democracy will be a farce
unless individuals are trained
to think for themselves,
to judge independently,
to be critical,
to be able to detect subtle propaganda
and the motives which inspire it
John Dewey

Paine, Propaganda, and Peace

American revolutionary Thomas Paine had written some provocative propaganda that apparently annoyed King George. In return, the frustrated monarch jailed dozens of Paine's friends - to annoy him. There had to be consequences. It was George's strategy to keep troublemakers in a constant state of anxiety until the natural course of things yielded their repentance. It might have been hard for friends to remember Paine fondly from jail. And it was. It might have been harder for Paine to remember his jailed friends while he walked free. But it wasn't. Paine was not walking free. He got to hear about his friends from a prison cell of his own. IN FRANCE! Paine was in France (no friend of kings at the time) and the French freedom fighters he had assisted, had jailed their fraternity brother. Had George paid them off? No, they weren't interested in a deal with any king, they just weren't interested in having their beheadings interrupted by any foreigner with fancy views on the death penalty. There had to be consequences.

Today, propaganda might go unnoticed, but reporting evidence of serious crime is met with serious punishment. Names like Reality Winner, Edward Snowden, and Thomas Drake are associated with treasonous activity in the public mind. This the proper association... treasonous activities were reported. Somehow assertions of treason get deflected before they hit their intended targets and messengers can be shot in broad daylight. That's now to be expected.

The machinery that suppresses a daring dissenter is the same machinery that spins their name towards the bucket labeled "TRAITER." Disclosing evidence of domestic espionage - Americans spying on Americans - will result in exile. Disclosing evidence of foreign interference in elections - will result in jailtime. Sophisticated propaganda techniques unimagined by Paine or Goering can blanket breaking stories and distract investigators. No need to blind investigators -targeted distraction is sufficient. The machine knows who they are, it knows how to distract. (This is passed off as providing a "customized" user experience - and indeed it does.) The high tech methods used to create cyber-profiles of potential customers are being refined every day by clustered supercomputer powered artificial intelligence. Measures of income, sexuality, travel preferences, political affiliation, and patriotic zeal are statistically reformulated to predict the buying, voting, and protest proclivities of free citizens. High tech methods of personal identification and surveillance destroy attempts by citizens to understand those very methods. The last bits of our privacy have been snatched.

Consider periods of Great Terror from the past. Fellow countrymen turn against each other. Those who allegedly harbor critical thoughts (about whatever - maybe the color of your socks) are labeled enemies. Lists are made. Friends and family fight each other, betray each other. Under threat of job loss, jail time, torture, or execution, many even turn on their spouses. (To be clear - this is not one of the humorous essays. This is dead serious.) From confessions made by the betrayed, more lists are made. And so on. But today, all of that can be avoided. Lists have been rendered obsolete. Ink, time, and footwork can be saved. Accurate real time actionable results are ready... today. If the new bullies aren't quite ready for a final trick, that's ok. The data isn't going anywhere. Catalogued, crunched and in the cloud, it will be there when it's needed.

Or maybe, it's use has begun. Not with the a bang of a coup, but with the whimper of slowly strangled civic interest, action aversion, speech suppression. Cracks accepting the thin edge of a dividing wedge will be slowly deepened, timelines calculated, weaknesses identified, database tables populated, distinctions made. Who can be bought. Who can be persuaded. Who must disappear. We who must simply be stepped over will be told we are the brave. In fact, we the pawns of these disunified states, will do the bidding of transnational manipulators, who egg us on in our division. We will gleefully slander our brothers,. Blind to the irony of misplaced patriotic anger, we will all be cast aside along with our favorite flags. They no longer serve the purposes of the transnationals. We are baby birds hungry with expectation of reciprocal loyalty. That hunger will be satisfied with a worm and a wink. We will be told that the sociopathic laughter of cynical disgust loosed in our general direction is really the laughter of victory and freedom. The sight of our celebrations - our superior swallows of THAT lie - will ignite another round of thigh smacking hilarity echoing in the bowels of a state so deep we've never imagined. Catching breath and wiping tears, the bunkered bowel dwellers will invite us to rejoin in new patriotic anthems, "No summer soldiers are we, no sunshine patriots we! Good job Brownie, way to be!" We will be told we've been cast into paradise. A vague memory of more courageous men will fade into no glory whatsoever.

