A state trying to convince it's people of x political belief isn't an inherently bad thing. Going "oh this is propaganda" is a really bad way of trying to delegitimize a narrative. Like... no shit? Who cares that it's propaganda? Point out what's actually wrong with it
It's the most effective form of propaganda, convince people that propaganda is bad, and all those other groups do propaganda, but our group just tells it like it is.
The easiest people to con are those who think they're in on the con.
Assuring the average imperial core denizen that they're a uniquely freethinking rebel who would never fall for propaganda has gotta be one of the masterstrokes of imperial propaganda.
Yes, it's purposeful and a great success of western propaganda, to convince its citizens they are no propaganda in the west, but everything other countries say is propaganda, it also reinforces the idea that propaganda = automatically bad.
Their biased state propaganda station, our ethical unbiased national broadcaster
Public health messaging is beneficial propaganda, as one example.
Propaganda is when you see a poster that says something and you say "yes" and this makes you a drone person deserving of extermination, sorry sweaty I don't make the rules
To anyone who unironically believes this is how propaganda works, I suggest they read False Witnesses and Masses, Elites, and Rebels
More and more often it looks to me like the prevalent view of propaganda is "if something breaks my worldview then it's propaganda". And living in a western country anti-American and anti-EU sentiment or even just presenting countries like China, Russia, DPRK, etc. is often attributed to foreign propaganda.
Idk I hate how no official here calls out Isra-l for its hasbara but everybody seems so concerned with Russian "propaganda" that they'd rather enforce a full blown censhorship. This stance is such a joke that some people have indeed simply stopped caring. Most do seem to believe or at least pay attention to what the state says through its media and it does seem here like the state calling out stuff as propaganda has at least its share of "effectivity" on the people.
PS. Sorry if the comment is confusing, my point is that how effective state calling out information as propaganda is depends a lot on the receiving end, aka the people. A lot seem to be inclined to accept the state/EU/US narrative on what is propaganda and what is not, but others have become critical to it due to its stance on the Palestinian issue.
Guy who listens to 3+ hours of Joe Rogan e every day: "thank God I am immune to propaganda."
Understanding and internalizing the nature of propaganda is one of the major ways in which my thinking nowadays is radically different from my thinking 15+ years ago. I think I might have a difficult time having a conversation with my past self because if the self-imposed mental roadblocks I had. As OP mentioned:
Like... no shit? Who cares that it's propaganda? Point out what's actually wrong with it
...people get super hung up about the classification of communication and persuasion as being "propaganda" or not. It's so thought-terminating that it's difficult to even engage with people on certain subjects.
As far as I can tell, on this score, there’s only two main differences between Fidel Castro and Western leadership. The first is that he stands for anti-imperialism and socialism, and they for imperialism and capitalism. And the other is that he’s honest about what Cuba does and why, whereas capitalist states brutally crush communist organization with mass-murder and imprisonment — COINTELPRO, Operation Cóndor, Operation Gladio, etc. — then simply lie about embracing plurality. Just think here about the notion of white North Americans celebrating “Thanksgiving.”
And I tend to think that this is, in the final analysis, the crux of the matter. The question of “free press” and “free speech” is not separable from the question of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie versus the dictatorship of the proletariat. The idea of “political plurality” as such turns out to be the negation of the possibility of achieving any kind of truth in the realm of politics, it reduces all historical and value claims to the rank of mere opinion. And of course, so long as someone’s political convictions are mere opinion, they won’t rise to defend them. And so the liberal state remains the dictatorial organ of the bourgeoisie, with roads being built or legislation being passed only as commanded by the interests of capital, completely disregarding the interests of workers. Under regimes where political plurality is falsely upheld as a supreme virtue, the very notion of asserting oneself as possessing a truth appears aggressive and “authoritarian.”
from https://redsails.org/brainwashing/
