Is using out of date data “fake news?
Today is August 17, 2020. Why is CNBC using a chart whose data ends at July 21st – especially since data up through yesterday is readily available?
Poll measures success of propaganda messaging
69% of the public thinks we will see a “second wave” of coronavirus.
What percent of the public has expertise to determine the likelihood of a second wave? Almost none. Consequently, this poll is measuring the effectiveness of prior public education or propaganda messaging on the topic. People have been told what to think by the media – and social media – and they regurgitate this in polls. This poll is basically meaningless.
Is this reporter on drugs?
Reporter standing in front of burning buildings says in live broadcast “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly.”. Setting fire to buildings is not unruly. Got it.
“The Market for Depressing Predictions Is Booming”
The media focuses on doom and gloom based frequently on rampant speculation. No one “reports” anymore. Instead, they prognosticate and speculate about the future with made up gloom and doom, most of which makes no logical sense. The reason for the gloom and doom is due to an odd bit of psychology. Negative information always takes precedence over positive information – it is a basic survival mechanism to pay attention to bad things. The media know this. And strangely enough, news consumers seek out more bad news to validate their feelings of anxiety.
Propaganda method: Recycle old stories that are years out of date-“The American Dream Is Killing Us”
Recycling an old opinion column by an author who focuses on persuading you that life is miserable, not fair and getting worse – is an interesting twist on propaganda. The date – its old -is not presented until a footnote at the very end of the very long column; the column was written during the recovery from The Great Recession, immediately after significant economic turmoil. This is the media’s usual focus on negativity by an author who makes his living on negativity.
Social media: 2 years ago, Google shut down the blog, email and all services of a prominent statistician
In 2017, without warning or recourse, Google shut down all services associated with Salil Mehta, a professor of statistics, editor of a statistics journal, author of a best selling book on statistics, a former Obama administration official and later, a polling statistics adviser to the Trump campaign. His offense? He ran a blog about mathematics! Google, Facebook and Twitter have become the totalitarian governments of the 21st century, stifling speech their algorithms choose to flag. Unlike us peons, Mehta is well connected and a huge outcry caused Google to reinstate his account.
How airlines use intimidation to persuade you to spend more money
The new multi-level boarding scheme and “class-based” seating assignment is designed to embarrass the low payers, who must walk down the full front and center seats. Everyone knows that you, boarding last, are the cheap skate who bought a cheap ticket. This intimidation uses techniques of propaganda to persuade you to buy a higher priced ticket on your next flight.
Apparently Star Wars was a propaganda film
Much of the online criticism about the Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, was driven by Russian troll farms and bots as a form of information warfare intended – successfully – to tear our society apart. It’s pretty ugly.
“What if your whole life was taken over, analyzed and exploited?” … a documentary
Trailer for the documentary “The Creepy Line” – how online services are collecting and analyzing everything about you in a grand scheme of manipulation.
Left wing launches secret propaganda operation against secret right wing #propaganda operations
A left wing group launches a secret propaganda operation to combat secret right wing propaganda operations. Funded with 81 staff, the program will uses tools of propaganda theory and the new tools of social media to direct messaging at individuals by identifying their personal emotional hot buttons. Right wing groups are likely conducting similar propaganda operations but their battle plans have not been published for all to see.
What can we do about this? Walk away from social media and avoid voluntarily signing up for mind control and manipulation operations. We are entering a dangerous era well beyond WW II and Soviet-era propaganda.