The effects of propaganda on the planet

     Trump lies and distracts and spews propaganda. I’ve posted about this before, how he’s applied much of the very same techniques that Hitler laid out in Mein Kampf.  (I mean, he did keep a copy of Hitler’s book in his bedroom.) 

     Hitler wrote that propaganda “must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed.” You must appeal to feelings and rile up your target, because, he stated, they are incapable of understanding anything. Their powers are restricted and “their understanding is feeble.” Hitler actually said that. And to a tee, Trump follows this most basic tenet of propaganda.

     Look at the following. It’s from a 1998 People Magazine. It's that rare quote that shows all his cards.

If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.

It’s an insidious statement that reeks of hubris. I keep wondering, what if people knew that he believed they were feeble and stupid? What if they knew that they were played?

     As if that wasn’t enough, the consequences of propaganda are scary, because when Trump makes decisions as president, he’s pandering to people who aren’t informed. And if trouble looms, as it does via the Russian and Comey investigations, what does Trump have to do? He must pump up his pandering and enforce whatever lie it will take to solidify his base.
    Last week, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. It wasn’t about making the best decision given the evidence –– there was no regard for science, job trends, fellow man, the next generation or even Pittsburgh. It was an empty act of defiance meant to shore up his power. What begins with a lie can only end up missing the issue, accomplishing nothing.

Denial

     The movie Denial may not have been a great movie, but it was an insightful movie. It’s the true story about the libel case brought by holocaust denier, David Irving, played by Timothy Spall, against the author, Deborah Lipstadt, played by Rachel Wiesz. In this age of alternative facts, it’s incredibly timely and instructive. It’s also pretty satisfying. Deborah Lipstadt wins the case and it makes you want to march down to Texas and punch Alex Jones in the mouth.

     Its lesson comes out of the title. Lipstadt’s lawyer tells her, “What feels best isn’t always what works best.” And what felt most natural to Lipstadt was to rail against the injustice, get Holocaust survivors to attest to the atrocities and express their suffering. Her legal team, however, had a different strategy –– make the argument about him, David Irving; set aside your personal feelings; mine all of Irving’s writings and speeches for discrepancies and, ultimately, find proof that his version of the Holocaust evolved and was twisted to suit his purposes. It was an exhausting amount of work that showed how labyrinthine and time-consuming the process of unearthing falsehoods is. For Deborah Lipstadt, it would be an act of self-denial. “How hard it is to hand over your conscience,” she says. 

     For us ad people, it’s a reminder that Persuasion comes by focusing on the target, by setting aside our own feelings, our own tastes and styles and media preferences to communicate that, which would be most effective to the consumer.

     For every thinking person concerned about and offended by an affront to the truth, we need to understand the facts of our target's life, the facts about the issues and the facts that support our solutions. While we may all want to vent on Facebook and blast the president –– Malignant Narcissist!, Con Man!, Angry Cheeto!, Mango Mussolini!, Human Corncob!, Hair Furher!, Putin’s Puppet!, Child-man in chief! or just, well, Douche Bag! –– it won’t accomplish much more than it would to scream into your pillow. Perhaps it will keep Resistors at a full boil for an extra week, but it won’t win an argument or change anyone’s mind.
     It's all about our target –– listening to their opinions and their previous statements, probing their point of view, digging into the history of their opinions and what history itself tells us about their policies. It takes work and discipline. Restraint is a bitch. Just this morning, Trump again called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas and it really pissed me off. I was tempted to just rant and rage.

Crap

            In the ad world, there’s been an increasing amount of work designed to pull on people’s emotional strings. There’s no benefit to most of the stuff and, ironically, no real understanding about which emotional string should be struck in order to compel people to buy. Its proponents want to build big brands like Nike or Apple, but evidently lack the knowledge of how Nike and Apple got to be Nike and Apple. I keep hearing that consumers want to have a conversation with brands. Seriously? I think they want their car to run, their computer not to freeze and their vegetables to be fresh. To spout such advertising without offering up real reasons, just shows a lack of respect for consumers. I mean, do we really think people are that stupid? Sadly, the problem goes beyond Madison Avenue.

            In the wider world of politics, we now have a propagandist for a president who, as such, has no regard for facts and rouses our worst emotions. Lacking the requisite RTB’s, he, too, shows exactly what he thinks of us, presumably believing that we should give him our respect automatically because he’s president. Wrong. He works for us, remember? That said, what’s he done? He’s insulted, lied, been greedy, abused women and minorities and so on. He hasn’t shown any depth of knowledge in politics, history or command of the issues. He hasn’t revealed a deep moral core. So why should we respect him? Respect has to be earned. He must think we're stupid.

            Last year the big headline from the Cannes Ad Festival declared that there’s a lot of “crap content” out there. Well, now, as I read that Trump is running ads to draw more people to attend his inauguration, I can only conclude that there’s crap content and there’s CRAP content. I can't even bring myself to watch it on TV and contribute to positive ratings.