“Four hostile newspapers, are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” Napoleon Bonaparte to his generals.
Propaganda may be defined as the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.
I’ve been reading about propaganda lately. A reviewer correctly observed that one book about the evils of propaganda stated that only conservatives engage in it, and they are always “wrong.” This was a rather comical bit of propaganda in a book warning about the dangers of propaganda. Many of the books I read contained this type of nonsense.
Today, a friend brought a National Post column to my attention. It is about a Wikipedia editor using the popular service as a platform for propaganda. The article alleges that, “By patrolling Wikipedia pages and ensuring that her spin reigns supreme over all climate change pages, she has made of Wikipedia a propaganda vehicle for global warming alarmists. But unlike government propaganda, its source is not self-evident.”
Be careful out there, and don’t believe everything you read.