Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies and the media can also produce propaganda.
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In a 1929 literary debate with Edward Bernays, Everett Dean Martin argues that, “Propaganda is making puppets of us. We are moved by hidden strings which the propagandist manipulates.”
Propaganda
Virtue signalling is the conspicuous expression of moral values done primarily with the intent of enhancing standing within a social group.
Virtue Signalling
In the summer of 1994, I went to a DNC seminar for field operatives. A speaker who looked like a dead ringer for Michael Moore with a baseball cap and a rumpled fatigue jacket spoke about candidate recruiting and vetting. He spoke about how difficult it was to get good qualified candidates. Once in a while you get a real gem he stated, like the one he was most proud about landing in the previous election in 1992. He had been able to entice a 3 term Democratic U.S. Congressman to run and win a US Senate seat in a state that flipped back and forth in Presidential elections and has had a US Senator from each party for over 3 decades, except for a few 2 year election cycles . He went on about the stellar resume of this individual and thought he might be a dark horse for the Presidency in a little over 6 years. He was a Republican in less than 6 months. That dark horse’s name was Ben Nighhorse Campbell.
My first point being that forcing Al Franken to resign may seem like a no brainer at the moment, but you have to see that it may not be the slam dunk it seems. Things that seem so favorable can slip away in a moment. A candidate that you think would be a great replacement for his seat may have a crippling weakness by the time 2020 rolls around. There are no guarantees that Franken’s replacement will be able to hold that seat or will be any better on things like Women’s issues, income inequality, and governmental oversight.
A little political secret, that is why the Republicans play theses dirty games and ratf*ck us and our leaders, because it benefits them, duh. We also let them do it to us way too often. This is a no lose proposition for them. Their fans are so loyal they don’t care. In fact, they love it when their operatives fool us, after all we are libtards to them.
Let's look at the two outcomes. First scenario, the allegations they cultivate are accepted by a critical mass. At that point we have to make a decision, do we throw Franken aside to maintain the moral high ground? Or do we fight it out and hope he can weather the storm to re-election or at least serve out his term? Either way, they will have won. If it is the latter, we are accused of hypocrisy. If it is the former, the voters have not rewarded the Democrats for being fiscally responsible, trying to keep the government open, or funding programs for our most vulnerable. Why would they start rewarding us now?
Now, lets look the second outcome. Even if the allegations are shown to be proven false to most voters, the Republicans have still won at least a partial victory. The media does a terrible job of being able to fairly judge these sorts of differing levels of misconduct. The chyrons on the cable networks have run "Al Franken accused of harrassment/assault" for over a week now. For many that is all they will ever know about it, even if Chris Hayes offers some tepid comment like, “these are not apples to apples comparisons, but...” They have poisoned the well for Democratic politicians, muddied the waters on Moore, Trump, and others, and bought time to ram their horrendous tax bill through. Win win suckers!
So, my second point is that candidate recruitment is going on for races in 2018 and 2020 right now. Pretend for a moment that you are a prospective candidate, would you want to run as a Democrat if the base is willing to discard you so quickly and cavalierly over some potentially dirty tricks? For the purposes of this exercise, accept the possibility that Al Franken is somehow mostly innocent of all these current charges, yet he has to resign soon for the good of the party. In a few months or years, it turns out that this was a coordinated effort to smear him. Some of these anonymous people don’t even exist, the reporting is shoddy and multiple mistakes were made like in the UVA, Duke, Richard Jewel, Brian Banks, Amanda Knox, McMartin preschool, and a thousand other cases. If you were a prospective candidate why would you even bother to run? It is hard enough when you are a human with flaws and foibles, and you are probably going to be outspent by dark money funded by the Kochs, Adelson, and Mercers. Not to mention the hard work, grueling hours, and the strain on your friends and family to try and make a difference and serve your fellow citizens. After all that work, a party and a base that will not support you when you are unjustly accused just for appearances and little to no conern for the truth ? No thanks, is the sane response.
My third point being is that many Kossacks that have never run for any office, phoned a fellow citizen, or knocked on a neighbor’s door are lecturing others on how we win elections or how their purity politics trump another’s perspective that might be a little more practical and nuanced. It doesn't mean that we are willing to discard and destroy other people or even individuals especially women, POC, and religious minorities as human sacrifices to appease the purity police. Some of us are trying to calibrate the difficult politics of the practical, while others are extolling the virtues of nullifying an election.
