Propaganda is the art of deception for political purposes. It can be quite useful tactically, but disastrous strategically, if used for too long. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” When Pravda said the Soviet Union was having a bumper crop, but the grocery shelves were empty, the propaganda failed, because reality has a way of intruding on fairy tales.
Barack Obama used propaganda quite effectively to sell Obamacare. Remember, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”? Ha! Now we know the bill’s official name, The Affordable Care Act, was even a lie. But the lie deceived enough people, just long enough, for a seventh of the nation’s economy to be placed under government control. But 16 years later, reality is smacking everyone between the eyes. Healthcare is more expensive, and less effective, than ever. The lie was tactically successful, but strategically unsustainable. Now we know Obama was lying to us all along.
Propaganda only works while it remains credible, and reality has a way of testing credibility. Deception can never be more than a short-term tactic, and “short term” is expiring for the current curators of political narratives – the MSM.
In 2022, confidence in the broadcast news was an abysmal 11 percent. According to Pew-Knight, that number is down to 6 percent now. The propaganda ministry’s credibility is falling because what they are saying is no longer believable. It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened nonetheless. Reality intruded on the narrative.
A century or more ago, the MSM came to a fork in the road. Go right and inform the people, or go left and influence the people. It chose left, and patted itself of the back for answering to a higher calling – steering the lives of what it considered the uneducated masses. The MSM embraced their inner Goebbels, ignored the facts, and started spinning narratives – ideological sales pitches. “But wait there’s more!” Their narratives became increasingly unbelievable, because they forgot that lies don’t trump reality.
- The New York Times’ Walter Duranty assured us that things were peachy in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin.
- CBS’s Walter Cronkite told us the Vietnam war was lost, after we had decisively won the Tet Offensive.
- 60 Minutes’ Dan Rather introduced us to “fake but accurate” when he tried to influence an election with an obvious forgery.
- The New York Times and Washington Post accepted Pulitzer Prizes for spreading a hoax, created by the Clinton campaign.
- The alphabet soup news media assured us the 2020 election was fair and secure, as we watched video of mules shoveling armloads of ballots into drop boxes.
- The propaganda ministry and every Democrat who has ever used a beer and a hamburger to project “normal guy” said Joe Biden was a model of strong leadership, as we watched him mumble, stumble, and wander.
The more reality intruded on the narratives, the faster the narratives failed, and the institutions curating them lost credibility. Now
- The New York Times has less credibility than Mad Magazine,
- The Washington Post is shedding staff faster than my dog sheds hair,
- CNN is determined to prove that a 24/7 news service can have fewer viewers than the Home Shopping Network,
- ABC’s The View must lead off episodes with retractions and legal disclaimers,
- The Editor at CBS News is trying to right the canoe, with a staff determined to capsize it, and
- Caroline Leavitt mocks the MSM with impunity, and they have no rebuttal.
What is an institution to do, when its only core competency is deception, and its deceptions have been exposed? When the lies fail, lie harder. And when they lie harder, the propagandists enter a doom loop of absurdity, in which the lies are increasingly unbelievable, triggering even more absurd lies – expressed with volume and invective, rather than logic.
- The world will be a lifeless cinder in under 10 years unless we adopt communism.
- Debate is violence.
- Rioting is “mostly peaceful.”
- Girls can be boys, and boys can have babies.
- Human traffickers are “good family men.”
- AOC is the most gifted intellect of our age.
- Rashida Tlaib is a model of grace and tolerance.
As the loop continues to its inevitable conclusion, all the narratives begin to fail: transgenderism, climate change, DEI, open borders, social justice, criminal justice reform, and on, and on, and on.
When the lies stop convincing, the Dems lose their grip on power, and we enter the dangerous terminal stage of the absurdity loop. When they can no longer influence, the Dems will default to their only remaining tools: violence, lawfare, and corruption. What we have seen in the courts and on the streets in recent years, is proof that the propaganda is failing.
In a recent article at Hot Air, David Strom described the most recent iteration of the absurdity loop. MSM reporters are insisting they never called Donald Trump a racist. Really, that’s what they’re claiming. Strom asked, “Can the gaslighting get even more brazen?”
The simple answer is: Absolutely! In fact, the propaganda has to get worse (i.e. more brazen) for the propagandists to finish spiraling into oblivion. The industry must lie harder, before it dies – and according to polling, it is dying.
Author Bio: John Green is a retired engineer and political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He spent his career designing complex defense systems, developing high performance organizations, and doing corporate strategic planning. He is a contributor to American Thinker, The American Spectator, and the American Free News Network. He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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