Propaganda Techniques

1
Propaganda Techniques
2
Circular Reasoning

• Deductive Reasoning (Valid)
• Sports Fan 1 What makes you say Australian
  Rules Football is the most exciting sport in the
  world?
• Sports Fan 2 Because it is the fastest and
  highest scoring form of football, and whatever is
  the fastest and highest scoring form of football
  must be the most exciting sport in the world.
• Circular Reasoning (Fallacious)
• Sports Fan 1 What makes you say Australian
  Rules Football is the most exciting sport in the
  world?
• Sports Fan It is fun, exciting, and energetic.
  

3
Ad Hominem

• The politician attacks the oppositions morals
  rather than the argument, which is about Social
  Security.

4
Either/Or

• Either you support the war or you support the
  terrorists.

5
False Analogy

• "Just as in time the gentle rain can wear down
  the tallest mountains, so, in human life, all
  problems can be solved by patience and quiet
  persistence."
• "We shouldn't put so much effort into adult
  literacy programs. After all, there is no point
  crying over spilled milk."

6
Single Cause

• After a school shooting, editorialists debate
  whether it was caused by the shooter's parents,
  TV violence, our culture, stress on students,
  Hollywood or the accessibility of guns. In fact
  many different causes including some of those may
  all have necessarily contributed.

7
Unreliable Testimonial

• Celebrities selling hair products, acne
  medication, etc.

8
Bandwagon

• "You're either with us, or against us"

9
Snob Appeal

• "Why read those boring email loops that everybody
  else does? You know youre better than that. You
  need more intellectual stimulation. Read the
  Logic Loop, be more logical than the rest."

10
Transfer

• In the Transfer device, symbols are constantly
  used. The cross represents the Christian Church.
  The flag represents the nation. Cartoons like
  Uncle Sam represent a consensus of public
  opinion. Those symbols stir emotions . At their
  very sight, with the speed of thought, is aroused
  the whole complex of feelings we have with
  respect to church or nation. A cartoonist, by
  having Uncle Sam disapprove a budget for
  unemployment relief, would have us feel that the
  whole United States disapproves relief costs.

11
Glittering generalities

• "Freedom" and "Democracy
• http//www.propagandacritic.com/articles/examples.
  newtglitter.html

12
Plain Folks

• America's recent presidents have all been
  millionaires, but they have gone to great lengths
  to present themselves as ordinary citizens. We
  are all familiar with candidates who campaign as
  political outsiders or who challenge a mythical
  "cultural elite," presumably aligning themselves
  with "ordinary Americans."

13
Slogans

• Just do it
• You dream it we build it.

14
Cardstacking

• A politician just happens to be in town when a
  new school is opening - so they just drop in,
  hi-jacking the press for their own means.
• During election periods, political parties will
  often gag their loose cannons, who might open
  their mouths and say the wrong things.
• A minister of a new church sect sets up in a poor
  area, feeds people who will listen, tells them of
  how the poor will be saved, and so on.