It's So Easy

Really, I continue to be surprised (I shouldn't be) by how easily people can be convinced of anything. I am not referring to those with little formal education, who often have more common sense than the highly educated. In court the other day I mentioned to another attorney that I had voted for Trump. Of course, he was shocked. I indicated how good Trump had been to Israel, and that his party (the Democrats) no longer supported Israel. Rather, it is the Republicans who overwhelmingly support the Jewish State. He disagreed. I suggested he look at the actual poll numbers. Poll after poll has shown declining support for Israel among rank and file Democrats. But he did not read it or hear it or see it in the mainstream media, therefore, I was wrong.

This brought to mind a story from my second blog post. Also in court, I was discussing the 8000 rockets that had been fired into Israel from Gaza as of that date. An attorney not involved in the conversation, but overhearing it, told me I was wrong. Not because he knew the correct number - he admitted he did not. No, he just could not believe it because the mainstream media had repeatedly told him that Israel was bad - an oppressor - and that the Palestinians were good - the victims.

Here is yet a third attorney. I asked if when reading the newspaper he reads it analytically, as if he was reading a case, or did he just read and absorb what the paper told him. He admitted that he just read and absorbed. Three attorneys who only know what the left-wing media tells them. And that's how easy it is to propagandize a population. I regularly speak with "educated" people who have never heard or read about some of the information/facts I provide to them. Which is fair, because not everyone follows politics in equal amounts. However, the information I provide usually does not penetrate because they already have the "truth" from the mainstream left-wing media.

Recently, virtually every left-wing talking head on the mainstream cable stations, and in the mainstream papers, referred to Trump's "manufactured crisis" at the border. But Fox, and some other media outlets, kept showing the numbers of those coming over the border, with the US having no place to put them. Ultimately, even Obama's DHS Secretary, Jeh Johnson, said "we are truly in a crisis" at the border. Oops! Because the mainstream media said it, however, many people started to say it. And, of course, they believed it. The mainstream media told them it was so.

I have previously discussed how the Left changes words and definitions as an effective propaganda technique. Global warming became climate change. Gay marriage became marriage equality. Abortion became a woman's right to choose. It is important to identify the issue with a widely accepted value. "Equality." "Right." It can be very persuasive. The latest Democratic trick was to use a phrase with a negative connotation, and then associate it with Trump (the reverse of a positive association, but equally effective). Pelosi did this when she recently accused Trump of a "cover-up." "Cover-up" definitely has negative connotations; and for those old enough to remember, it was what got Richard Nixon to nearly be impeached. He resigned before it could happen. Hypocrisy does not matter - just say it with a straight face. So, deleting 18 1/2 minutes of tape was a cover-up, but Hillary deleting 33,000 emails was...no big deal.

Again, the sheer hypocrisy is never an issue. Trump is engaged in a cover-up for attempting to protect the prerogatives of the office of the President by fighting the relentless subpoenas. It was a cover-up when Trump would not release the entire Mueller report, but did release 99% of it. The Dems insisted on Trump releasing the entire report notwithstanding national security concerns. Now, Trump told AG Barr that he may release all the documents leading up the phony Russian collusion investigation. But now the Dems say "oh no, you can't do that, there are national security issues." Will the mainstream media accuse the Dems of a cover-up? Of course not, as they share the same outlook on virtually everything.

Recently, TV and movie personality Jeff Daniels opined that it would be the "end of democracy" if Trump won reelection. The media has been non-stop in their accusations of Trump destroying democracy. And, like all non-thinking people, Daniels believes it. When Obama used the IRS to target conservative groups and individuals, did Daniels say it was the end of democracy? When Obama targeted a Fox News reporter and his family, as well many reporters in the AP and even at the New York Times, did Daniels think it was the end of democracy? As Jennifer Granick (Director of Civil Liberties, Stanford Center for Internet and Society) wrote in the 3/20/14 issue of Forbes: "President Obama has been the most aggressive Administration in history, not only in going after whistleblowers, but also pursuing the reporters who write their stories."

Name calling is another effective technique in the use of propaganda. Disagree with the Left's agenda and you are a bigot, a racist, sexist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, and on and on. Hillary called them the "basket of deplorables." Again, attach words with negative connotations to those you wish to demonize. Works very well. How else to explain that so many Dems actually believe that anyone who voted for Trump has all the characteristics the Dems and the media ascribe to them - racist, sexist, etc.

Propaganda can be so effective that it is capable of getting people to say and do terrible things. If you have any doubt, just think of the Nazis' use of propaganda against the Jews. Recently, left-wing author Fran Lebowitz was on Bill Maher and said this about Trump: "Certainly, he deserves to be impeached. I mean, impeachment is just the beginning of what he deserves. Not even scratching the surface of what he deserves...we should turn him over to the Saudis, you know, his buddies. The same Saudis who got rid of that reporter (she means Khashoggi), you know. Maybe they can do the same to him." So Trump should be killed? For what exactly? His buddies, the Saudis? Curious, as it was Obama who bowed to the Saudi King.

Just how easy is it to propagandize people? So easy. In my July 2, 2017 post, I discussed how Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy examined the media's coverage of Trump's first 100 days in office. The Shorenstein Center is a think tank at liberal Harvard University, and reported on the overwhelming bias in the mainstream media against Trump. The only outlet that even-handedly reported the good and the bad about Trump was Fox - the media outlet that the Left loves to hate. But now, Mark Levin (in his new book "Unfreedom of the Press") cites a Gallup poll from October, 2018. The poll results: 76% of Democrats trust the media, only 21% of Republicans do. As Levin put it - nearly 80% of Dems trust the media, and nearly 80% of Republicans do not. So, notwithstanding Harvard's Shorenstein Center demonstrating the overwhelming bias of the mainstream media, the Dems buy it.

And that is how easy it is to propagandize tens of millions of people.