Some times no matter how we side on a specific issue or candidate we make the wrong choice. That is part of life, we make mistakes. I don’t understand why some people think we can make decisions and choices that only make us feel good all the time. Life and especially politics have never worked that way. Sometimes any viable option will leave us feeling queasy, because there are no great options. We are Democrats we are constantly reanalyzing choices we have made and that need to be made. We realize there is more than one way to go and there are advantages and disadvantages to every decision. We all try and do our best to make the right decision, but there are never guarantees. Some of us don’t seem to accept that reality. They want to feel like they can make decisions that have no downside. Then they bemoan why we lose or voters think we are weak and don’t fight for candidates. You can’t have it both ways. You have to compromise and build coalitions to get to victory in our Rube Goldberg form of a Republic.
There is an asymmetry in our strength compared to the Republicans. They have so many advantages that many of us never want to acknowledge, because to do so might call into question their specific solution. There is an uncertainty in any political calculation due to unkown variables, but to listen to the purists there are all these incorruptible better candidates just around the corner that we can access if we just clap harder. Continuesly, we disparage most of our leaders and try to discard them as quickly as possible at the slightest hint of a weakness, as we lose more and more power. The fact that there really aren’t tons of perfect candidates is a cold hard truth that must never be acknowledged. Better to say, “Needs more cowbell."
So called Democrats are willing to overturn the will of the people for selfish satisfaction. The Democratic Party must be broken to meet their impossible standards, and the rest of us must acknowledge their bravery in leading us into this enlightened utopia. That is not courage, it is childish. A few of ou envision yourself as the next Gandhi, MLK, Mandela, or Malala, when you are at best Henry Wallace and more likely Jill Stein a useful idiot (in both cases for Russian interests) for forces you claim to be opposed. Never mind that Gandhi, MLK, Mandela would have to be sacrificed in the current zero tolerance frenzy. Virtue signaling can be a vice when taken to extremes. Robespierre started out fighting for the betterment of his fellow man, but became so radicalized that he became an extremist that his former self would have never thought possible and would have denounced. He never realized that you can’t have perfect humans, so he constantly purged the government to improve the French Revolution by eliminating his fellow allies in an impossible purification process. His pious zealotry engulfed the movement and claimed him as one of its many victims.
It is great that some want to fight in a way, but have moral qualms. Desmond Doss was a non-violent participant and performed heroically in WW II as a medic. However, we all can’t have that role in a deadly struggle against an opponent that is willing to sink to lower levels. Call me naive, but I don’t think the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan would have had too much trouble defeating 40-50 million medics.
Lastly, my final point is this is war. Wars are never won by pure saints. I wish it could be possible, but unfortunately never is. In World War II, should the United States or FDR have fired and replaced Dwight D. Eisenhower if the news of his alleged affair with Kay Summesby had broken in May of 1944, even if Nazi sympathizers had provided the evidence to newspapers that ran the story? You may think this absurd, and to be honest, it kind of is. Back then, the media mostly newspapers were more guardians of the gate. They were more patriotic and killed those types of stories to protect the govenment and the war effort. FDR broke down to Edward R. Murrow on the night of the Pearl Harbor attack and questioned the preparations of the Pacific forces and the entire U.S. military prior. FDR questioned his own leadership and decisions. The conversation was off the record, and Murrow honored that agreement. We no longer live in that world and we need to learn how to navigate this new one, and we must accept that our opponents will exploit the new reality more than we are currently comfortable.
The fact, that asking fellow Kossacks to take a deep breath and let an investigation play out before canning a capable Democratic US Senator is treated as some sort of unspeakable depravity pushed by craven rape apologists, is what I find deplorable.
Update:
I posted a link I should have had for propaganda. I posted an explanation for virtue signalling, because I thought it was better known that it seems to actually be.
I would really like to thank everyone for reading this diary, and especially those of you that recommended it or tip jarred. Even if you didn’t care for the diary, I appreciate those of you that were able to read it all. I have done my best to explain, expand, and clarify in the comments as much as possible.
Lastly, thanks for helping this diary make the Recommend List, which is a first for me.