Internet Snow Job Propaganda

Some attitude change propaganda is easy to spot for those who are vigilant, but those who create such propaganda know that all too many people simply “want to believe“….

Every graphic below creates a false narrative and is yet believed by many people.

wounded knee lie pic
This graphic, like most well executed propaganda is largely true, but a lie is inserted and a key truth is omitted to create a false narrative.

In 1890 the US Government did kill 290 civilians including women and children who were asked to surrender their arms and did so, when they were slaughtered.

What does the graphic omit? It was called the “Battle of Wounded Knee” in some older history books. Of course, since the winner usually writes the history, that explains why this event was called a “Battle” and not a “slaughter” which is much closer to the truth.

What is the lie? This event did not happen at a school.

Below is yet another example of out of context selective editing:

obama stand with muslims lie
What President Obama actually said is quite different as he was talking about standing by Pakistani Americans should they face persecution because of Al-Qaeda.

Actual quote from “The Audacity of Hope” [pg. 261]:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

In today’s examples we see propaganda that is designed to target the sensibilities of traditionalists and conservatives. Propaganda from “the right” is usually far less sophisticated and of lower production value than examples from the progressive left. There are several reasons for this.

The “right” just aren’t very good liars. To most traditionalists, Christians, Conservatives and Libertarians lying is held in disdain. Conversely, when one reads most any major  leftist/progressive thinker be it Hegel, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Weber, Gramsci, Alinsky, Lippmann, etc they all endorse deception as a legitimate political tactic going so far to say that “rationality must be imposed from above”, “the ends justifies the means”, “the truth is anything that advances class struggle”, “all morality is secondary to the class struggle polemic”, “those who oppose the advance toward a leviathan state should be painted as rubes”, etc.

A great deal of this propaganda comes from outlandish conspiracy sites and/or from small bloggers who are trying to drive up traffic by coming up with something to grab attention.

Some of this type of misinformation is created by leftist sites and pressure groups so they can out “conservative lies” and thus bring attention to themselves. Creating controversy for the purpose of playing the hero is hardly a new tactic in political activism.

Political candidates from both parties have been known to put up fake “patriot” web sites that propagate disinformation and smears on rival candidates designed to target the sensitivities of conservatives. Social Media often picks up this misinformation and runs with it. The elite media often refers to such tactics as “campaign dirty tricks“. Mitt Romney employed this tactic against Fred Thompson and got caught. Ron Paul supporters have been caught doing this as well.

How Alex Jones’ Conspiracy Propaganda Works

Alex Jones
Alex Jones

As a part of our attitude change propaganda series today we are looking at Alex Jones.

Alex Jones uses several tricks to make his site look like a real information source. Aside from slick graphics that make parts of his site look like other legitimate news sites, he takes work from credible publications such as Human Events, recycles them with his hype and conspiracy theories added, and then tells people that the ONLY source of this information is him and that everyone else conspires to keep this from them (OK that one is partially true). Like all conspiracy theorists such as “9/11 truthers” those who effectively disagree with Jones automatically become a part of “the conspiracy”.

Jones uses a regular formula for what he puts out to keep his readers and listeners hooked. Jones mixes 1/3 to 2/3 of real facts with over-hype and his cult of personality conspiracy language. He will show you A + B & then how A + B = C, and then say this is why his X Y Z narrative is completely true. Jones does not explain or demonstrate how he makes the leap from ABC to XYZ in his narrative. Conveniently, when you argue with Jones he throws what is true about the A B C part of his narrative in your face and accuses you of lying or being against “the facts”.

Jones does same thing that Donald Trump did in his demonization of China in his “almost” presidential campaign – ‘IT’S THEM! THEY CHEATED! THEY did this to YOU!’ Now granted China does not play fair, but the truth is that China uses our leaders’ own stupidity against us. While China most certainly intends to damage us to a degree, it is no where near the damage caused by our own deeply flawed leaders. The victim card is mighty seductive to those who have not steeled themselves against it.

Those who are new to politics risk getting caught up with Jones pretty easily. Few will deny that Jones is entertaining. He is a cult of personality propagandist who leverages the appeal of a cloak and dagger soap opera. People who believe Jones over time become emotionally attached, they “believe in Alex” and it becomes less and less about facts or policy. Being a “Joneser” effectively renders someone politically powerless. Jonser’s mostly talk amongst themselves but never gain any political power as those with political experience ignore them. Jonser’s, like most people caught in a cult of personality, are virtually immune to any evidence that indicates that Jones is flawed.

