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Overview
We live in an age of disinformation, misinformation, and outright lies. The modern world blasts us with information, talking points, spin, advertising, and attempts to persuade. But what are we to believe and whom should we trust?
Examining the history of propaganda and disinformation in war, politics, polling, media, entertainment, cults, advertising, science, medicine, today’s media landscape, and even in our personal interactions, Disinformation and You: Identify Propaganda and Manipulation helps you spot and counter the seductive and deceptive tactics to influence individual behavior. It provides helpful suggestions and tips for identifying disinformation and fighting back against manipulation and censorship.
Engaging and useful, this book’s helpful topics include …
Disinformation and You shows you the tricks used to influence your behavior. So, get on the bandwagon with the rest of us decent folk and stop listening to fools. After all, two out of three people have seen their IQ scores rise by buying this book! Really, buy this book and be smarter (in recognizing propaganda, that is). With many photos, illustrations, and other graphics, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781578597406 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Visible Ink Press |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2021 |
| Series: | Treachery & Intrigue |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Sales rank: | 1,103,325 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Pandemic Propaganda
Even during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, which swept the world in a matter of months beginning in January 2020, the hashtags started immediately, encouraging people to comply with government orders to stay at home and follow the official directives. The goal was to flatten the curve of the spread and make it easier for hospitals and medical centers to deal with the flood of patients. At first, all the hashtags mirrored the seriousness of the pandemic and how critical it was to fully support our first responders and medical personnel and stay home to keep the virus from spreading. On television, we were bombarded with public service announcements and commercials with somber piano music and wordless messages of support and hope.
Sometimes those PSAs would feature the faces of nurses and doctors, looking exhausted and spent from their days helping the sick. Other times, they would feature families and couples at home finding the “new normal,” excuse me, the #newnormal of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing measures. Before long, people got restless and began asking questions and finding inconsistencies with the reports of deaths and the dates of the initial spread. They got curious as to why different doctors or medical organizations said different things, and why they were being asked to give up their freedoms and their lives when politicians continued to get their paychecks and keep their health insurance. As with any propaganda, even the kind that is meant to help save your life, people get suspicious of the repeated narrative. Some groups of people also got tired of being shamed into staying home and losing their livelihoods and businesses and being told to shut up and do what was right #forthegreatergood, and the hashtags began to reflect the growing unrest of those suffering from the economic meltdown; those wondering why Constitutional freedoms were being compromised and ignored.
#stayinsidesavelives
#alonetogether
#flattenthecurve
#thenewnormal
#saferathome
#socialdistancing
#forthegreatergood
#slowthespread
#wearamask
#openthecountry
#fightback
#knowyourrights
#letuswork
#endthelockdown
You could tell where someone stood just by the hashtags they used or followed on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. As the pandemic progressed, people responded, wearing their emotions not on their sleeves but via their hashtags. Watching the entire pandemic unfold was a great firsthand lesson in identifying propaganda, whether it be from the president, the opposing party, the CDC, the WHO, Bill Gates, the media, state governors, or anyone else with an opinion to offer. The country was once again becoming divided down the middle between those who wanted to stay quarantined to slow the spread and protect the weak, and those who demanded they be allowed to reopen their businesses or get outside and get back to normal. Those who expressed one viewpoint over another were cheered by the choir they preached to and vilified by those who had different viewpoints. Compromise and working together seemed so out of reach until cooler heads could prevail and operate with common sense. It was like watching a political election in play, and so much of the game occurred via the power of words and phrases no one had ever uttered before, including “social distancing” and “flattening the curve.” You would almost have believed everyone was an expert in virology and epidemiology by the way people repeatedly posted what they’d heard on mainstream news and social media.
Those familiar with Twitter already knew the power of a tweet and how a short selection of words could convey volumes on the social media site. Once limited to 160 characters, Twitter later expanded the standard to 240 words to allow for more expression. People tweeted their beliefs, their ideas, their values, and their political identities, and the creation of the hashtag added a whole new element to the spread of viral information. Former presidents tweeted using hashtags. Senators and celebrities did, too. President Trump was a Twitter celebrity, tweeting daily with hashtags. Soon, they were showing up more on Facebook and Instagram as another way to track and promote a message and watch it spread further on the virtual global stage.
One of the most powerful aspects of hashtags is the ability to bypass censorship. Social media blocks hashtags that promote violence, pornography, drug use, and, nowadays, anything that doesn’t correspond with the narrative being pushed by mainstream media and government. Some examples over the last few years include hashtags with anti-vaccination messages, alternative health cures for Covid-19, conspiracy theories, and other such subjects, but people find new ways to create hashtags that get around the ban. Twitter and Instagram have banned overly generic hashtags, too, that they claim are too vague and do not fill a particular purpose. What is banned is entirely up to the social media platform, but there are always new hashtag phrases that bypass those bans. An example would be banning #naturalcuresforcancer. The way around it would be changing it to #cancercuredbyscience or something that removes the “alternative” label. Another example is banning #picture because it is way too generic and using #coolpicturesofthings as a way around that ban. It is pretty simple and easy to stick to the content policies of social media while bending the rules to get your messages, and memes, across.
Table of Contents
About the AuthorAcknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Agendas Are Everywhere
1. What Is Propaganda?
2. A Historical Look at Propaganda
3. War Propaganda
4. World War II and the Nazi Propaganda Machine
5. The Cold War Era
6. 9-11 and Weapons of Mass Distraction
7. 21st-Century Propaganda
8. Spin, Sponsored News, Fake News, and the “Lamestream” Media
9. Tools of the Propaganda Trade
10. False Flags, PsyOps, and Conspiracy Theories
11. Mind Games: Manipulating Thought, Behavior, and Action
12. Peer Propaganda and Social Media Activism
13. Information Warfare: Fighting Back
Bibliography
Index