We are all susceptible to propaganda, even if we think we are not

“We targeted an audience sophisticated enough to understand the message, but not sophisticated enough to know how, or why, to refute it.” This is a quote I use often that comes from an article entitled Guns, Culture or Mental Health? Framing Mass Shootings as a Public Health Crisis. What does it mean? The authors are essentially admitting their intended audience lacks the cognitive capacity to break away from the framing of their argument. Which, of course, is to see the prevalence of guns in American society as a public health crisis. This is a known aspect of human behavior. People, according to Cass Sunstein, would rather accept and go along with information the way it is framed to them, as opposed to trying to figure out if their opinions would change if the information was presented differently. We see this happening in real world events. The Oregon school shooting was stopped cold by a citizen in possession of a legally owned weapon. The school’s no gun policy, as is the case with all gun laws, did nothing to stop the shooter from entering the building and committing cold blooded murder. The victims sat helpless until another gun arrived on the scene. The anti-gun left has been so inundated with gun control messaging they cannot see any other solution than gun bans and the elimination of the Second Amendment. They don’t know why to refute the gun control message because the problem of gun violence in America has been grossly over exaggerated. The news media fails to report the number of times guns have been used to not only stop mass shootings, but in individual self-defense situations. “It’s the guns, it’s the guns, it’s the guns,” is a message that has been continually drilled into their heads, and any attempt to have a logical discussion over this issue, goes nowhere. This tactic isn’t just used on the anti-gun liberals. Social media is flooded with persuasive messages aimed at people who are susceptible because they do not have a rooted, ideological position. They may support the Second Amendment in words, but they are very responsive to the gun control message due to the constant exposure to so-called gun violence in the media. Unfortunately, the people who may be the most susceptible to the propaganda are the ones who consider themselves to be smart enough to see through it.

Most gun control propaganda is aimed at people who don’t know how to defend a pro-gun position. Many Republican gun owners, for example, do not view the Second Amendment from the perspective that it exists to defend liberty. They have a safe full of bolt and lever action hunting rifles and shot guns but scoff at the idea of AR-15’s. They are highly susceptible to well framed arguments that support the Second Amendment with a “but” attached at the end. They see unnecessary violence, and because it isn’t being committed with bolt action rifles or lever guns, they can be easily persuaded to support a ban on AR-15’s. Persuasive pieces like Daniel Hayes’ I am an AR-15 Owner and Have Had Enough target these types of gun owners with arguments against high-capacity magazines, while questioning the need for such rifles for deer hunting. He also brings into sharp contrast the argument for freedom, compared to the carnage being unleashed through lax gun laws and military style weapons. A little extra safety is worth the cost of freedom if it saves children’s lives.

People who consider themselves intelligent enough to see through propaganda are often times the most susceptible to it. Exposing ourselves to information, according to Ellul, is what makes propaganda possible in the first place. In other words, propaganda wouldn’t exist without information, and a way to disseminate it to the masses. According to a book called Political Persuasion and Attitude Change, (pp. 22-23) educated people are highly susceptible to propaganda through the mainstream media because they equate their education with the desire to stay informed, and because they are convinced that they are above being affected by propaganda, they are more vulnerable (Ellul, p.111). This becomes more true the more educated one is towards the topic at hand. Ellul (p.113) states that a person becomes more sensitive to unseen propaganda when they are well informed about the various opinions and political realities surrounding the issue. Daniel Hayes’ article, for example, does a great job presenting both sides of the political divide when it comes to gun control. This is an essential element in achieving attitude change. When a person exposes themselves to all opinions, say to both Fox News and the liberal media, they are exposing themselves to all persuasive attempts to change their position.