45 Failed Alex Jones Predictions

 

Right Wing Watch does “selective editing” smear job on Glenn Beck

To those who follow such things, you might say, “so what else is new”. Even so, it is worth reporting because it is an excellent example of attitude change propaganda mass media theory and it demonstrates how far some people will go to propagate a lie.

The video below from Right Wing Watch shows Glenn Beck talking about two different subjects and then splices them together to create the false narrative/claim against Beck, namely that he is warning that Obama is going to round up conservatives and put them into camps. The splice happens at 1:07 into the video.

At the beginning of the video Beck accurately explains historical examples of when those in power demonize people so as to make them two dimensional and easier to persecute. At the 1:07 mark the video cuts to Beck speculating on how he thinks Obama might react to mass critique if the elite media turned on him. By linking these two clips together using careful editing they have gullible people believing something that Beck simply did not say or intend to say.

The ruse by Right Wing Watch is further given away in the clip they used as Beck can be seen clearly stating that both sides in a conflict often use such demonization techniques.

This is the kind of dishonest shenanigan that “People for the American Way” and “Media Matters” have been caught doing from time to time. Alec Baldwin sits on the board for the group if that is an indication oh how off the rails they can get.

Here is an example where Media Matters was caught red handed doing the same – LINK.

Glenn Beck does three hours of broadcasting a day, so if someone disagrees with him there is room to do it legitimately without resorting to dishonest editing tricks.

Glenn Beck posts the entire audio of his show on his web site and on SoundCloud every day. Anyone can download the entire show and listen for themselves as there is no sign up or membership fee.

The entire post from Right Wing Watch is below:

Glenn Beck Warns Obama Is About To Snap, Will Start Putting Conservatives Into Internment Camps

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-warns-obama-about-snap-will-start-putting-conservatives-internment-camps

On his radio broadcast today, Glenn Beck warned that too many crises are piling up all at the same time which will cause the press to finally turn on President Obama. That, in turn, will cause Obama to finally snap and start rounding up conservatives and putting them into camps.

Just as German society demonized Jews for years before the Nazis took power, Beck warned that this nation “has been watering some seeds” for nearly ten years to condition Americans to accept that “there are those enemies of the president that need to be punished.”

Once the press turns on Obama, Beck warned, he “is not going to react well” because he has been coddled his entire life and was always treated like a god who was never to be criticized or questioned.

Saying that Obama is like a spoiled child who is about to be told that he doesn’t get a trophy just for participating, Beck predicted that Obama would respond by lashing out furiously at conservatives and putting them into internment camps.

By Chuck Norton, Editor

Attitude Change Propaganda: Gun Violence, a PR Executive & Whopping Lies

[Note: This article was quoted by Eric Bolling on The Five – fxn.ws/1kRPBlz ]

Continuing on with our attitude change propaganda series, put this one in the “how far will they go to lie to you” folder.

If one were to believe the graphic below put out by “Mom’s Demand Action” you would think that the United States is the most violent country in the world…

Moms Demand 20X
However, the hoops one must jump through to get to the 20x number is staggering. If one were to add Americans shot by police, drug gang vs drug gang violence, border violence from Mexico, and Americans killed in war we still could not get near the 20x number claimed.

Tricks such as counting the deaths of Americans by police, during war, or even on D-Day as “gun violence” (after all the Germans used 14 MG42 machine guns to defend Omaha Beach at Normandy) are commonplace when one examines the statistics put out by academics and pressure groups who are given grants to come up with such scarey numbers.

The rather long list at the bottom of this page is the number of intentional homicides per 100,000 as ranked by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. As you can see, the United States is far from the most dangerous country in the world. The United States is average when it comes to numbers that count, in this case intentional homicides. There are 104 countries that rank worse than the United States and 102 countries that rank better. It is important to point out that most of the safest countries are smaller and have a unified culture as opposed to the United States which is huge and is a “melting pot” culturally.

Tiny little Belgium has an intentional homicide rate of 1.7 per 100,000. If we were to take that number and multiply it 20x the United States allegedly should have an intentional homicide rate of 34.0 per 100,000 rather than the 4.9 we have now.

