Internet Demagogues and Propaganda

The Rise of the internet has also seen a rise in internet demagogues. People who are predicated on spreading rumors and continually hating on things. The policies they follow are adherent to many of the masters of propaganda. Lenin argued that skillful propaganda is not " calculated . . . to convince [or to] correct the mistake of the opponent, but to destroy him, to wipe his organization off the face of the earth. This wording is indeed of such a nature, as to evoke the worst thoughts, the worst suspicions about the opponent."  (Michiko Kakutani, The Death of Truth, 136) And it is that rhetoric we see when we look at the internet rhetoric used again and again at say Rian Johnson. It is not enough to dislike The Last Jedi. Instead even Johnson's own name must be destroyed, as a frequent moniker for him is Ruin Johnson. A google search finds endless posts all about Rian Johnson but by referring to him as the name, Ruin Johnson. Indeed there is even an entire twitter account, with over 9000 followers, dubbed Ruin Johnson. When one looks through the timeline, there is no actual critique of The Last Jedi being done. Rather it is just post after post making fun of Rian Johnson and having him do hyperbolic things. In other words, this twitter account is never actually making an argument about a film, it is only interested in destroying man's reputation by portraying him as an idiot over and over. 

                                                             Not an argument but just an insult.

Another key part of propaganda was articulated by Joseph Goebbels, one of most notorious masters of propaganda of all time. In it, he argued that for propaganda to be successful, one must use "stereotyped formulas" or in other words "continuously assail opponents and label them with distinctive phrases or slogans that will elicit visceral reactions from the audience." (Kakutani, 139). We see this clearly with how internet demagogues react to media with diverse casts. It is the same argument over and over: woke media is taking over Star Trek and SJWs are to blame.  These phrases of course make little sense. Woke means to be aware of social injustice, particularly Racal injustice, which should be a good thing. SJW means someone who fights for socially progressive views. In other words both of these words should be highly positive and indeed have always applied to the shows that the propogandists are accusing of being torn down by these things. For example, Star Trek is a series that, while not always perfect, has always tried to be about a progressive future where bigotry amongst humans is a thing of the past. Similarly, Dr. Who is a show whose lead is very much "SJW" as he, and later she, is constantly butting against those who seek to oppress others, including ironically once a spreader of propaganda. 

None of these arguments, however, matter to these creators of propaganda. All that matters is to keep using the same phrase in a negative way which eventually weighs down people's ability to think clearly. Hannah Arendt would later expand on this by arguing that both Soviet and Nazi propaganda "discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd" (Kakutani, 140). In other words, these propogandists don't care if their arguments don't make sense. All they care about is inserting the words into people's consciousness and getting people to repeat them unthinkingly. 

There is one final step to propaganda and that is following Putin's current Russian model, a model Kakutani calls a "firehose system." What this means is to repeat the same lies over and over and as rapidly as possibly. After all, studies have found that people accept the first information they find and then will favor it when contested with conflicting information. (Kakutani, 142). We see this with how there are the same reports over and over about Kurtzman fired, Kathleen Kennedy fired, or no discovery season 2, then no discovery season 3. On and on it goes. One can point out it is false, and inevitably it will proven false, but again the point of propaganda is not to be true. In the words of Gary Kasperov, "It is to exhaust your critical thinking to annihilate truth." (Kakutani, 143). And what this does is allow the propogandists to then subtly shift their message "oh it's not that there is no Discovery season 3, it's just that it has a drastically cut budget" or "Oh there was a last minute save by Abrams." Because critical thinking has been exhausted by the barrage it is easy to go "I guess that must be it" rather than actually realize this is just a new lie.

So let this be a lesson to be careful about the internet propaganda you see. If people keep repeating the same buzz words over and over with little explanation about why these buzz words are inherently bad then stop watching  or reading them. If people keep repeating the same rumors, just subtly shifted, then stop watching or reading them. They are trying to get your clicks not actually engage in the network of exchanging and potentially conflicting ideas. And when humans cannot do that, the propaganda has won.