Choice

Vote Here sign in Minneapolis, Minnesota

by Lorie Shaull from St Paul, United States

licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

People are voting early in record numbers in the United States. Many Republicans and Independents are joining with Democrats, seeking to keep democracy alive.

Whether these vigorous, eleventh-hour efforts defeat the autocrat-extremists will soon be known. 

Some mainstream media continue to assert that the candidates' "campaigns now turn on a small set of national issues–this year primarily the cost of living, abortion and the border."[1] The writer of this comment seems oblivious to the vows of wannabe-dictators to strip away more freedoms.

In "this year" such journalism says little to anyone who believes it's good to live in a representative republic. However, the comment does offer two useful clues on what to emphasize in the closing days of this consequential election campaign. 

Firstly, voters need to be presented with emotional reasons to both feel and believe a candidate will make groceries, fuel, and everyday purchases cheaper. And it's of declining value to keep banging out ambitious pledges about "price gouging" or tax incentives. 

Anyone overdrawn on credit has needs right now–like a roof overhead and food for the kids. It's time to specifically and convincingly illustrate what's being done and what more will be done to cut the cost of groceries and other necessities immediately–not weeks, months, or years away!

Secondly, very large numbers of people probably vote according to the projected image of a political figure. But if all an opponent's faults highlighted during almost ten years haven't moved the needle against electability, why expect this approach to work during the less than ten days remaining?[2] 

Many of us want to vote for a candidate, not against someone! Repeated illustration of an opponent's graft has to hit home to how badly this harms us. Unfortunately "the United States, as well as some other nations, too often elect accused criminals to public office–despite vigorous commentary on the candidate's alleged criminality"[3] or immorality.

In the closing days of any election campaign, it's a serious challenge to promote truth, law, and justice. By this time, public discourse is a mash of snappy truthiness and outrage. And election news is frequently thought to be propaganda. Election campaigns certainly amplify propaganda processes, to provoke "action without prior thought."[4]

As Randal Marlin notes, it was Jacques Ellul who alerted to the necessity for "liberal government to offset seditious ideas from within the state or... [use] propaganda to offset other states seeking conquest over one's own state. But he recognizes that once a state begins to engage seriously in propaganda, it erodes its own claim to being liberal."[5] 

We must be careful about this inherent danger of propaganda. And we need to elect sincere leaders, who are equipped to remedy the serious harm autocrat-propagandists cause us.

References

1. David Lauter (2024), "All Politics Are Local? Not in This Election," Los Angeles Times, October 12, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2024-10-12/all-politics-is-local-not-this-year-politics

2. David Brooks (2018), “Opinion: The Failures of Anti-Trumpism,” The New York Times, April 10, p. 27; Rodney G. Miller (2024), Get Ahead of Propagandists: Countering Disinformation, Albany, NY: Parula, p. 55; Tim Ward (2024), "To Defeat Trump, Don't Focus on Trump. Wise Advice from An Unlikely Source," Medium - The Political Prism, online newsletter, October 24, https://medium.com/the-political-prism/to-defeat-trump-dont-focus-on-trump-9e7fdcd5eca9

3. Miller, p. 24

4. Jacques Ellul (1962), Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, New York: Knopf, p. 240

5. Randal Marlin (2021), "Dynamic Tension for Pandemic Times," Current Drift, 10 May, IJES Ellul Society, https://ellul.org/current-drift/dynamic-tension-for-pandemic-times/; also at: Word to the Wise blog (2021), June 10, https://communicator.rodney-miller.com/search?q=clash

Truth to Tell

Flashmob for Truth

by Master Steve Rapport, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

It's long past time to shake free from propaganda and disinformation. This requires large-scale, sustained, cooperative efforts.

Some Western democracies are massively expanding education in media literacy, critical analysis, rhetoric, and civics. This is occurring most where people feel the looming threat of invasion, such as among nations in Europe. These civic leaders are seriously boosting education to enhance the ability of adults, youth, and children to discern and assess reality.

Ever-increasing is the need to identify and counter dishonest politicians. Autocrat-propagandists routinely berate us with a fearfully absurd mixture of lies and partial truth. Their systematic, persistent distortions become exhausting and impact both our thinking and priorities–to change personal belief systems and actions.

With voters heading to the polls in the United States, for what's likely the nation's most consequential election, many of us continue to wish for more effective countering of those unprincipled politicians, who continuously exploit the freedoms of democracy.

We surely need more than warnings or naive repetition of the "flood of falsehoods," as one media outlet chose yesterday to headline its own lame critique–which largely amplified a politician's lies and dangerous nonsense.[1] 

Many workable methods for countering propaganda were available much more than a decade ago[2]–when prebunking or other timely actions may have worked. What's realistic now to hope for enough civic leaders, jurists, journalists, editors, educators, or others to advance enough actions for the common good? 

What more can we do to –

* Counter the propaganda processes that spontaneously embed in our daily thinking, actions, and language, to intimately drive our actions?[3]

* Help to develop people's "cognitive skills, technical know-how, emotional self-awareness, and an ability to navigate massive flows of true, false, and irrelevant information via images, texts, videos, and audio clips"?[4]

* Incentivize news, information, other corporate, government, and nonprofit organizations to become better equipped to take a pivotal role in combating propaganda and disinformation?

* "Regulate the social media recommendation algorithms"?[5]

* Criminalize lies "intended to cause serious harm if said harm results"?[6]

It's time to put aside unfounded assumptions that rational explanation will counter the emotions that propagandists exploit in listeners or readers. It's time to more substantially spotlight and more effectively remedy the direct harms that propagandists do to individuals and society.

References

1. CNN (2024), October 4

2. Jacques Ellul (1965), Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, New York: Knopf, especially pp. 294-296; J. Michael Sproule (1994), Channels of Propaganda, Bloomington, IN: EDINFO Press and ERIC Clearinghouse; J. Michael Sproule (2001), “Authorship and Origins of the Seven Propaganda Devices: A Research Note,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 4(1), Spring, pp. 135-143; Marlin, Randal (2013), Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, Peterborough, ON: Broadview; Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell (2019), 7th edn, Propaganda and Persuasion, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage [with Nancy Snow as lead author for the recently updated 8th edition]

3. Ellul, p. 64; Rodney G. Miller (2024), Get Ahead of Propagandists: Countering Disinformation, Albany, NY: Parula, pp. 56-61

4. Jannie Lilja, Niklas Eklund, and Ester Tottie (2024), "Civic Literacy and Disinformation in Democracies," Social Sciences, 13, 405, pp. 12-13, https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080405

5. John Grönvall (2023), "Fact-checkers and the News Media: A Nordic Perspective on Propaganda," Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 5(1), pp. 134-153, at p.151, https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2023-0008

6.  Druzin, Bryan H. and Jessica Li (2010), “The Criminalization of Lying: Under What Circumstances, If Any, Should Lies Be Made Criminal?” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 101(2), pp. 571-572,

https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?httpsredir=1&article=7396&context=jclc; Miller, p. 52