But the story doesn’t end there. The gun violence in the United States has dropped over 49 percent since 1993 (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/05/firearms_final_05-2013.pdf]. Assaults, robberies, and sex crimes are also down 75 percent. While at the same time gun sales have risen exponentially.

How exponential?

According to a recent investigation by The Washington Times:

“More than 21 million applications were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System last year, marking nearly an 8 percent increase and the 11th straight year that the number has risen.”

Let’s put that 21 million number in context. Each time a firearm is purchased, unless the buyer is exempt, the buyer’s name is put through the FBI National Instant Check Service (NICS) database to perform a back ground check. There is one NICS check even if the sale is for multiple guns. Also, in states such as Indiana, buyers who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon are exempt from the check. While no one knows the exact number of guns sold to civilians last year, that number may well be over 30 million in a single year.

What does all this mean? It means that while violent crime and firearm related homicide has dropped dramatically, literally hundreds of millions of guns have been bought by American civilians during the same time period. It means that any claims that civilian gun ownership is the cause of “escalating violent crime” is not supportable by any genuine examination of available data. So much so that recent data tends to suggest the opposite.

Who Is Shannon Watts?

This writer, as a student of mass media theory, is impressed by the production value, top of the line graphics and slick emotional marketing appeals generated regularly by Mom’s Demand Action. The work is impressive even by standards of a billion dollar presidential campaign, but when one looks at Mom’s Demand Action’s FaceBook they tell you that it was started by a concerned home maker from Indiana named Shannon Watts and its leaders are just a few concerned mothers. Oh really?

So who is Shannon Watts and where is she getting funds for top of the line campaign materials as well as the public relations talent to produce it?

Upon doing some digging we learned that Shannon Watt’s real name is Shannon Troughton. Her LinkedIn page shows her long career as a high dollar East Coast corporate and government public relations executive including:

Director, Global Public and Corporate Affairs at Monsanto

Freelance Senior Consultant/Counselor at Fleishman-Hillard

Founder and President at VoxPop Public Relations

Vice President, Corporate Communications at WellPoint

Director, Global Communications at GE Healthcare

Vice President, Corporate and Public Affairs at Fleishman-Hillard

Public Affairs Officer at Missouri State Government

Monsanto stands out as it has been named on multiple occasions as the company with the worst ethics record in the world. Vanity Fair even did a large investigative piece on Monsanto called “Harvest of Fear” and our sweet little home maker Shannon “Watts” Troughton was their chief spin-doctor.

[Editor’s Note: We do not have the space to outline the ethical lapses of Monsanto and quite candidly, explain just how low Monsanto will go and the lengths they will go to destroy little people just because they can. Books, and lots of them, have been written about this. Being the most unethical is not just something that happens, it is a choice and being the worst offender of all takes effort.]

At Fleishman-Hillard she directed a crisis communications team who represented Monsanto, BP Amoco, Bayer Corporation, Firestone, McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Purdue Pharma, Osco, BASF, and Hallmark. She even has a listing in PR Newswire.

In short, Shannon “Watts” Troughton is a ruthless high dollar public relations hired gun.

One does not have to look far to find people Shannon “Mom’s Demand Action” Troughton has smeared. Television and radio star Dana Loesch has been a frequent target of Troughton’s. Among other things, Troughton has falsely accused Loesch of being on the payroll of the NRA and of a gun company called Magpul simply because Loesch has stated that women should be allowed to choose to use a firearm for self defense.

Follow The Money

Shannon Watts with Micheal Bloomberg NYT
Shannon “Watts” Troughton with Micheal Bloomberg

The New York Times, Buzzfeed and others have reported that “Mom’s Demand Action” is a front group for former New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”. Bloomberg has vowed to spend $50 million of his own money to battle the National Rifle Association. NRA certified instructors train both civilians and law enforcement, as well as teach hunter’s safety courses. The NRA also advocates for civilians who choose to use a firearm for self defense.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ efforts have been hamstrung thus far as high profile members have left the organization saying about Bloomberg’s group,  “They’re not just against illegal guns, they’re against all guns.”

Delicious Irony

Dana Loesch attempted to interview Shannon “Watts” Troughton at the NRA Convention to see if she would be willing to correct the record or clarify her previous false statements. Armed guards working for Watts intervened and tried to push Loesch out of the way as Watts made her way to an up-armored SUV with a New York license plate. Erica Soto Lamb, a spokesman for Mom’s Demand Action, confirmed that they use armed guards at public events.

