Restless Souls/Research/War/Propaganda

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"The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932), from the foreword (1946)

Propaganda

Gleichschaltung

Censorship

Occurances in democracies

Rule of thumb: The more autocratic a system is the more propaganda, censorship and Gleichschaltung exist. The severity is fluid. See incomplete democracies, defective democracies and also Narco-states.

Propaganda, Gleichschaltung and censorship usually happen at the same time. Propaganda in dictatorships is almost self-explanatory and almost guaranteed at wartime.

The shades of gray in democracies and their reasons are much more interesting. Propaganda and censorship usually only appear subliminally in democracies. And they don't have Gleichschaltung.

Similar to harsh propaganda and censorship, real conspiracies, large-scale cover-ups and the like (see Watergate) are also possible in real democracies but fortunately rare.

Representatives of the quality media are seen as "Fourth Estate", which purpose is to help a government to correct itself.

Some governments, in turn, try to keep reporters on a short leash. See: Embedded journalism. pool reporting, critically discussed in the documentation "Why We Fight" (2005)

Agenda-Setting

Levels sorted by relevance:

  • Possible means: State propaganda by (state) media, influenced jurisprudence and education, obstructed/disparaged opposition
    • Türkiye, Erdogan
    • USA, Trump
      • Inciting populism, spread of fake news and conspiracy theories. However, Trump's means of communication of choice were Twitter and Fox News.
      • Whistled back to the angry Mob at the Capitol too late. Since then, he has been using the lie about the stolen election.
      • Trump has already planned a political purge - Project 2025, Schedule F - for his second term in office and would probably accompany it with the Deep State narrative and renewed allusions to alleged anti-corruption. (Draining the swamp in Washington.)
      • Imposed conservative constitutional judges Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
    • Poland, Kaczyński
    • Hungary, Orban
    • Italy, Berlusconi
  • Normal agenda setting (politics via media)
    • Propaganda Lite Edition: Populism
  • Some media companies’ own agenda setting:
    • Simply as an intention or supposedly as a correction to the competition's agenda.
    • This is partly a dynamic of its own:
      • Development of a certain team spirit (esprit de corps) as a subspectrum within the larger Left-Right-Spectrum.
      • Setting priorities through niche service. -- In general, the diverse political orientation and focus (the actual reasons for this put aside) is seen as an enrichment.
  • Attitude journalism -- Apparently some of the criticism of attitude journalism stems from a narrative on the right-wing spectrum. The setting of topics by progressive representatives is perceived as an attempt at paternalism or is defamed as such. This corresponds to AfD thought patterns. At the same time, some topics are not examined critically enough, so that preconceived opinions can shorten research. Claus Kleber also drew a mixed conclusion. -- The bottom line: The progressives are a little too uncritical when it comes to migration and integration and the conservatives are too hypersensitive when it comes to green issues.

Self-running dynamics

  • Hiding facts because of your own bias or bubble or "ideology".
  • Discrepancy: Public opinion differs somewhat from "published opinion". (Precht and Welzer)
  • Germany's equation of the political word right with extreme right which cause was the post-war antifascist left drift. -- On the other hand, the AfD narrative about a "left-green filthy" ("linksgrünversiffte") "lying press" ("Lügenpresse") and an "opinion dictatorship" ("Meinungsdiktatur") is a massive exaggeration for the purpose of a populistic agitation.

Cancel Culture

In the Internet age, many people associated with the state and public figures are afraid of digital shitstorms and waves of public outrage. Normal persons usually act upon their political beliefs. Some lobbyists might have purely economic motives.

Censorship for the purpose of diplomacy or protection of national "interests"

Supposition:

  • YouTube variant of ARTE documentation Battle for Airbus
  • Subsequent censorship of an archived broadcast in the media library that had previously been seen millions of times. The video link was only accessible when one knew what to search for. André Wüstner on ARD Tagesthemen: "And it's about us wanting to continue to live in peace and freedom. And anyone who doesn't understand that shouldn't at the moment bear political responsibility." - Context: The German Chancellor wanted to sweep the Taurus debate under the carpet those days. In addition, France and Germany presented a conflicted picture: A public exchange of verbal attacks. At the Weimar Triangle meeting, an attempt was made to show demonstrative unity again all the more.

Security dilemmas

  • Dealing with Whistleblowers. See: Snowden and Assange.
    • Despite all the mistakes by then mentally broken Assange has made in protecting sources, it would be a good thing for the democratic USA to show autocrat Putin the diplomatic middle finger and, in an act of humanity, stop the prosecution of Assange on the next anniversary of Navalny's death. -- Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Polymath: "Critics are our friends. They show us our faults." -- In July 2024, the US government and Assange agreed on a deal. However, a short time later, Biden's quasi pre-election campaign was overshadowed by debates about his age.

Tolerance paradox:

  • Censorship against increasing fake news from domestic and foreign actors.
    • Systematic exploitation of freedom of expression.
      • Individual statements can be based on the constitution. However, the situation changes when those statements are part of inflammatory propaganda or discriminatory ideology that despises people or the state. -- Or even contain hidden calls for violence. -- Haldenwang made a similar statement in the Maaßen case. In addition, the end of 2023 / beginning of 2024 was preceded by other events: parts of the German farmers' protests were infiltrated by lateral thinkers. (Some of these were in turn incited by right-wing extremists and Russian propaganda.) The ambush and intimidation of politicians was organized in chat groups. Requests peppered with seemingly harmless irony were enough: "ACHTUNG !! Robert Harbeck (sic!) lädt heute zum Bürgerdialog um 16:45 Uhr im Fährhafen Schlüttsiel ein ! Er wünscht sich unendlich viel Interesse. Tun wir ihm den Gefallen und kommen mit allem was Räder hat ! Heute 16:45 Uhr Schlüttsiel !!!!!!"
    • Democracies' own claim to be open makes them vulnerable: physically, economically, informationally. Open information and discussions can play into the hands of opponents of the system (autocracies). -- Freedom versus security is a recurring theme. Especially in the area of ​​cryptography. Please refer: Crypto Wars, TrueCrypt, active infiltration: breaking TPM, SSL, state withholding of security-relevant bugs for hacking, Pegasus, Staatstrojaner. -- Secret services usually only disclose bugs to the public when major damage to governments and economies is foreseeable.

Ultimately, a "defensive democracy" must be able to survive both conventional and hybrid attacks - be they internal or external. If it doesn't do that, its self-defense wasn't strong enough.

Brain Dump

"You can fool all people for some time.
You can fool a few people for all time.
But you cannot fool all people all the time." - a community member

Summary

  • Due to its self-running dynamics and security dilemmas (in the context of Separatists and Syndicate (SOC)), the prevailing opinion within the WCG is to rely on a minimum of propaganda and censorship from the TCTF (see also "Scimon" Bertram). Despite its power, the WCG has too many enemies.
  • Hasegawa and his wife may have been partly victims of a certain complexity and delegitimizing propaganda?
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