Doug's Darkworld

I’ve been hampered in writing about current events lately because it’s really been seeping in that almost everyone is propagandised. By that I mean that most people largely hold a worldview that is actively promoted by special interests. It’s what I mean when I say all religions and ideologies are the same. It’s what Colonel Kurtz meant when he said “Everyone is loyal to the nightmare of their choice.” It’s not a new phenomena, it’s been around since organized religion and hereditary class structure for sure. In the last century though, as the sciences of advertising and propaganda took off, it’s grown far more pervasive and multi-dimensional: Enormous numbers of people believing things that just aren’t true.

It doesn’t make them bad people, in fact it says nothing about them as individuals at all. People are people, most of us are pretty decent under normal circumstances. It doesn’t make them “sheep” either, I hate that terminology/mindset the same way I hate the “friend zone” concept. It does however mean they will actively go to great lengths to defend their world view. Motivated reasoning and such kicks in here, people use the fine brains evolution/God gave them to believe they are right and others are wrong. My lie is comforting, it makes sense of the world, it provides me with tons of social support and reinforcement. I’m on the winning team!

The problem, and it’s a huge problem, is that belief in nonsense may allow one to commit atrocities. Bad things can happen from widely believed lies. Here are four great historical examples. And they are great, each and every one of these is brilliant propaganda. A lie the targeted audience wanted to believe! A lie that touches all the sweet spots. In very considered order, here are four of “The Greatest Lies in History:”

1. “The Stab in the Back Myth.” This was the idea that arose after World War One that the Central Powers, Germany especially, lost the war not because it was a stupid war where the Allies had numerous advantages, but because a cabal of socialists, communists, and especially Jews conspired to cripple their war effort. Like all great lies, there’s zero evidence to support it, and it doesn’t pass the laugh test logically; but it explains the loss of the glorious war and blames people many Germans already had been taught to hate. Illustrated in a 1919 postcard above.
2. “The Arab Nations Told the Palestinians to Flee!” lie. After Israel’s 1948 war of independence during which 700,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed (IE chased out at gunpoint) from what is now Israel, Israel claimed that the Arab governments told the Palestinians to flee! Perfect! So of course they are the Arab governments’ problem, and Israel promptly passed laws prohibiting them from returning to their homes in Israel. Even Israeli historians now admit this was pure propaganda, Arab governments never did anything of the kind.
3. “Stop the Steal.” Yerp, brilliant. Trump supporters want to believe Trump was the greatest president ever, they want to believe that Democrats/socialists/communists/libtards are plotting against them, the true Americans. The fact that there is zero evidence for this lie, and logical reasons why it’s BS, no matter. Characteristics that all four great lies share, that so many people believe(d) them is why I am fond of saying “We’re not really an intelligent species.”
4. “Russiagate.” This is the one where so many of my friends and readers are going to balk. Sorry, not sorry. Did Putin try to influence the 2016 election? Possibly, though so far no evidence has been provided in support of same. And Russiagate has now grown into an incredibly elaborate theory where Trump was a “Russian asset/Putin’s Puppet” all along. Brilliant. Dems don’t need to look to their own party’s failings that led to Trump’s election, and now they are fully supportive of Washington’s imperial war forever policy!

The beauty of great propaganda illustrated. No one is immune. I certainly believed in some stupid myths when I was younger. “If blacks would just comply with law enforcement and there would be no problems” is the ugliest that comes to mind now. I’m sure there are others. Life, a constant struggle to identify and remove beliefs other people have instilled in oneself. Most people never even understand that. A freaking shame that so much human society seeks to indoctrinate, not enlighten.

Speaking of blacks and police, tomorrow’s blog. Just trying to sort out the fact from fiction in the Daunte Wright shooting. God rest his soul in any event, no one deserves to die in a traffic stop.  #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #dearMoonCrew

Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Austrian postcard from 1919, author unknown, Public Domain in this Universe.)