From the GOP playbook?

[icehorse]

I swear this could have come from the GOP playbook:

“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.

Thus we see that propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound.”

Do you know where it really came from?

 

[Father Heathen]

Sounds exactly like the GOP and its voter base. "Their commin' for yer guns!", "Save the fetuses from the harlots!", "The gays are going to destroy our moral fabric!", "We need Gawd back in schools and in government!", "Science is of the Devil!", etc.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

How dare you draw comparisons between the GOP and any of their policies and politicians Hitler! Nation building wars and constantly repeating lies aren't the same as concentration camps and a well-oiled propaganda machine!

 

[YmirGF]

I swear this could have come from the GOP playbook:

“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.

Thus we see that propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound.”

Do you know where it really came from?

Yep. I do know where the idea came from. I wonder how many here do? And no, it's not from the GOP playbook, LOL.

Sounds exactly like the GOP and its voter base. "Their commin' for yer guns!", "Save the fetuses from the harlots!", "The gays are going to destroy our moral fabric!", "We need Gawd back in schools and in government!", "Science is of the Devil!", etc.

While I do agree, to an extent, this "feature" is not limited to the Republicans as the Democrats are equally to blame for their brand of fear-mongering.

 

[Augustus]

Do you know where it really came from?

I'd guess the Nazis, but were it worded in a more academic way it could come from any basic PR textbook. It's pretty accurate in terms of mass political comms whether people want to believe it or not.

Most PR campaigns are based around a small number of short, easy to understand key messages. It isn't simply a right wing tactic, just basic communication practice.

 

[icehorse]

Most PR campaigns are based around a small number of short, easy to understand key messages. It isn't simply a right wing tactic, just basic communication practice.

Agreed. But the GOP is far better at using this tactic than the Dems.

 

[Augustus]

Agreed. But the GOP is far better at using this tactic than the Dems.

Obama was good at it, as is Trump. At the moment Dems struggle because they don't seem to know what their messages are.

 

[icehorse]

Obama was good at it, as is Trump. At the moment Dems struggle because they don't seem to know what their messages are.

IMO, the real question here is how to make the populations less susceptible to this tactic?

 

[Augustus]

IMO, the real question here is how to make the populations less susceptible to this tactic?

There's nothing you can do about the tactic as it will always be the most effective. It's also not intrinsically problematic, it all depends on the messages.

Even then, I'm not sure you can do much about it as the majority of people have minimal engagement and people in general care a lot less about facts and systematic analysis of issues than most people believe. It's just the nature of our cognition.

 

[columbus]

I'd guess the Nazis, but were it worded in a more academic way it could come from any basic PR textbook. It's pretty accurate in terms of mass political comms whether people want to believe it or not.

Most PR campaigns are based around a small number of short, easy to understand key messages. It isn't simply a right wing tactic, just basic communication practice.

It does sound like Advertising 101.
The same techniques used to sell potato chips and Chevrolet.
Tom

 

[Revoltingest]

Godwin's Law realized in the first post?
Ya know....this bizarre fear that Republicans always offer the
next Hitler seems somewhere between histrionics & paranoia.
It might play in the echo chamber, but not outside of it.

 

[sun rise]

Godwin's Law realized in the first post?
Ya know....this bizarre fear that Republicans always offer the
next Hitler seems somewhere between histrionics & paranoia.
It might play in the echo chamber, but not outside of it.

I apply the duck test and hear quacking. The environment is different between then and now so the outcome will be different but I hear duck quacking.

 

[Revoltingest]

I apply the duck test and hear quacking. The environment is different between then and now so the outcome will be different but I hear duck quacking.

If I knew more about you, I could likely draw parallels
between you & Hitler (or at least one of his underlings).

How dare you draw comparisons between the GOP and any of their policies and politicians Hitler! Nation building wars and constantly repeating lies aren't the same as concentration camps and a well-oiled propaganda machine!

