The other day I was annoyed to find a large bug in my bedroom. After rapidly disposing of the unwanted guest, I was still rattled and turned to Google to see whether such critters are a sign of bad luck in certain cultures. Helpful as ever, Google came up with some prompts, the first one being ‘are bugs a good source of protein’. Not very subtle as far as propaganda goes. On the other hand, this morning I found a news story decrying wild conspiracy theories (of obvious Russian origin) meant to influence European elections, which are held this weekend in all 27 EU countries. Chief among them was precisely the vile conspiracy theory that the EU is going to force us to eat bugs. Not true, claimed the article. At this point I had to check and discovered that I am not mistaken - the EU has approved various types of insect flour for human consumption.
This post is not about cricket flour or the EU, it’s about propaganda in general, no matter if it’s about the various wars going on, climate change, trans issues, or elections of any kind. Many of us consider ourselves quite skilled at detecting propaganda and find various stories stupid. How can anyone believe such crap? This is a grave mistake. One thing you should never do is underestimate your enemies. If the government, Big Pharma or the military industrial complex keep churning out the most ridiculous stories to fill our various feeds it’s because they work. You cannot fool everyone all the time, but you will fool some every day. That’s what matters. Everyone knows political parties use armies of PR experts, advertising people and influencers in their campaigns. So do all other big players who want to sell you something. These guys are usually well-paid and with good reason. Their marketing strategies pay off big time.
A few days ago I read a study saying that no, ultra-processed food does not make you fat. McDonald’s here I come! Another story informed me that only a small number of people experience serious antidepressant withdrawal symptoms. Phew! Over the past few weeks, there was an uptick in tear-jerking stories meant to romanticize the life of the soldiers in Ukraine and shame those who refuse to serve. Such stories are aimed at the hundred of thousands of Ukrainian male refugees of conscription age who were summoned to return home and join the army. Well, good luck with that!
How is it that such obvious propaganda stories work? The main problem is intellectual laziness. People don’t bother to educate themselves enough to form their own convictions so they rely on the predominant opinion in whatever bubble they live in. Then there's the information overload, particularly among heavy social media users. The brain cannot cope with the huge amount of information or disinformation provided by the countless posts you’ve scrolled through. Information overload causes confusion, indecisiveness, stress and mental fatigue. You don’t know what to think about most issues you’re confronted with so you’ll borrow whatever opinion. Many Europeans don’t care much about the upcoming elections for the European Parliament. Those guys work in far-away Brussels and God knows what they do. Still, you may want to go to the polls just to show you’re a responsible citizen. If you chance upon the article saying that the EU is a nice organization and the bad things you’ve heard are just conspiracy theories you’re more likely to vote for a pro-European party. That is if you remember hearing bad things, which is not a given. Currently, we have the attention span of a goldfish - 8 seconds, according to some studies. More alarming, recent studies claim Gen Z youngsters lose focus in 1.3 seconds. Not enough time to actually read anything on the Internet, let alone get an informed opinion. You can barely remember what you read this morning! This explains why election campaigns tend to become more frantic as they draw to a close. (If you think the political circus in the US is unprecedented, wait till we get closer to November!) There are those who have clear opinions on most matters, but many are too confused and easy to sway. Pollsters politely refer to them as undecided. The goldfish!
While thinking about how propaganda works, I realized that some of the ideas in my own head are probably just propaganda. Just as they cannot fool everyone all the time, you cannot defend yourself all the time. Some stupid notions are bound to slip through no matter how vigilant you consider and media-savvy you consider yourself.
Thanks for reading!