Divide and conquer. The first strategic rule of war has been successfully executed upon the previously united states. Anyone who doesn't drink the post operative amnesiac will reflect... "why didn't we recognize divide and conquer. What were we thinking? I guess we were thinking about issues we thought were "important at the time." Sure, we can list those issues easily, we've been good students, the sins of our brothers are well documented. They can list ours too. Guess we just like lists. Well, bygones... but what do we do now?

There is a fundamental choice for eyes that can still see. You can keep them open or shut them. As soon as possible. The open eyed will also be the open hearted. The open eyed will carry the sleepers. They remember brotherhood. They remember that strength of unity in the face of adversity, the joy of collaborating to solve a problem, the power of courage to face the common enemy. Fallen brothers will be carried to a safe place. The medic will bring them back. Together they will agree on what it is they are seeing. There is a reason most large animals have two eyes. Things will come into focus when we bring our individual visions together.

Democracy is better than tyranny. If we can agree on that, John Dewey says we can fix the problem. He left us a plan. We must detect subtle propaganda and the motives which inspire it. Ok Dewey, how? Understand the spectrum of influence. Is influence is good? The spectrum begins with teaching (we highly agree) and ends with coercive indoctrination (we highly disagree). Types of influence between the extremes; Persuasion, Propaganda and, Manipulation. Understand three essential tools for identifying the station. Typically it is intent that is used to classify these styles of communication, but intent is slippery... hard to nail down. Communication can also be evaluated can be evaluated if techniques are carefully evaluated. What techniques?

rhetoric - from the field of linguisticscognitive bias -from the field of psychologylogical fallacy - from the field of scientific methodology.

Expert testimony and peer reviewed sources back up the utility and proper use of these tools. Suggestions for accurately inferring motives are backed up with studies where possible. This is an art. Motive can be statistically proscribed but not assigned with certainty .

All the sites content, in one way or another, speaks to this basic issue.

There might also be some facts. Like these; from Mounk and Foa (2017) / 2019 Levada Center poll,

1) "Only 19 percent of U.S. millennials agree “military takeover is NOT legitimate in a democracy." After a bit of math and illogic, that implies that 81% of U.S. millennials agree that military takeover is legitimate in a democracy.

2) 25% of millennials agree “choosing leaders through free elections is unimportant.”

3) 51 percent of Soviets said they liked, admired or respected Stalin.

The assertion that powerful influences are worth looking into should be evident to anyone who loves the people in their lives, to any citizen that values freedom. Bad news: Strong authoritarian influences are growing rapidly in the early 21st century. Scientifically refined influence techniques are primary weapons in a virtual war effecting individuals, families, and nations across the globe. Cyber warfare is not limited to routers, firewalls, and ISPs. It is the content of ubiquitous communication that is most destructive. Good news: The workings of malevolent influence can be identified and its messages rejected. To summarize: all historical developments of authoritarianism have been dependent upon practices of influence. Practices of influence are dependent upon rhetoric, logical fallacy and cognitive bias. Fancy names, but easily understood concepts that, for some reason, have gone untaught and underdiscussed in America. Once the world's bright beacon of hope, and champion of freedom, the United States is increasingly seen as morally suspect and ethically ineffective. Appearance is not everything and the governing estate is not (generally) naive - but to the sore and befuddled masses, appearances are inspiring but actions secure allegiance. Americans of all have the wherewithal to effect not only appearance, but substance. These are the times that try men's souls

The farther back in time one travels - the murkier things become, so let's also leave King George for a moment and remember a more recent authoritarian. Joseph Stalin ruled a scant hundred years ago, give or take. There have been plenty of autocrats and dictators in the interim but I just watched "The Death of Stalin" (great cast, right?) It's hilarious - really, I mean it, side-splitting - how did they make this topic hilarious? Actually, he dies early in the movie - it's Three Stooges hilarious. His fear soaked sychophants stumble over each other to - actually, let's leave this morbid topic altogether for the moment. Some readers need no convincing on these matters. The trials (lack of trials?) of journalists being beaten in countries a bit to our east (10 hours by plane) are well known. Maybe down your street in Belarus, or any of a dozen other places (see Amnesty International) things are pretty obvious. Maybe some readers have read about Reality. But for others - its not happening here, not where we live. Not in A Child's Home. Come to think of it, where DO you live? I was imagining you're a middle aged male. White, middle class, safe, secure in American. Just like me! Oh, but how silly. You could be anywhere. Haven't I learned anything from Twitter? Sorry, but every one has biases. We were born with them and they distort the way each of us see the world. So that's one bias. We already hit logical fallacy with the military millennials. And we just hit some rhetoric right there.

The world belongs, in the end, to those who know things, and who know how to argue

George Will

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