By the criteria you list, Democrats are Nazis too.
It's no doubt fun & invigorating to imagine that Trump is the next Hitler,
but where are the concentration camps, the invasion of Poland, etc, etc?
So many liberals, even mainstream media, cried "Hitler!" before the
election. Are/were they lying for campaign effect, or do/did they actually
believe these delusions?

The election is over. Hillary lost. Trump won. Time to get over it, and
deal with reality....there are many concrete things to advocate for or against.
This Trump as Hitler meme is just a pathetic distraction.

 

[icehorse]

The election is over. Hillary lost. Trump won. Time to get over it, and
deal with reality....there are many concrete things to advocate for or against.
This Trump as Hitler meme is just a pathetic distraction.

I'm not sure if you're referring to the OP here or not? The OP was most definitely NOT some sort of trump == hitler nonsense.

In mankind's current state of evolution, there are truths to be known about how to effectively persuade the masses. These truths are independent of who knows them.

As @Augustus mentioned, Obama was good at this. McConnell and Ryan are good at it. Hillary was not.

From the perspective of the OP, if you read more into it than that, that's on you.

This is an effective tactic and it's use is not evenly distributed across all of our politicians. Understanding that much is useful.

 

[Revoltingest]

I'm not sure if you're referring to the OP here or not? The OP was most definitely NOT some sort of trump == hitler nonsense.

Oh, not to the OP....which was more of a general comparison to Nazis.
Although the clickbait title does brush up against rather shrill partisanship.

In mankind's current state of evolution, there are truths to be known about how to effectively persuade the masses. These truths are independent of who knows them.

As @Augustus mentioned, Obama was good at this. McConnell and Ryan are good at it. Hillary was not.

From the perspective of the OP, if you read more into it than that, that's on you.

This is an effective tactic and it's use is not evenly distributed across all of our politicians. Understanding that much is useful.

I'm sure the Nazis didn't invent any of the tactics they employed.
They probably go back to when the first cave man decided he
wanted to be in charge of the rest of the tribe.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's no doubt fun & invigorating to imagine that Trump is the next Hitler,
but where are the concentration camps, the invasion of Poland, etc, etc?

His wasted bombs in Syria and on the MOAB on ISIS are good starts. And, of course, things are tense between Trump and Un. The travel ban is bad policy any way you look at, and Trump rescended Obama's order that public schools allow transgender students to use the restroom/locker room of their identified gender as well as trying to prevent the CDC from using the word transgender. Ditto for the word fetus.

 

[Revoltingest]

His wasted bombs in Syria and on the MOAB on ISIS are good starts. And, of course, things are tense between Trump and Un. The travel ban is bad policy any way you look at, and Trump rescended Obama's order that public schools allow transgender students to use the restroom/locker room of their identified gender as well as trying to prevent the CDC from using the word transgender. Ditto for the word fetus.

Has Trump's overseas wars been worse than Obama's, either Bush's, Johnson's, Nixon's, etc?
Nah.
Is temporarily restricting travel from a few (not all) predominantly Muslim countries Naziesque?
Nah.
Are transgender bathroom issues really comparable to Nazi crimes?
Nah.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Has Trump's overseas wars been worse than Obama's, either Bush's, Johnson's, Nixon's, etc?
Nah.
Is temporarily restricting travel from a few (not all) predominantly Muslim countries Naziesque?
Nah.
Are transgender bathroom issues really comparable to Nazi crimes?
Nah.

Not exactly the same, but it's going down the same path.

 

[Revoltingest]

Not exactly the same, but it's going down the same path.

The "same path"?
I've known people who lived in Germany during WW2...who lost
relatives in the gas chambers...who were horribly injured fighting
in WW2. To compare Trump to Hitler is laughable.
It would be lamentable if it harmed anything, but it just distracts
those who are best left outside of politics.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The "same path"?
I've known people who lived in Germany during WW2...who lost
relatives in the gas chambers...who were horribly injured fighting
in WW2. To compare Trump to Hitler is laughable.
It would be lamentable if it harmed anything, but it just distracts
those who are best left outside of politics.

Hitler himself didn't start with the gas chambers. To go as far to forbid the CDC from using certain terms, it very much is going down the same path.