Propaganda

Propaganda, simply put, is biased or misleading information that is spread in order to propagate a particular point of view. In the broadest strokes, it has been used throughout history by governing bodies, particularly during war time, to spread the ideals that they believe their people should follow and uphold. 

Propaganda in and of itself isn’t a bad thing necessarily, even if it has been demonised in the western world. War time posters meant to boost the morale of soldiers and advertise warbonds, those are propaganda. Beer Commercials that talk about flying the American flag and being grateful for the good times our freedom allows, that's propaganda. These are all good and cherished ideas, but they are of course heavily biased towards the ideals of the United States, meaning by definition, they are propaganda used for good.

Propaganda can, of course, be used to push ideas that are actively harmful to people. This is mostly seen in authoritarian countries like North Korea and Russia. They will often control their countries social media to ensure that their leaders images are seen as perfect, and almost deified. They will endlessly push the idea that serving the cause and being a model citizen is the greatest thing you could possibly do for your country. This is the misleading kind of propaganda, on top of being heavily biased. This type of propaganda hides the truth, and silences people who speak out against it.

Propaganda has the potential to have massive implications on large communities of people. Given enough time and given its widespread enough, it can implant an idea, good or bad, into the minds of an entire nation of people. The idea of pride in our country, our love of family, freedom and liberty, was implanted in us by decades of inadvertent propaganda. This obviously wasn't meant to harm us, in fact it was always supposed to help us, by instilling us with the American ideals we hold in our hearts more than a century later.

However, in many more cases, propaganda can almost be akin to a sickness, spreading around unchecked and weakening the foundation of a community from the inside out. Authoritarians  throughout history and across the globe use propaganda to instill the idea that their way of doing things is the best and only way their people can prosper. And since the people are more than likely only ever exposed to what their leaders are telling them, its harder for them to resist. They will begin to internalize what they’ve been told, and refuse to speak out even if they’re being mistreated.

The spread of propaganda can have a very unfortunate effect on many minority groups, especially during times in history when they were particularly marginalized. During the Jim Crow Era, there were hundreds of pieces of propaganda portraying black people and other minority groups as ugly and uneducated. This propaganda wasn't necessarily implanting new ideas into people, what it was meant to do was further radicalize the racism that already existed in a lot of people's hearts.

Ultimately, I do think propaganda has the potential to affect my generation a lot. Gen Z his growing up in a country and an economy that's very much in a state of chaos, everything is far more expensive and polarized. It’s more than likely that a lot of younger people would be quick to simply fall in line and believe what the media is telling them, simply because it gives them an answer to the questions they’ve been racked with for so long.

Measuring the Reach of Russia’s Propaganda in the Russia-Ukraine War | RAND