Broward public schools seeks to hire a propaganda specialist to “fix” the public, rather than fix the problem

Posted on July 19, 2018 by edwardm

When everything is wrong, hire a propaganda specialist to persuade others that things are great because … propaganda!

The South Florida Sun Sentinel has reported on how Stoneman Douglas under-reported crime on campus, how the school failed to provide adequate special education services to killer Nikolas Cruz; and how a culture of leniency has allowed unruly students to receive countless second chances.

The school district also struggled to defend its controversial PROMISE program, which offers alternatives to arrests for some misdemeanors.

Source: Battling an image problem, Broward schools seeks public relations exec for up to $175,000 a year – Sun Sentinel

In effect, Broward public schools seeks to “fix” the public, rather than fix the underlying problems.

Study: Higher testosterone level increases men’s desire for high-status goods

Posted on July 4, 2018 by edwardm

Researchers say that higher testosterone levels lead to men wanting “higher status” luxury goods. Marketing propaganda figured this out long ago – hence the image of men lounging in a high status beach resort or on the deck of a fancy yacht, or a $200,000 recreational vehicle, surrounded by attractive women.

By focusing on “conspicuous consumption as an avenue to status,” the new research shows what “value to others” means in a society where scarcity itself has become scarce, Von Ruedon said. These goods put others on notice that “you’re wealthy, and you must have some skills or some valuable something that’s allowed you to amass wealth,” he said. “It’s an advertisement that you’re of value as a mate or friend or leader.”

Trumble said he’s not surprised that marketers would use evolutionary anthropology to help them sell products. And if Wharton professors want to know how testosterone affects male consumers, that’s fine with him.

Source: An extra dose of testosterone increases men’s preference for high-status luxury goods, study says

Remember that advertising and marketing messaging are subsets of the propaganda field. This study highlights how marketing is crafted to “hook” men into acquiring high status luxury goods based on hypothesized evolutionary aspects of males. A corollary finding is that men and women admire men who have been influenced to acquire luxury goods.

From the study itself

Men experience situational elevation in T during and following sporting events, in the presence of attractive mates, and following meaningful life events such as graduation and divorce^29,48,49. Our results suggest that in such contexts, male consumers might be more likely to engage in positional consumption, and might find status-related brand communications more appealing.

This is why marketeers place attractive people in advertising – or at trade shows. It also suggests that attractive people have an “attractive privilege”.

Further hypothesis might include:

Do women who acquire luxury goods achieve the same results (status) as men who acquire luxury goods?
Would men with lower testosterone levels be wise to acquire more high status luxury goods to attract mates?
How can these findings be used in propaganda messaging to persuade others to adopt someone’s agenda?

I’ve categorized this under Appeal to Authority (an other categories) as a potential match to the idea that people with high status luxury goods are alleged to be better or superior (i.e. authorities). Which is a kind of scary thought.

Imagine what propaganda goes on inside #Facebook

Posted on March 31, 2018 by edwardm

Most companies define their business with a mission statement, a sentence capturing the essence of what the company does. The mission statement is communicated to staff with communication of goals and alignment of incentives with those goals, nudging workers to “do the right things” to achieve the company’s mission.

Some companies use internal propaganda messaging. I once worked in an organization that plastered the walls with posters saying “Every day you are working to change the world!”

At Facebook, their motto is “Bringing the world closer together“. Sounds admirable, doesn’t it?

When these phrases are plastered on the walls and frequently communicated to staff, you are seeing propaganda at work. And Facebook is a world expert at propaganda messaging!

Their mission statement has varied from “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” to “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them“. (See also a history of their mission statements.)

Again, that sounds positive for all. Most Facebook employees signed on board to support this mission statement. In light of their spying fiasco, Zuckerberg has doubled down on this mission statement.

No where is there a hint that Facebook’s actual business is surveillance and propaganda.

This week, Facebook staff learned their actual mission is to conduct mass surveillance on every one in the world and to leverage that surveillance into an ideal platform for the distribution of propaganda.

Many Facebook employees are discovering they were duped. This is leading to internal questioning and morale issues as they learn over half the population of the United States now has an unfavorable opinion of Facebook.

As CNET news writes:

In the wake of an explosive leak, there’s the growing sense that Facebook “isn’t the company it once was.”

Employees are splitting into groups:

Those that still believe in the original myth of connecting people
And those that realized they were duped into running a global surveillance and propaganda operation

Some will be calling for change while others will strongly resist.

Facebook is fighting a two front war – on the public facing side, half the country hates them and the other half is not yet decided. On the back, employee facing side, there is internal conflict and collapsing morale.

Source: Facebook reckons with culture shift in wake of Bosworth memo – CNET

#Facebook VP argues in email we should collect everything even if it results in killing people #DeleteFacebook

Posted on March 29, 2018 by edwardm

Facebook admits their system is designed to dupe people and treat Facebook users like, in Zuckerberg’s own words, “Dumb Fucks“.

We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it,” VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth wrote.

….

“So we connect more people,” he wrote in another section of the memo. “That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies.

“Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”

Source: Growth at any cost: Top Facebook executive defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed

Now we understand the Facebook team’s Likes, Comments, Posts, and can evaluate their interests, behavior and their mental health.

Facebook is a global criminal enterprise. Facebook is not your friend.

SocialPanic.org – Occupy Propaganda

How Social media propaganda is manipulating your brain: Propaganda about propaganda

Category Archives: Public relations

Broward public schools seeks to hire a propaganda specialist to “fix” the public, rather than fix the problem

Study: Higher testosterone level increases men’s desire for high-status goods