why does propaganda work?

Question

why do people get tricked and believe in lies?

Answer 1

Well, you only have to look at such nonsense as the Global Warming Obsession to see how gullible people can be. I think it is partly because it is what they want to believe: it suits their world view. Of course, as Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time" and beyond any shadow of a doubt, "you can fool some of the people ALL of the time." Then again, repetition helps, as in Hunting the Snark, "Anything I say three times is true!" Finally Goebbels was of the opinion that if you are going to tell a lie, you must tell an ENORMOUS lie. People simply will not be able to believe you could be so brazen. An example of this would be Gordon Brown claiming to have conquered inflation all by himself.

Answer 2

Because there are enough people who will believe anything if the propoganda is presented in a form acceptable to them. It is the premise on which Governments around the world rule the population.

A prime example is Tony Blair's "45 minutes to total destruction" speech to Parliament when attempting to justify an invasion of Iraq. Parliament and the majority of the population fell for it despite no evidence. It was, as we all know now, a total pack of lies. But the propoganda leading up to the speech ensured acceptance.

Answer 3

Why does propaganda work?? This is how it works in Turkey.

Anyone who asks a question, or comments in a positive way about the Armenian Genocide Goes to jail.
Article 301 gives the green light to the nationalist prosecutors to prosecute anyone they desire. Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk prosecuted because of his remarks about the Armenian genocide, Hrant Dink prosecuted, then shot by nationalists, Elif Shafak prosecuted for writing a novel which mentions Armenian genocide. Taner Akcam, a historian prosecuted, each of these writers, journalists, and historians get death treaths daily.

1.5 million Armenians were killed and kicked out of their ancestral homelands.
30,000 Kurds are killed so far and more die daily.
300,000 Greeks were killed during Armenian Genocide.
150,000 Assyrians were also killed during the Armenian Genocide. Not to mention the Cyprus.

After ALL this Turkey portrays itself of being very innocent country.

I couldn't find BIGGER propaganda than this.

Answer 4

Not everyone does. You clearly think you don't, but I suspect we all do to some extent. Propaganda is targeted at an intended audience, and so long as enough of those people buy it, no one else matters. Did you believe the Iraqi Information Minister? He had his audience, someone did.

Answer 5

We trust people and imagery etc that we shouldn't, and from an early age. It isn't simply authority figures, there is a lot of implying going on, that is purely propaganda - idiots convince us of things, in roundabout ways. They imply with what their script is and what they are asked/choreographed to do.
Sometimes the influence itself has been lied to, and we trust because they are telling us what they believe.

Answer 6

propaganda plays on peoples fears, telling them often a mix of truth and lies. to get them to act in a certain way or believe that a leader often a politician is right.

Answer 7

Good propaganda has an element of truth in it sufficient to play on peoples fears hopes or half formed opinions

Answer 8

propaganda works when a minority have the power to convey to the masses what they want the masses to hear....in other words it cannot work if the power is split between differing factions that have access to feed information to the masses.when you only hear one side of the story that is when you should worry because thats propaganda at work.

Answer 9

The most effective kind feeds on people's fears and hopes. In that way it taps into something deep rooted and people find it easier to believe and follow, they most likely want to already.

Answer 10

Patrick - if you tell people the same thing over and over again at some point they will start to believe and tell other people. And so it spreads.