13 Evil Propaganda Techniques

1. 13 Evil Propaganda Techniques Sophistry to overcome any audience

2. Tie-in to Cold War “By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.” ~Adolf Hitler

3. Tie-in to Cold War “Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.” ~Douglas MacArthur 

4. Tie-in to Cold War • The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's.Harry S. Truman 

5. "The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” -Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment)

6. Propaganda by Pathos/Heart • Tribal Appeals • “Oh, you don’t have a date to prom?”

7. Propaganda by Pathos • Appeals to Emotions: Fear, Pity, Shame on You, Joy, Anger • “If you don’t pay attention in my class you will end up working at McDonalds for the rest of your life.”

8. Twisted Pathos: Fear1. Bandwagon/Snob Appeal • Join the crowd or “Only for a special few” • “Everyone else is working quietly.” • “Maybe City High does that, but we are West High, one of the top schools in the nation.” • Which is better? “Operators are standing by” or “If you get a busy signal, keep calling”?

9. Twisted Pathos2. Fear: Bargain/Exigency • I’ll give you a good deal/ • Do it now or else! • “I only have one Black SUV left and I have two people coming to look at it today.” • “If you work hard on this now, there won’t be any homework tonight.”

10. Twisted Pathos:3. Fear: Slippery Slope • It may not seem bad now, but it will set off a chain of negative events. • “If I let you go to your car, then I’ll have to let everyone go, then we won’t get any work done and someone might get hurt.”

12. Twisted Pathos4. Transfer • If you like/dislike that, then you have to like/dislike this too. • Why show the President in front of a flag? • Can you tell from the image what Mike Huckabee is “transferring”?

13. Twisted Pathos5. Pride: Flag-waving • If you don’t do this, you are not an American • “Why aren’t you wearing green on Friday? Don’t you like West High?” • Flag Pins

14. Propaganda by Ethos/Gut • Ethos = Argument through Character • The way you look, the words you use, your experience, etc. • Look out for wolves in sheep’s clothing.

15. Twisted Ethos:6. Name-calling • Attack the person, not the idea • EX: “Obama’s foreign policy can’t be good for America, the man is a hippie community organizer.”

16. Twisted Ethos:6. Name-calling • Other Variations of Name-calling: • Humiliation: An argument that sets out only to debase someone, not to make a choice. • Innuendo: “No one has ever asked to See my birth certificate” ~Mitt Romney

17. Twisted Ethos:7. Just Plain Folks • I’m just like you are so believe me. • “I’m not a witch… … I’m you.” ~Christine O’Donnell • Heinrich Himmler and two other S.S. officers collecting wildflowers for a little girl that he is going to visit.

18. Twisted Ethos:8. Testimonial/Wise-Man Fallacy • Just because someone is famous does not mean they have credibility. • Bill Gates believes that the war must stop because it is not justified.

19. Propaganda by Logos/Brain • Because logos means persuading through logic, in order to use logos for propaganda you have to be lying or “twisting” logic to suit you. • It’s important to detect them, just as you should spot any kind of persuasive tactic used against you. • Another reason to understand fallacious logic: you may want to use it yourself.

20. Twisted Logos

21. Twisted LogosHow to Twist Logos Deductive Logic • Premise A: Women like good smelling men. • Premise B: Axe body spray makes you smell good. • Conclusion C: Therefore if you use axe body spray women will like you. • Not Valid: A + B doesn’t necessarily = C. (Alternate Explanations) • Not Sound: A or B isn’t true. (Bad Evidence)

22. Twisted LogosWhat’s Wrong with This? Premise A: Ice Cream Sales increase in summer Premise B: Drownings increase in summer. Conclusion C: Therefore ice cream causes drowning Why is this Wrong: • Not Valid: A + B doesn’t necessarily = C. (Alternate Explanations) • Not Sound: A or B isn’t true. (Bad Evidence)

24. Twisted LogosWhat’s Wrong with This Premise A: Unicorns are imaginary Premise B: All unicorns have horns Conclusion C: Therefore all imaginary animals have horns. Why is this Wrong: • Not Valid: A + B doesn’t necessarily = C. (Alternate Explanations) • Not Sound: A or B isn’t true. (Bad Evidence)

25. Twisted Logos • Bad Proof: The argument’s commonplace or principle is unacceptable, or the examples are bad. • False Comparison: Two things are similar, so they must be the same. • Hasty Generalization: Uses too few examples and interprets them too broadly. • Misinterpreting the Evidence: Takes the exception and claims it proves the rule. • Fallacy of Ignorance: Claims that if something has not been proven, it must be false.

26. Twisted Logos • Bad Conclusion: We’re given too many choices, or not enough, or the conclusion is irrelevant to the argument. • Many Questions: Squashes two or more issues into a single one. • False Dilemma: Offers the audience two choices when more actually exist. • Fallacy of Antecedent: Assumes that this moment is identical to past, similar moments. • Red Herring: Introduces an irrelevant issue to distract or confuse the audience. • Straw Man: Sets up a different issue that’s easier to argue.

27. Twisted Logos • Disconnect Between Proof and Conclusion: The proof stands up all right, but it fails to lead to the conclusion. • Tautology: A logical redundancy; the proof and the conclusion are the same thing. • Reductio ad absurdum: Takes the opponent’s choice and reduces it to absurdity. • Slippery Slope: Predicts a series of dire events stemming from one choice. • Post hoc ergo propter hoc (The Chanticleer Fallacy): Assumes that if one things follows another, the first thing caused the second one.

28. Twisted Logos:9. Oversimplification • Either/Or fallacy • “Either you do your homework now, or you fail this class.” • “Either you are part of the problem, or you are part of the solution.” • Why must you be either a Democrat or a Republican? Why not…

31. Twisted Logos10. False cause-effect • Acting like one thing leads to another (speaker knows it is not true) • “Drowning in the U.S. increases dramatically at the same time that ice cream sales increase dramatically. Therefore, ice cream kills.” • The non-partisan research office for Congress -- shows that "there is little evidence over the past 65 years that tax cuts for the highest earners are associated with savings, investment or productivity growth."

32. Twisted Logos11. Card-Stacking • Only tell your side of the story • “We know that there are terrorists working right now to kill Americans. We know that Saddam has helped these terrorists in the past. We know that people are suffering in Iraq and that we can help them by overthrowing their repressive government. There is nothing more that we need to know.”

33. Twisted Logos:12. Repetition • As Hitler’s propaganda ministry said: Make the lie big enough and often enough and they’ll believe anything. • President George W. Bush said, "See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.“ ~Wiki

34. Twisted Logos13. Glittering Generality • Use words that sound great but the words are so general that you can’t pin down exactly what is being promised. • “The politics of failure have failed. We should be going forwards, not backwards; upwards, not forwards; and always twirling, twirling to the future.” ~Kodos

36. Metaphors/Similes • “Our country has been issued a check marked ‘insufficient funds’” ~MLK

37. Parallelism • Pattern of phrasing that allows your listeners to anticipate what will be said next. • “I will not eat them in a box. I will not eat them with a fox. I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them…” • “I have a dream… I have a dream… From the rolling heights… From every mountain and mole hill…”

38. Say the negative/opposite, then say the positive. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” “I have a dream. That one day people will be judged not on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.” “You call this a sandwich with mayo on the side, this is mayo with a sandwich on the side.” Antithesis