Propaganda Challenge

In response to last Logic Loop's propaganda challenge, I have received many examples of propaganda from you (our subscribers). I have printed some of them for your benefit.

As you will see from the examples, propaganda is everywhere around us – even in places we don't expect it.

Hans Bluedorn

P.S. Example No. 1 received the free book. The rest are in random order.

RESPONSES:

From: "Becca Beard" becca#fchomeschool.org

Hi Hans,

Recently, in our town of Flower Mound, TX, we had a hot mayoral race. Flower Mound is a suburb of Dallas. VERY little crime. I often wonder why the police feel necessary. From what I have personally seen, it seems their main job is to is drive around and give speeding tickets. One of our candidates sent out a mailing to all of Flower Mound claiming that we needed to elect him before drugs took control of our community and children. The flyer had a picture of a drug needle, sitting on a black table, with cocaine dust artistically scattered here and there. It was an obvious ploy to try to scare voters into voting for him. Not only was he trying to scare us into thinking our community was on the brink of collapse because of all the children doing drugs, but he also wanted us to believe hat HE could personally take care of it all...thank God he lost!

Sincerely,

Becca Beard

From: "Becky Rathbun" brathbun#OceanSprings.com

Hi Nate and Hans,

This is not a great item for the propaganda contest but here goes regardless: There is a large billboard five miles south of my home. It shows a mutant giant cockroach lying motionless on its back with legs curled in the air. The sign says, "DDT is in cigarette smoke." Despite the lack of scientific evidence that DDT is harmful to humans, this bit of billboard propaganda utilizes the propaganda of previous decades that has convinced the population at large that DDT is really bad stuff. The intent is to get people off cigarettes or to prevent them from starting the habit of smoking. Even if you *know* that DDT is safe for humans and deadly to bugs, you still feel like the safer thing to do is to avoid cigs. After a chuckle, the billboard's propaganda appeals to our innate Fear of Death.

Becky Rathbun

From: Nomi2ma#aol.com

Dear Hans,

To me, the Arabs have created a veritable treasure trove of transfer propaganda in their efforts to make the world sympathetic to Arabs and hateful to Israelis.

To anyone on the spot, it is obvious that the Arabs, as a people, are hateful – even their grammar school children are trained to hate and to kill, with all their songs, children's programs on TV, and the general cultural environment about becoming a suicide bomber, dancing in Jewish blood, and so on.

Meanwhile, it is just as obvious that Israelis, as a people, are peace-loving and justice-oriented, with all their songs and cultural environment about peace, love, children, balloons, flowers, and so on. (American news media are supported by Arab oil $, so don't expect to learn the truth from them.)

So last year, when a film was shown of a 12-year-old boy being shot to death as he hid behind his father, all the Arab reports said, "He was killed by Israelis." The US media repeated this. By seeing a child die, and hearing that Israelis did it, everyone was supposed to, and DID, hate and rant against Israel.

Then the truth came out, as described in the following news report. (Actually there have been scores of reports that give the truth in greater detail. If you are interested in knowing more, let me know.) The following is an excerpt from a news article. The full article is appended below my letter, and is followed by a list of Arab media-watch web sites.

From a news article on Arab propaganda:

"The Palestinians have an excellent track record in manipulating images that appear in the world media. They achieved an enormous propaganda windfall at the beginning of the second intifada, when a Palestinian film crew working for a French television network recorded the shooting of eleven-year-old Mohammed al-Dura as his father tried in vain to shield him during a battle at a road junction near Gaza.

"The video, edited to portray the IDF as heartless child killers, fit the Palestinian story line perfectly. The Israeli government fell into the trap, issuing an apology even before investigating the incident. Mohammed al-Dura, the "poster boy" of the second intifada, will go down in history as a celebrated martyr of the Palestinian people – and yet, the Palestinian version of al-Dura's death is a lie, an invention of Palestinian P.R. professionals.

"A thorough IDF investigation, which was issued three weeks after the incident and confirmed by a German TV crew, showed that the bullets fired at the boy had come from the direction of Palestinian gunmen* who had attacked an Israeli guard post. But the world had "witnessed" the shooting of al-Dura as the media scripted it – an atrocity committed by Israeli troops – and the damage could not be undone. It is impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube."

[* Actually, if you watch the footage, the bullet came from the direction of the CAMERA, which, of course – in the middle of an Arab attack from four sides on Israeli soldiers in a small, isolated building at a crossroads – was surrounded by Palestinian gunmen. And what was that child doing in the middle of an armed assault on an Israeli guard house? It is documented that the Arabs have recruited child "martyrs" by paying their parents enormous sums. Note that the father of Mohammad al-Dura did NOT die. N'omi]

Hans, I hope you get a lot of really great answers in this contest.

