Propaganda Can Be Deadly

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”—Attributed to MARK TWAIN.

“YOU miserable Jew!” snapped the schoolteacher, as she slapped her seven-year-old student. She then invited the class to file by him and to spit in his face.

Both the teacher and the student—her nephew—knew perfectly well that the boy and his parents were not of Jewish descent. Nor were they Jewish by faith. Rather, they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Taking advantage of widespread prejudice against Jews, the teacher was fostering hatred of her student. For years both the teacher and her class had been told by their priest that Jehovah’s Witnesses were despicable. The boy’s parents had been called both Communists and agents of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). So the boy’s classmates filed by, eager to spit in the face of a “miserable Jew.”

That boy survived to tell his story. The same was not true for six million Jews living in Germany and nearby countries some 60 years ago. Vicious propaganda was instrumental in extinguishing the lives of those Jews in Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps. Widespread, profound, unquestioned, and virulent anti-Semitism led many to regard the Jews as enemies whose extermination was not only necessary but just. In that case, propaganda proved to be a weapon of mass extermination.

Yes, propaganda can be displayed openly by the use of such emblems of hate as the swastika or subtly by the telling of a tasteless joke. Its persuasive techniques are regularly applied by dictators, politicians, clergymen, advertisers, marketers, journalists, radio and TV personalities, publicists, and others who are interested in influencing thought and behavior.

Of course, propagandistic messages can be used to accomplish positive social ends, as in campaigns to reduce drunk driving. But propaganda may also be used to promote hatred for ethnic or religious minorities or to entice people to buy cigarettes. “Every day we are bombarded with one persuasive communication after another,” point out researchers Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. “These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and debate, but through the manipulation of symbols and of our most basic human emotions. For better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda.”

How has propaganda been used to affect human thinking and actions throughout the centuries? What can you do to protect yourself from dangerous propaganda? Is there a source of trustworthy information? These and other questions will be discussed in the following articles.

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Propaganda was used to victimize Jews during the Holocaust