Below are frequently used propaganda techniques President Trump uses in his tweets. Remember from my last post, repetition is key to Trump’s success. Repetition triggers a person’s brain to accept what is being repeated as truth. The more you hear a phrase/idea such as Fake News–the more normal the phrase and idea. After hearing the phrase/idea repeatedly– you start to believe the phrase/idea as the truth. What can you do to guard yourself:
- Learn about propaganda techniques
- Question what you read
- Seek out proof
- Google more news articles from different sources
- Beware of the Share. Be careful what you share and be careful of consuming what your friends share on their pages.
- Strong emotional language which instantly confirms your beliefs may be fake news
- Good Journalism will allow you to make up your own mind. Journalism is not about confirming beliefs. They are in the truth business.
- Look for brand name news outlets to check stories. If none of the main stream media outlets are confirming the story–then you might take that information with a grain of salt.
Here are four propaganda techniques Trump uses. And remember, repetition of these techniques plant seeds of doubt in people who are ill informed about persuasive language–which is the crux of propaganda. Propaganda will usually have lots of pathos as you can see from the examples below.
And remember, tweets similar to these are also seen from what people are calling the Resistance–be careful with what you share and what you put out into your online universe. Remember confirmation does not mean the truth.