Love, in Jesus,

N'omi

From: "Michelle Leichty" mjsl#cfl.rr.com

At the risk of sounding anti-church, I find an example of propaganda (people manipulating our emotions) at our church every Sunday. After the sermon, the musicians come back on stage and play poignant music while the pastor gives an invitation to "give your life to Christ" or make a change in your life based on the sermon. Then the whole congregation sings a song, "Just As I Am," or something that stirs the emotion. I'm not against people making changes in their lives, or giving their lives to Christ, I just don't think that a decision based upon emotion is going to be the kind that "sticks" – although our God is an awesome God! (By the way-I do really like my church, except for this emotional plea every Sunday.)

Michelle Leichty

From: "Kaycee Pollock" pollock#onramp.net

"100 Calories. 0% Fat. Proof that there is a God and she is a woman watching her figure." (Woman's Day, Sept. 1, 2002, page 17.)

God must be a woman! Dannon says so! Appeals directly to their demographics – women buy more yogurt. Hey – let's make our main consumers feel grand for buying our yogurt by comparing them to God. Dannon is saying, "If God watches HER figure – then there is nothing wrong with you. Buy our yogurt."

Kaycee Pollock

From: "Lisa Brown McManus"lisabrown_mcmanus#hotmail.com

Hi,

Here is a propaganda example:

Churches throughout North America are using this transfer technique in their so called attempt to evangelize. Frequently these churches describe themselves as "seeker sensitive." Rather than proclaim the gospel and the Word of God in all its fullness they play pleasant music and have cute dramas. Their hope is that by making the individual feel good, the individual will transfer those feelings to "make a decision for Christ."

These churches are so misguided. They do not acknowledge the sovereignty of God who chooses us! The power is in the Word of God not the practices and programs of man.

Specifically, I have experienced this at Willowcreek (Chicago) and Lakeshore St. Andrew's (Tecumseh, Ontario).

Praise God that He has opened our eyes to this propaganda and we now worship our Holy Creator at Campbell Baptist, devoted to the study and proclamation of the Bible, and to doctrinal purity.

Lisa McManus

From: "Christian Academy of LIFE" caol#bigpond.com

Dear Hans,

I've been doing a lot of legal advocacy work this year & wondered why we were getting so many requests for help in Queensland. Recently a friend advised me that last year, the Qld. Education Department held training seminars for school teachers to make sure that they were aware of & reported any incidents of child abuse. They have a legal mandate to report all forms of abuse.

Apparently, they listed all the different forms of abuse to watch out for, and one of the categories of abuse listed was "homeschooling." They were trying to put across the notion that most homeschool families were using "homeschooling" as an excuse to actually do nothing with their children, and neglect is a form of abuse.

We do know of the rare case of a homeschooler who does very little learning; but really, when you think about it, if you wanted to neglect your children, which is the easier option to take:

To have your children under foot all day having to keep them occupied & having to give an account to every shopkeeper, friend, neighbour & relative; or to simply save yourself all the hassle & send them off to school so you can have some peace & quiet?

Of course I could talk all day about the stories of people deciding to begin homeschooling because of child abuse at school.

Bruce McNeice – Christian Academy of Life Toowoomba QLD Australia

From: "M.Sloot" mbs#rogers.com

Example: From the United States Army "Freedom isn't free," Shows soldiers in battle, risking their lives, as well as people back home, quite safe and content. Join the Army!(this is a blatant pull at making the reader feel guilty for living their life in freedom. All to enlist more men)

From: Ralph Hendrix via "Debbie Erwin Hendrix" mychildsmom#apex.net

Mr. Bluedorn,

I was reading my wife's emails and came across your "propaganda challenge." I know that your entry deadline was Saturday, but I couldn't resist telling you my example of propaganda. I think you will be as shocked as I was when I heard of it:

I was at our yearly denominational assembly. The children were separated from the parents during teaching sessions and keynote speaking times. The assembly leadership had arranged for an outside children's evangelistic group to teach the children while the parents were occupied with the things of God. This group would share of Jesus' love and devotion for the children and then would ask if any would want to be saved. This doesn't sound too awfully bad, but how they presented the gospel was pretty controversial. [Here's the propaganda part.] They were showing the children (young and older) pictures of snakes, things on fire and other scary pictures. They told the children hell is scary like the pictures and wouldn't they rather go to heaven than to hell. They were using the children's fear to scare them into heaven. Needless to say, this group did not stay the entire week at the assembly.

I wish I could have sent this in for the contest. I look forward to seeing your readers' accounts of other propaganda. Thanks for keeping our minds sharp.

Sincerely,

Ralph Hendrix

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