Propaganda Discussion

Last night, via HR (our public TV network of Hessen)....they ran the weekly MEX Show.  I would describe MEX (a 45-minute show) as being a consumer, health, public safety, and commerce show.  It's safe to say that viewership isn't that high (it's at 8:15 PM) and most viewers are over the age of forty-five.

So in the midst of last night's show....the moderator came to the Halle attack and laid out the description of this young guy being under the influence of right-wing extremist propaganda.  A video-piece then started up and various figures talked of gamers, their being influenced by propaganda material, and the threat to society.   After that video, then came the one-on-one interview with a IT-security guy and propaganda was bumped up on the six to eight questions that followed.

In the mind of journalists, the public needs to be made aware of propaganda and the affect it has on a free and open society.

I sat back after the episode ended and reflected upon it.  In my earlier days, in the intelligence school, we had the basic introduction to propaganda....so it's not a unknown topic to me.  After three years in Panama, I had a vast amount of understanding over the tool (used by the Noriega regime), and how it affects society.  Over the past twenty years, I can cite literally hundreds of propaganda efforts (some by the US, some by companies or banks, some by journalists, some by British lobby groups, and some by German political parties).  There's hardly a week that goes by where I don't see at least three or four examples of this effort.

The majority of Germans probably don't think much about this.  If you are over the age of ninety, you probably do remember some of the Nazi-theme propaganda efforts.

For the typical German watching the ten minutes of this discussion last night, it probably shocked them to some degree.  On their list of one-hundred things to worry about.....propaganda was never on that list, and probably never even made it to the top thousand 'worries' for a German.  Now?  Well.....you have to wonder about gamers, their political philosophy, and the ongoing propaganda that appears daily to influence people.

But then as the show came to conclude....my German wife and I engaged on the topic of propaganda, and I observed that HR itself....might sometimes be dishing out propaganda, which she amusingly agreed.  In the end, we all have to be vigilant....over all sources of information.