“Intellectuals are the most easily reached by propaganda, particularly if it employes ambiguity. The reader of a number of newspapers expressing diverse attitudes—just because he is better informed—is more subjected than anyone else to propaganda he can’t perceive, even though he claims to retain free choice in the mastery of all this information. Actually, he is being conditioned to absorb all the propaganda that coordinates and explains the facts he believes to be mastering.” (Ellul, 1952, pp. 113-114)

In some ways, that quote can be equated to something I have discussed before, and that is the agenda setting role of the media. When a person is paying attention to the mass media, they are hearing the biased version of events that the media owners want them to hear. According to a book called Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, media researchers discovered long ago that attitude change could be achieved more effectively when they began controlling what the public was exposed to. They weren’t trying to control what the public thought, but what the public thought about. Once public attention was focused on a certain issue, then they could begin framing it in different ways to guide public opinion. Gun control and mass shootings are a perfect example of this as all the media is focused on the latest shooting, and the public’s attention is focused on the debate between more gun control or freedom. Though, in truth, the debate is usually focused on more gun control or mental health, trapping viewers in a dialectic they fail to see as propaganda. Either solution equates to more control on the part of the government.

“Establishing this salience among the public so that an issue becomes the focus of public attention, thought, and perhaps even action is the initial stage in the formation of public opinion. Although many issues compete for public attention, only a few are successful in reaching the public agenda. The news media exert a significant influence on our perceptions of what are the most salient issues of the day.” (McCombs & Reynolds, 2002, pg. 1)

In order for propaganda to be effective, it must highlight a problem that resonates with the public. Many people believe in something called the Hegelian Dialectic, or the problem-reaction-solution strategy. This is the idea that government often times creates the problem with a pre-existing solution they want the public to demand, waiting in the background. Ellul states that the information the public is exposed to “actually generates the problems that propaganda exploits and for which it pretends to offer solutions” (p.114). When it comes to gun control the mass media−−and we all know this−−is exploiting the emotional reactions that are sure to follow with the news of a mass shooting involving school children. The public mind becomes trapped within the confines of searching for solutions to the problem, with the solutions always equating to more control in one way or another. What isn’t discussed is a realistic approach to solutions that would achieve real results because solving the problem isn’t the agenda. Keeping people in a state of panic, demanding more gun control, is.

Ellul (p.114) states that propaganda cannot create a massive problem out of nothing at all but can be effective in shaping perceptions if the public perceives the possibility of the problem. This is an interesting statement considering we live in a hyper state of cognitive overload, where we are constantly fed a never-ending stream of media stories depicting nearly every aspect of life as problematic. A good example of this can be described as unseen propaganda within propaganda. There is an underlying fear that anyone can suddenly snap at any time and commit one of these shootings simply because they are a gun owner. That just isn’t true, but it’s possible. Another good example is the climate hysteria. People willingly accept the climate change argument because of the perceived possibility of a future disaster, even though that is always a possibility with or without massive climate change, or the propaganda surrounding it.

Why does any of this matter? People seem to forget that President Obama signed the Smith Mundt Modernization Act which repealed the laws prohibiting the U.S. government from using the same “public relations techniques” on the American people, that they use overseas. At the same time, an executive order was signed authorizing Cass Sunstein to conduct behavioral research on the public to learn how to better “nudge them in desirable directions.” Propaganda is most effective when it reflects the attitudes and beliefs of the targeted audience. Many of us believe we are not vulnerable to propaganda yet are clueless as to how propaganda really works and the techniques they use. In this article we saw that the so-called intellectuals and educated are perhaps the most susceptible to being propagandized simply because they equate their intelligence with the desire to stay informed, while exposing themselves to more than one viewpoint. The truth is, we are all susceptible to this, to one degree or another. According to Ellul, those with strong convictions, and what he calls habitual contrariness, are so few in number, their opinions don’t matter at all and have no bearing on the formation of public opinion. Furthermore, the conservative base with a vested interest in the Second Amendment issue are more susceptible to propaganda than they may realize. While they cling to the belief that the amendment protects a god given right not granted by government, they are being led down a road where they are waiting for the government to tell them if they have a right to an AR-15 or not. They are following right along because they believe Trump is a pro-gun hero.

Enjoy this content?

Be sure to check out my latest book! The Psychology of Persuasive Propaganda: The Things You Should Know.