“Every one of us is exposed to propaganda techniques every day. They’re designed to persuade us to accept ideas, buy propositions and products, or spur action. Parents and teachers use them to guide behavior. Advertisers and media sell us stuff. Religious leaders use them to inspire (and fill collection plates) and, of course, politicians rely on propaganda to get elected and influence public opinion. We all use these techniques, even unconsciously, to win arguments, persuade, flirt, convince and coerce those around us.”
~ PropagandaGame.org by Robert W. Allen and Lorne Greene
I use propaganda techniques all the time in stories. These are techniques of influence create an emotional response, just like stories. In fact, the techniques of propaganda often rely on the techniques of story. While advertising and marketing might use these techniques in subtle ways. Storytellers often call attention to the faulty logic inherent in these techniques.
The fox looked up and saw this beautiful bunch of grapes hanging on the tree above him. His mouth began to water. He jumped to reach them, but the grapes were just out of his reach. He tried again and again, each time they were just out of reach. After several more attempts, he was out of breath. As he finally gave up, he walked away huffing, “Why should I bother myself for sour grapes anyway!”
~ Aesop’s fable
The fox is using the technique of rationalization to make himself feel better. He does not know whether the grapes are sour or not. In this case, this is a technique of self-deception. “I didn’t want those grapes anyway!” The fox avoids feeling the emotion of defeat and shame. Those emotions don’t feel good, so of course he would want to “rationalize” them away.
Robert W. Allen and Lorne Greene designed The Propaganda Game to teach how to recognize more than fifty different techniques. Their database has thousands of examples. How will you respond to the daily onslaught of propaganda? informed and alert?
“It is one thing to know that you’re being misled, it’s another to know HOW you’re being misled.”
~ PropagandaGame.org by Robert W. Allen and Lorne Greene
In high school, I used to play on the Academic Games team. One of the games was called Propaganda. (Yes, I was a nerd.) I did a web search for a story that I’m writing, and I fell into the rabbit hole of the internet. That’s how I found The Propaganda Game website.
Visit The Propaganda Game online: https://propagandagame.org/
Here are a few examples from the website:
“I’ve never had a cake quite like that one before.” (Technique of Language with Ambiguity. The meaning is ambiguous. The listener can interpret it either way that they want. I personally love this technique in storytelling. The listener is hanging on the next line to see what I meant.)
“Students who want to succeed in life will do their homework each and every night.” (Technique of Exploitation with an Appeal to Prejudice. Parents love this type of faulty logic. Does this mean that if you don’t do your homework every night, you won’t succeed in life? I’ve missed a few nights of homework. Perhaps I should just give up on success in life [my own faulty logic]. Perhaps success has to do with more than doing your homework every night. For the parents out there, there might be other reasons to do homework. But if this technique works for parenting, why abandon it now? Not all propaganda is bad.)
“Why does the law state that you have to be 21 to drink? Does it really make a difference if you are 20 years and 364 days old?” (Technique of Self-Deception by Not Drawing the Line. Here the existence of differences are denied just because the differences are small. The faulty logic then says, there is no reason to draw a line.)
“The film critic in the Gazette said this is the best movie all year.” (Unless you went back and read the Gazette, you would not know that this is a Technique of Language with Quotation Out of Context. The full quote in the Gazette, “This has been the best movie I’ve seen all year! Of course, it’s New Year’s day, and it’s the only movie I’ve seen all year.”)
Have fun! Discover the propaganda in your life, learn to recognize it, laugh at it, and maybe even learn how to use it. Good or bad? Your choice. Those grapes were sour anyway.