Erica Soto Lamb, a spokesman for Mom’s Demand Action, confirmed that they use armed guards at public events.

[Editor’s Note: Yours truly was banned from Shannon “Watts” Troughton’s Mom’s Demand Action FaceBook page within minutes of posting something challenging one of their claims. Like most hard propaganda outfits, they are not interested in any serious dialogue. Big money interests often create pressure groups designed to give the appearance of being grass roots organizations, but the decisions are always made where the money is, at the top. The creation of fake grass roots groups is often called “astroturfing“.  ]

Just yesterday Shannon “Watts” Troughton told CNN Host Victor Blackwell that “a good guy with a gun has never stopped a bad guy with a gun”. Of course that statement doesn’t pass the snicker test, but it does cause one to ask why she needs armed guards if she believes her own talking points, of course the obvious answer is that she doesn’t, but Bloomberg money spends as well as any other.

UPDATE – Shannon “Watts” Troughton’s list of school shootings includes incidents that were not school shootings (she lied) – LINK.

 

Intentional homicides rate per 100,000 population via UNODC murder rates most recent year (full table here).

Honduras                                  91.6
Venezuela                                 79.0
El Salvador                               69.2
Ivory Coast                               56.9
Belize                                         41.4
Jamaica                                     40.9
US Virgin Isl                             39.2
Guatemala                                38.5
St. Kitts& Nevis                       38.2
Zambia                                      38.0
Bahamas                                   36.6
Malawi                                      36.0
Lesotho                                     35.2
South Africa                             31.8
Trinidad & Tobago                  31.3
Congo                                        30.8
Colombia                                  30.8
Central African Republic      29.3
Puerto Rico                              26.2
Ethiopia                                   25.5
Saint Lucia                              25.2
Dom Republic                        25.0
Tanzania                                  24.5
Sudan                                       24.2
Mexico                                     23.7
St Vincent & Grenadines     22.9
Guinea                                     22.5
Dominica                                 22.1
Brazil                                        21.8
Congo                                       21.7
Panama                                    21.6
Equatorial Guinea                 20.7
Guinea-Bissau                       20.2
Kenya                                      20.1
Cameroon                               19.7
Montserrat                             19.7
Greenland                              19.2
Angola                                    19.0
Guyana                                   18.6
Ecuador                                  18.2
Burkina Faso                         18.0
Eritrea                                    17.8
Namibia                                 17.2
Rwanda                                  17.1
Chad                                       15.8
Ghana                                    15.7
Myanmar                              15.2
Benin                                     15.1
Sierra Leone                        14.9
Mauritania                           14.7
Botswana                             14.5
Zimbabwe                            14.3
Gabon                                   13.8
French Guiana                    13.3
Papua New Guinea            13.0
Swaziland                            12.9
Turkmenistan                     12.8
Nicaragua                            12.6
Bermuda                              12.3
Comoros                              12.2
Nigeria                                 12.2
Cape Verde                          11.6
Grenada                               11.5
Paraguay                             11.5
Barbados                             11.3
Togo                                    10.9
Gambia                               10.8
Peru                                     10.3
Liberia                                10.1
Nauru                                   9.8
Mongolia                             9.7
Russia                                  9.7
Kyrgyzstan                          9.1
Bolivia                                 8.9
Philippines                         8.8
Senegal                                8.7
Turks 7 Caicos Islands     8.7
Brit Virgin Isl                    8.6
Costa Rica                          8.5
Cayman Islands                8.4
Seychelles                          8.3
Madagascar                       8.1
Indonesia                           8.1
Mali                                     8.0
Kazakhstan                        7.8
Pakistan                             7.8
Moldova                             7.5
Kiribati                               7.3
Guadeloupe                       7.0
Haiti                                   6.9
Timor-Leste                      6.9
Anguilla                             6.8
Antigua & Barbuda         6.8
Lithuania                          6.6
Cambodia                         6.5
Uruguay                            5.9
Argentina                          5.5
North Korea                     5.2
Ukraine                             5.2
Estonia                              5.2
Cuba                                  5.0
Belarus                              4.9
USA                                   4.8

Attitude Change Propaganda Designed to Prey on the Ignorant and Uneducated

This is a great example of why so many universities do not teach American History well, virtually ignore American Studies and why Common Core dedicates all of a few lines of text to George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

What we see below is a textbook example of attitude change propaganda in action. It cherry picks certain facts and partial facts way out of context and strings them together with an attitude to create a narrative and an attitude that is entirely false. This kind of lying is no accident. It takes a very deliberate mind to come up with  propaganda this sophisticated.

