Isn’t propaganda just a form of persuasion? What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?

Edit: Not all propaganda involves lying. For some reason, we seem to be more comfortable with a person lying to us than we are with viewing a propaganda poster that uses verifiable facts.

Edit 2: Another interesting note is that in some countries, propaganda is not viewed negatively like it is in English speaking countries.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
      2·
      11 months ago

      It’s not about choosing the right facts. It’s about how the information is presented. One such case I can recall involved covid propaganda. A qultist anti-vaxxer I know posted an article with the headline (paraphrasing) “70% of covid deaths in hospital were vaccinated”. Turns out that was true. Except the article was presented as if this was evidence of the vaccine failing. Unfortunately for the qultist idiot, that’s an expected outcome. The area it happened in, had pushed hard for early vaccination. The population was like 90% vaccinated and vulnerable people were targeted early. Quite the opposite to the tone of the article, reality is that the vaccine was massively effective. But the facts were presented with an ignorant and incorrect interpretation.

      That’s how facts can be used in propaganda.