Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 5

[ecosophia]

The semi-open posts  I've hosted here on the Covid-19 narrative, the inadequately tested experimental drugs for it, and the whole cascading mess surrounding them have continued to field a huge number of comments, so I'm opening another space for discussion. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 

3. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion. 

Comments

[ecosophia]

This is revealing, in an ironic way. Nazi propaganda was fairly effective in rallying the German masses but it was a flop in most other countries and cultures -- there's a reason William Joyce, who did English language propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis, was referred to derisively as "Lord Haw-Haw" by Allied soldiers and citizens. In much the same way, the propaganda being churned out these days by the US polititical class makes sense to those who have already bought into their worldview, and simply makes the rest of us roll our eyes.

[(Anonymous)]

"Nazi propaganda was fairly effective in rallying the German masses but it was a flop in most other countries and cultures"

I think this is a very important observation that deserves further study. One german poster online mentions his grandma that said: "Don't believe the people that say the Nazi propaganda was very convincing. Even as a teenager I could tell it's crap and never believed one word of it."

It would be an interesting historical exploration of the Nazis that tries to unemotionally find the human needs/desires/vices that were satisfied so well by the feeling of belonging to a genocidal group. Yes, I know that comparisons to today are very natural and they might be even useful, IF there was ever a country that got denazified without first being defeated and starved first.

[(Anonymous)]

That reads to me like propaganda is more a symptom of a disease (driven by a more fundamental cause) than a cause itself.

Re: propaganda

[(Anonymous)]

I think that the firm, simple answers of a lot of propaganda appeal to people who are looking for a simple explanation.

If you believe that things are often a lot more complex than they seem (for instance, from studying nature or history) then the pat, simple answers don't have the same appeal.

[(Anonymous)]

I would go so far as to say that the propaganda is meant solely to appeal to those that have bought into 'their worldview'. They don't know how to make an argument to convince anyone else, so only make verbal noises that their clan already is emotionally invested in.

Even within woke-dom, in general, the stories and prerogatives are self-reinforcing to those that believe. They're not trying to convince or recruit anyone to their point of view.

-LakelandRepotluck

[(Anonymous)]

This is an excellent point.

Over the last 20 years, I watched as post-911 war propaganda worked wonders on people on the political right and convinced them that there were terrorists hiding under their beds and we have to invade middle eastern countries because "freedom" - but the same propaganda didn't convince most of the left. Then I watched as anti-Trump propaganda did a number on the political left and turned them into deranged loons, but generally didn't work on the right (even the ones who weren't all that crazy about Trump still didn't succumb to the TDS). Now I feel like the covid propaganda is working on some people but not others. The PMC are falling for it big time, and there also seem to be some easily-frightened working class folks who are cowering in masks, but it's clearly not working on everyone.

That is the one problem with propaganda. No matter how good it is, it can't appeal to everyone, because people have different "triggers"/unmet needs that can't be met by the same approach.