If students were well educated in civics as well as the history of Western Civilization they would not fall for nonsense like this from the FaceBook page of “Being Liberal” which I saw cross posted on the timeline of a recent high school graduate:

Forcing a whole country to abide by the laws of one religion leads to persecution and oppression. We see this not only in the U.S. but other countries. Keep religion out of the Constitution – let everyone choose their own belief system..coexist. – Kelsie Ferguson

It’s important to remember history accurately.

Being Liberal Godless Constitution

Since we are remembering history accurately today….

The Constitution was meant to be a short and simple framework for government, it was never intended to be the guidebook for governance. This is why honest judges look at the Declaration of Independence (which says that our rights come from you know who), the Federalist Papers, letters and notes from the Founders, early docs that influenced the Constitution like the Virginia Declaration of Rights etc.

It might be important to point out that all 50 state constitutions mentioned God – http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/god-constitutions.htm

Also, one does not need to have God to have persecution or oppression. Shall we tally up the number of the dead by regimes hostile to the notion that human rights are God given?

Lets see:

People’s Republic of China 1949-present
Body Count: 73,237,000

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Body Count: 58,627,000
1922-1991 (69 years)

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Body Count: 3,163,000
1948-Present

Cambodia under Pol Pot
Body Count: 2,627,000
1975-1987

Vietnam (Note: this number excludes the 1,062,000 from the Vietnam War)
Body Count: 1,670,000
1975-Present

People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Body Count: 1,343,610
1974-1991

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Body Count: 1,072,000
1945-1992

People’s Republic of Mozambique
Body Count: 700,000
1975-1990

Socialist Republic of Romania
Body Count: 435,000
1947-1989

This list continues for a long way. It is also important to note that Islamic regimes do not recognize God given human and political rights as we know them.

I see the mention of James Madison. GREAT! The Founders were virtually unanimous in their belief that the state should not create a state church as most every European power had done. In each case a European power cherry picked one denomination of Christianity over the others. The Founders were virtually unanimous in their opposition to that behavior.

That being said most of the Founders, James Madison especially… well take a read:

First, Madison was publicly outspoken about his personal Christian beliefs and convictions. For example, he encouraged his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:

[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.[1]

Madison even desired that all public officials – including Bradford – would declare openly and publicly their Christian beliefs and testimony:

I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way. [2]

Second, Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other. [3]

Third, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities. His proposal declared:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established. [4]

(Madison reemphasized that position throughout the debates. [5])

Fourth, in 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains. [6]

Fifth, in 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible. [7]

Sixth, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving. [8]

[1] Letter of Madison to William Bradford (November 9, 1772), in 1 James Madison, The Letters and Other Writings of James Madison 5-6 (New York: R. Worthington 1884).

[2] Letter of Madison to William Bradford (September 25, 1773), in 1 James Madison, The Papers of James Madison 66 (William T. Hutchinson ed., Illinois: University of Chicago Press 1962).

[3] The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates, Held at the Capitol in the City of Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia, on Monday the 6th of May, 1776, 103 (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie 1776) (Madison on the Committee on May 16, 1776; the “Declaration of Rights” passed June 12, 1776).

[4] 1 The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States 451, 1st Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington, D. C.: Gales & Seaton 1834) (June 8, 1789).

[5] 1 Debates and Proceedings 758-759 (1834 ed.) (August 15, 1789).

[6] 1 Debates and Proceedings 109 (1834 ed.) (April 9, 1789).

[7] Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States 1325, 12th Cong., 2nd Sess. (Washington: Gales & Seaton 1853) (“An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia. Be it enacted, &c., That the duties arising and due to the United States upon certain stereotype plates, imported during the last year into the port of Philadelphia, on board the ship Brilliant, by the Bible Society of Philadelphia, for the purpose of printing editions of the Holy Bible, be and the same are hereby remitted, on behalf of the United States, to the said society: and any bond or security given for the securing of the payment of the said duties shall be cancelled. Approved February 2, 1813.”)

[8] 1 James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, 513 (Published by Authority of Congress 1899) (July 9, 1812), 532-533 (July 23, 1813), 558 (November 16, 1814), and 560-561 (March 4, 1815).