Can you really say that you aren't a propaganda agent?

I was just inspired by another thread on this forum in the education&media board here (www.abovetopsecret.com...) where one user asked other people to say that they aren't a propaganda artist/disinfo agent. I couldn't bring myself to saying that I was not a propaganda agent. I know that while many people associate propaganda with something that is negative and that is used to manipulate people propaganda is used all the time to push positive events as well as negative events. According to wikipedia, the definition of propaganda is

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position.

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.

en.wikipedia.org...

Edward Bernays believed that propaganda was needed to bring about consent to the masses, who were uneducated, dull, and unthinking.

"The Engineering of Consent" is an essay by Edward Bernays first published in 1947.[1] He defines "engineering consent" as the art of manipulating people; specifically, the American public, who are described as "fundamentally irrational people... who could not be trusted."[citation needed] It maintained that entire populations, which were undisciplined or lacking in intellectual or definite moral principles, were vulnerable to unconscious influence and thus susceptible to want things that they do not need. This was achieved by linking those products and ideas to their unconscious desires. Ernest Dichter, who is widely considered to be the "father of motivational research," referred to this as "the secret-self of the American consumer."[citation needed]

en.wikipedia.org...

For those not familiar with Edward Bernays, I would recommend that you read Propaganda. It is a very seminal work and should be read by anyone who wishes to understand politics or the news media.

Now, it's very easy for us to say that we're not disinfo agents. But can we really say that we're not propaganda agents? That's a little harder to do. Why is that? It's because we all spread propaganda, even if we're not consciously doing it from an ideological view we are spreading facts, opinions, and arguments from one side of an argument as opposed to another side of the argument, or some other side of the argument. We can all claim we're doing it for the truth but it's much harder to say that we're not being propagandists.

If we're calling an opponent a propagandist we are merely only saying that they are spreading their point of view. The reason that this argument doesn't work is because everyone has their own point of view, and it's silly to call something propaganda to defeat an argument, unless other people don't already know it's propaganda.

Your thoughts? So can you say you're honestly not a propaganda agent?

We are all propaganda agents when sharing our personal viewpoints of life, surely we will "infect" some people with our personal viewpoints.. im a proud propaganda agent

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position.

en.wikipedia.org...

well, propaganda is viewed as negative because it really only serves those who push it. it has an agenda, and it doesn't care about it's followers, it just cares that people get behind it. it doesn't really matter if its good or bad, propaganda is just a machine that's designed to change the way you think for it's own agenda. it's inherently thought of as negative because it comes at us telling us what we should do, as if our other choices are bad, whereas, if the cause is good and revolutionary, there won't be any need for propaganda, because it's something we need to do, it's an inevitable thing, not something with an agenda, a bias.

also, you CAN safely say you aren't a blahblahblah propagandist, so long as you don't care if anyone believes you, haha. there's really no equivocating, it only meant to "propagate a doctrine" (PROPoseAGENDA) a long time ago, now it just means to push a bias in favor of something.

so yeah, i can safely say i'm not a government propagandist, and i don't care if you don't believe me, because i honestly have no agenda to make you think i'm not, and i have no active agenda to be one.

I am absolutely a propagandist for the Constitution. I am likely to be considered a propagandist against the death cult known as islam.

You mentioned Edward Bernays. He was a father of the advertising industry. One of his early claims to fame came during a women's emancipation march, way back, I forget the year. He had been hired to help promote the march. He came up with the idea that the women marchers should carry and hold up torches of freedom when passing by cameras. The torches of freedom were, wait for it......lit cigarettes. Get it? Cigarettes=freedom.

Of course at the same time Bernays was under contract to the R.J.Reynolds Tobacco Company. Now there is a freedom loving hero for you.

One more thing about Bernays? His father's sister was married to his mothers brother. His mothers brother was Sigmund Freud. So his uncle was the father of psychology. One of the first things that became evident with these new theories of Freud was the knowledge of just how gullible humans are and how easy it is to manipulate them. Bernays was raised up surrounded by this information and used it to help pave the way for the development of the advertising industry which has for the last century done everything in it's power to control and turn over to the worlds corporations the minds of every human it touches.

Now what was the theme of this OP. Oh yeah. Propaganda.

reply to post by Frankidealist35


No. I cant. In the early stages of the Egyptian protests I think I did fall for some propaganda and spread it unwittingly. I no longer believe those protests really were a spontaneous uprising of the Egyptian people. I think it was an orchestrated military coup with corporate backing and media support.

So no. I dont know for sure if I am being used to spread propaganda. And that goes for all of us. We have to face the facts that most of the "knowledge" we have about the world and current events is being channeled to us and those channels are easily manipulated.

All I can trust is that I have a really good mind, pretty good intuition, I never lock down and refuse to accept new information, and Im not afraid to say I was wrong.

Thats the best we can do, is always, always, always be willing to examine our belief systems and to remain skeptical of anything we do not experience first hand. Use the mind and the gut you were blessed with, and dont let your ego lock you into something that may turn out to be a lie.

Edit to add, I do want to make clear that I can say I am not a paid agent. Or ever deliberately spreading propaganda. I am just saying that I think that I have fallen for some crap and spread it without knowing I was spreading propaganda.

reply to post by Frankidealist35


EXCELLENT overview and thread. Thank you.


reply to post by Vandalour

We are all propaganda agents when sharing our personal viewpoints of life, surely we will "infect" some people with our personal viewpoints.. im a proud propaganda agent

I agree. …and I'm one of the worst when I think I've "discovered" something or get all enthusiastic.


reply to post by TerryMcGuire


Thanks for that info on Edward Bernays. Helps put the puzzle together.


reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

All I can trust is that I have a really good mind, pretty good intuition, I never lock down and refuse to accept new information, and Im not afraid to say I was wrong.

Thats the best we can do, is always, always, always be willing to examine our belief systems and to remain skeptical of anything we do not experience first hand. Use the mind and the gut you were blessed with, and dont let your ego lock you into something that may turn out to be a lie.

Me too.

…and no, I'm not a paid propagandist or social network marketer or anything remotely related either.