every emoji icon clicked reinforces a narrative that protects state sovereignty and is often referred to as a do-it-yourself misinformation campaign. Propagandists have stated that the state can rely on its own citizenry to propagate the false information being fed to them on social media platforms like Facebook. The control of information then, becomes an environmental control that guides behaviors and attitudes in directions useful to the state. It is useful to any administration when people are sharing memes mocking those that question it, I suppose.
Read Full Article: https://thewashingtonstandard.com/it-is-little-wonder-the-government-thinks-were-stupid/
