Since the beginning of the school year I have explored the idea that propaganda still holds great influence in our world. In order to necessarily be total, an idea explored in Propaganda by Jacques Ellul, it had to adapt. It used to be posters and flyers in the streets, bribing ministers to write their sermons to push certain ideas, pamphlet writing, etc. When radio became popular, FDR used it for his Fireside talks. When TV became popular, Walter Cronkite became the most influential man in the US. Now, in the Internet age, Cenk Uygur and Anna Kazarian of The Young Turks, Philip Defranco of his self-titled show and Rogue Rocket, and many other journalists have become trusted faces in the youtube-as-a-news-platform space. Additionally, CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, Al Jazeera, RT, BBC, and all the other news agencies which make up the so-called “Mainstream Media” have gotten footholds in Youtube. Even C-SPAN broadcasts are put on the video hosting service. This ability for youtube to be a primary news source for many young people, has good sides and bad sides. Young viewers with undecided minds are fairly easily swayed. (For that matter, so are most people on the majority of issues) Generally, as long as an opinion is not too far outside of what someone would consider reasonable, they typically accept the opinion, and depending on context (if the opinion is presented as fact, or at least not as opinion) adopt the opinion as their own. Unfortunately for these viewers, the way the algorithm works, it promotes content similar to the watch history of the account. If the viewer isn’t logged in, it digs through your browser history, cookies etc. and forms a generic recommended section. So what happens if you watch something seemingly innocuous, like a Pewdiepie video, (if you don't know, Felix’s is the most subscribed YouTube channel in the world, so it's fairly likely you will) you might get recommended an H3H3 podcast. If you click the H3 video, you’ll get a Joe Roegan video, then maybe a Dave Rubin show, and from there you get caught in a loop of the so-called “Intellectual Dark-Web” of Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Sam Harris. Many people that get caught in this loop, turn to the alt-right (Neo-fascism) for a worldview that isn't that far outside of what they've been hearing from youtube, and what they now think is normal. One thing which people commonly don't really consider many arguments on, is gun control. Personally I am against the Beto O’Rourke level of gun control, or even the super strict regulation on handguns. I believe in theory, gun control would be good, but only for maintaining status quo, and the status quo is one of oppression of minorities and state violence. In my opinion, a revolution in the United States, though unlikely, is possible. In that event, weapons would be needed for personal protection and/or establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat. My goal with this is to spark civil debate amongst my panelists, and get them to understand my views on the issue. To force them to look past the propaganda the media feeds them regarding guns, and have them consider a new take on gun laws. I won't be trying to change their minds, but who knows, maybe I will.
https://www.dhillonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Damore-Google-Manifesto.pdf -- I’m not sure how to cite this
Ellul, Jacques, et al. Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes. Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 2005.
Tung, Mao Tse. Quotations from Mao Tse Tung - Chapter 9, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch09.htm
Tung, Mao Tse. Quotations from Mao Tse Tung - Chapter 5, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch05.htm