What does American Propaganda Look Like

propaganda doesn’t just come from your government. It comes from everywhere. It’s not as blunt and obvious as we’re taught in school. It’s slower, more insidious. It sneaks into you over time. It promotes bigger ideas, beliefs, and ideologies. It sells you on social norms. It sells you on life aspirations.

distinction between “agitation” propaganda and “integration” propaganda. You see agitation propaganda in those cringe war posters from the last century. It advocates for direct, specific, and often violent action. It often comes from a single, centralized source, like a government office.

Ellul distinguished between “vertical” and “horizontal” propaganda. Government offices and agencies engage in vertical propaganda, sending out messages and memes over all kinds of media, telling you exactly what to think.

horizontal propaganda, which happens through peer networks. It’s more sophisticated. All the incel nonsense, all the QAnon conspiracy theories, that evolved via horizontal propaganda.

Ellul distinguished “sociological” propaganda from “political” propaganda. Like “agitation” propaganda, political propaganda focuses on specific actions. It comes from an explicit, specific source. It focuses on the short term, like a revolution. Sociological propaganda focuses on more general worldviews and orientations. It comes from a number of sources.

Sociological propaganda works on you, even if you’re smart, because it often tells you what you want to hear, while enabling the exact opposite of what’s good for you.

There’s no easy solution for this problem. You just have to practice good listening. You have to be willing to examine your own thoughts. You have to look at your own sacred kittens. You have to be willing to admit you were wrong about something, and you have to realize that you’re not simply the sum of all your political beliefs and opinions. You’re a thinking machine. You’re allowed to change.