Reply To: On Tyranny Lesson 10: Believe in truth
“Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism. They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts.” – Chapter 10, “On Tyranny”
In the fall of 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party, where he was put in charge of propaganda. He was the 55th member, but designated “party comrade 555” to give the impression that the party was much larger than it was. He had an understanding of marketing and how to appeal to people and, without any changes to the party’s platform, changed the name of the party to “National Socialist German Workers Party” – or Nazis – simply to appeal to the left. He was referred to as “the drummer”, the party’s public voice and best asset. Now recognized as a mesmerizing orator, he used simple words and didn’t hesitate to tell what he later described as “colossal untruths”.
By criticizing mainstream politicians for ignoring the needs of the common people and promising to “fulfill the fatherland’s destiny,” Hitler gained popularity with unhappy voters in 1930 as the population felt the effects of the Great Depression. He thought that most people desired faith in something and were not intellectually capable of debating the object of their faith, so he reduced issues into simple terms that led to the thinking that the many sources of their problems were caused by a single adversary. He explained, “either the victory of the Aryan side or its annihilation and the victory of the Jews.” The citizens of the Reich were inundated with propaganda at the workplace, in public rallies and over radio, the Internet of the 30s. Hitler’s shameless lies were taken as truths because he was a genius at reading a crowd and modulating his message accordingly. With Hitler, Mussolini and many other dictators, we see that charm and performance are much more effective than rational thought and reality.
Today, propaganda is much more difficult to identify due to advancements in technology. However, it is very clearly present and extremely effective, as evidenced in the way it has created alternate realities for different groups of citizens within a society, thus enabling the division of that society, destroying democracies and allowing dictatorships to come to power. Both traditional and social media push disinformation, changing how people feel, behave and vote.
With traditional media, ownership of the media source often indicates how information is presented. With social media, sources of disinformation are not as evident, yet just as influential. Tech enables platforms to manipulate information, presenting some pieces more strongly and completely hiding other pieces in other cases. Tech can also manipulate the appearance of popularity, which influences how information in consumed and accepted. Social media platforms are not regulated; though ownership of the platform informs how facts and disinformation are presented.
We tend to trust information when it’s delivered by friends and family on social media platforms, but individuals are far more easily manipulated than institutions, which have standards and ethics and may be legally liable for spreading misinformation. This is where discerning fact from fiction becomes more difficult, and more dangerous. When one cannot distinguish fact from fiction, then we have no facts. “When you have no facts the only government that can survive is a dictatorship.” – Maria Ressa, Mar. 6, 2025
Current strategies on combatting propaganda and disinformation include long-term solutions such as education. Medium term solutions include regulation of social media platforms and other sources of disinformation.
What we can do today is limit or completely boycott platforms that are used to spread propaganda. Also suggested is collaboration amongst those of us who are able to identify disinformation and propaganda – we can work together to identify opportunities to combat disinformation. I believe one possibility is to learn more about disinformation campaigns and how to combat them. This may help not only to inoculate ourselves from falling victim to disinformation campaigns, but it may also lends us the opportunity to apply this knowledge to others if we are in the position to do so. We can also share this knowledge with other resistors and ask that they share this important information as well.
