Combat Propaganda

If you read my post on propaganda, you now know what it is.

So how do you dispel it?

Basically through an openness to impartial information. Unless those two elements exist, the belief generated by the propaganda will persist.

For example, a majority of Americans still believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. That view, relentlessly presented by the current administration, has long since been debunked.

Yet it persists.

The problem is that denials and clarifications tend to reinforce the propaganda.

Once an idea has been implanted in a person's mind, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denials inherently require repeating the bad information.

Repetition seems to be a key culprit. One of the brain's rules of thumb is that easily recalled things are true.

In politics, this means that whoever makes the first assertion about something has a large advantage over everyone who denies it later.

The brain is not good at remembering when and where a person first learned something. People are not good at keeping track of which information came from credible sources and which came from less trustworthy ones, or even remembering that some information came from the same untrustworthy source over and over again. Even if a person recognizes which sources are credible and which are not, repeated assertions and denials can have the effect of making the information more accessible in memory and thereby making it feel true.

So rather than denying a false claim, it is better to make a completely new assertion that makes no reference to the original propaganda.

Rather than saying "Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11", which reinforces the connection, it may be better to say that "Osama bin Laden was the only one involved with planning the 9/11 attacks."

Regardless, those who fight propaganda have the odds against them. The keys are openness and impartial information, and the willingness to entertain both.