Re: I'm Confused Still
"That is a psychological operation, propaganda, that cynically trades on the general poor state of the average intellect"
Unfortunately, 'critical thinking' is no longer taught in English classes in U.S. schools, to the best of my knowledge. It was when _I_ was in High School (thanks, Mrs. G, your class was very helpful! I still owe you a drink from the last H.S. reunion, too)
People who have been taught to read between the lines don't easily fall for the false-advertising, hype, bandwagon techniques, truth-twisting, and outright lying you see in the average political campaign (and in too many cases, commercial advertisements). Is it any wonder that gummint-run schools won't teach kids to filter all that out? You can't be manipulated easily if you can THINK FOR YOURSELF, after all.
Propaganda is as old as politics and advertising. It was exploited in Nazi Germany to get the people to "approve" of all KINDS of heinous things, and is STILL exploited in places like N. Korea. That doesn't make propaganda inherently evil, except for the lying and truth-twisting parts. It could be simply informing people of the truth, in which case it's STILL propaganda, just not evil or necessarily manipulative.
Anyway, my $.10 on that part. Sadly, emotional manipulation happens every time there's an election in the USA, and it seems that at least half of the voters fall for it. These people need to stop "FEELING" and start THINKING instead.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
