Dear Friends,
It seems to me, knowing propaganda is not the same thing as having knowledge. People who have been well indoctrinated in propaganda will stand on a rooftop and spout their pseudo knowledge with the certainty of a prophet. Most often those who think they know, will shout down someone who actually knows, because there is confidence in propaganda that is not available to those who actually understand the subject at hand. This is because actual knowledge requires an open mind, reasoned thought, observable reality and the evolution of knowledge, while propaganda gives a certainty that is not possible to someone with an open mind. Knowing the difference is critical if we are to seek knowledge and not fall victim to hucksters shilling propaganda.
Socialists, Marxists and progressives use propaganda like a poor Italian cook uses too much garlic. You can smell it on those that imbibe it. Propaganda is always offered as the end all truth. Anyone who has the audacity to offer a different opinion is vilified as promoting ignorance or as ignorant themselves. The propagandist will attack the person with an opposing view instead of addressing the arguments. That is because propaganda cannot stand up to open minded review while actual knowledge can.
The Enlightenment was about changing the source of knowledge from authority to observable reality. The propagandist eschews open debate for authority. You hear propagandists constantly referencing authority while claiming to be the rightful heirs of the Enlightenment. College professors are of this ilk. They stand in front of ignorant youths, (theoretically, that is why they are in college in the first place, to grow out of their ignorance), and teach them propaganda couched as truth, based totally upon the authority of the professor. This has become such a problem that colleges and universities have transformed into indoctrination centers for the new class progressive world view, real knowledge cannot be allowed, because it would alter the narrative that socialism is good and markets are bad, against all observations of history.
Global warming is the epitome of propagandist reasoning. The IPCC has been caught lying over and over, none of their predictions have come to pass and there is a ton of information available that counters their propaganda, but they rely on the false appeal to authority, “the science is settled.” Science is never settled, once the leading minds of the day were convinced light traveled through the “ether.” Today we know it doesn’t, because it is acts both a wave and a particle, which travels the same speed in any direction, all of which destroys the argument light travels through an “ether.” Real science is based on observation proving theory, in the global warming alarmist circles however, whenever observation goes against theory, it is observation that must be thrown out. We must instead rely on the self interested authority of the alarmists.
The youth are the most susceptible to propaganda. They haven’t the knowledge base or life experience to put into perspective the sweet lies that the propagandist feeds them. Since every one of us would rather believe a delectable lie rather than a bitter truth, propaganda that is appealing is well received by ignorant youths, as well as lazy minded adults. If you tell an old man that communism has never been tried, he will scoff at you and consider you an idiot propagandist, while an ignorant youth or lazy minded adult, will lap it up as though it was universal truth. In this case the poison of propaganda is sweet while the bitter truth of communism is hard to swallow.
By definition propaganda is false knowledge, or sophistry, that sounds reasonable but in fact is designed to trick people into making decisions that are not in their best interest. Otherwise why do it? Lacking life experience the youth are the most susceptible, but even lazy minded adults can be persuaded by propaganda, sometimes even when they know it is propaganda, because it is easier to just go along. The propagandist will make arguments based on partial truths mixed with many lies and backed by omissions. When they are caught in a lie they change the subject and their willing accomplices will vilify those who point out those lies. All showing that the propagandist despises the advances of the Enlightenment, and undermines it in the most pernicious ways, returning us to the dark ages of serfdom.
The bloody history of communism, socialism and progressivism shows all too well the results of mindlessly going along with propaganda. The progressive Woodrow Wilson and his eugenics movement led to the sterilization of thousands of American citizens against their wills, and provided the intellectual backstop for the Nazi eugenics based, final solution. The socialist Goebbels was the consummate propagandist, he used propaganda to put a ring in the nose of the German people, leading them to the most horrific slaughter of human beings the world has yet seen. Lenin used propaganda to enslave the Russian empire resulting in tens of millions of human beings, killed, tortured, sent to gulags and insane asylums. If we want to repeat that history, all that is required is to go along, if we wish to avoid such human suffering however, it is incumbent upon us to speak up and point out propaganda when we see it.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
