22 propaganda tools

See how many of these propaganda techniques you can find examples of in the mainstream press.

Return of the Protest Babes

These from Trafalgar Square (via the Nordish Portal):



And here is a video from the protests in Belarus earlier today (via Publius).

PREVIOUS:

The Betrayal of Denmark (and of Us All)
Sharia in Norway
Morons on Parade
I'm with Stupid
Finally some Journalists who Stand By their Convictions!
Oh d-d-d-dear dear
Denmark Solidarity
Buy Danish!

Welcome to the class of '06, the first generation educated to become drones

If you read nothing else about the ex-Taliban spokesman, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi's attending Yale, at least read this.

Collectivism and the Invisible Hand

Mary Katharine Ham goes to a lefty conference in Austin and makes the following observation:

The Left thinks the wisdom of crowds and the army of Davids are victories for socialism, for collectivism. If we all work together, they think, we are better than the individual.

But I've always thought of online communities as exactly the opposite. I think of them as the ultimate free market of information. Individuals with diverse experience and knowledge willingly trade information and debate ideas. The good ones earn credence and attention and rise to the top. Many individuals act with free will and the Invisible Hand leads to efficient solutions. There's not a lot of bureacracy. There is no central command.

Odd, huh? That two groups of people can look at the same phenomenon and interpret it in exactly opposite ways?

The Pro-Terrorist NYT

Wafa Sultan is being hunted by Islamic terrorists, so naturally the New York Times draws a roadmap to her house, and basically tells the world where her husband works, and where her three kids go to school. You may recall that these are the same people who put Abu Grahib photos on their front page and kept the story there, above the fold, for three months straight, and reported on the Danish cartoons without actually publishing the cartoons because to do so would be irresponsible because it could incite violence. If Mrs. Sultan or any of her family die, will the NYT editors be tried as accessories to murder? If not, then why not?

Blog Post of the Day

Blaming the Media, by the Opinionated Bastard who compares media coverage of the Rodney King trial to coverage of recent events in Iraq. Best quote:

There are moral consequences to standing at the sidelines as well as moral cost of taking action.

There are also moral consequences to cheerleading violence. I see the media cheerleading failure, cheerleading terrorism, and cheerleading civil war. It disgusts me.

It disgusts me, too. Why can't they just give me the news - tell me what's going on without trying to tell me what to think? Why do they feel the need to make shit up? Is there not enough happening in the world?

Hollywood is on the side of the enemy

Shamelessly copied and pasted from LGF:

Hollywood, Now and Then

An LGF reader forwarded this revealing look at Hollywood, now and then:

***

In contrast to the opinions and feelings of today’s Hollywood, the real actors of yesteryear loved the United States.

They had both class and integrity. With the advent of World War II, many of our actors went to fight rather than stand and rant against this country we all love. They gave up their wealth, position, and fame to become service men and women, many as simple “enlisted men”.

This group of only 18 men earned over 70 medals in honor of their valor, spanning from Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, Distinguish Service Crosses, Purple Hearts, to one Congressional Medal of Honor.

Most of these brave men have since passed on.

Real Hollywood Heroes

Alec Guinness (Star Wars) operated a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.

James Doohan (“Scotty” on Star Trek) landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.

Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape) really was an R. A. F. pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.

David Niven was a Sandhurst graduate and Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.

James Stewart entered the Army Air Force as a private and worked his way to the rank of Colonel. During World War II, Stewart served as a bomber pilot, his service record crediting him with leading more than 20 missions over Germany, and taking part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty. Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, France’s Croix de Guerre, and 7 Battle Stars during World War II. In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.

Clark Gable (Mega-Movie Star when war broke out): Although he was beyond the draft age at the time the U.S. entered WW II, Clark Gable enlisted as a private in the AAF on Aug. 12, 1942, at Los Angeles. He attended the Officers’ Candidate School at Miami Beach, Fla. and graduated as a second lieutenant on Oct. 28, 1942. He then attended aerial gunnery school, and in Feb. 1943 he was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook where he flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s. Capt. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on Jun. 12, 1944, at his own request, since he was over-age for combat.

Charlton Heston was an Army Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak.

Ernest Borgnine was a U. S. Navy Gunner’s Mate 1935-1945.

Charles Durning was a U. S. Army Ranger at Normandy, earning a Silver Star and awarded the Purple Heart.

Charles Bronson was a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps, more specifically on B-29s in the 20th Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan.

George C. Scott was a decorated U. S. Marine.

Eddie Albert (Green Acres, TV) was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action as a U. S. Naval officer aiding Marines at the horrific battle on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific, Nov. 1943.

Brian Keith served as a U.S. Marine rear gunner in several actions against the Japanese on Rabal in the Pacific.

Lee Marvin was a U.S. Marine on Saipan during the Marianas campaign when he was wounded, earning the Purple Heart.

John Russell: In 1942, he enlisted in the Marine Corps where he received a battlefield commission and was wounded and highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.

Robert Ryan was a U. S. Marine who served with the O.S.S. in Yugoslavia.

Tyrone Power (an established movie star when Pearl Harbor was bombed) joined the U.S. Marines, was a pilot flying supplies into, and wounded Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Audie Murphy, little 5’5“ tall 110-pound guy from Texas who played cowboy parts?

Most Decorated serviceman of WWII and earned: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Star Medals with ”V", 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead (representing assault landing at Sicily and Southern France) World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Marksman Badge with Rifle Bar, Expert Badge with Bayonet Bar, French Fourragere in Colors of the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor, Grade of Chevalier, French Croix de Guerre With Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Medal of Liberated France, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 Palm.

PRIOR POST:

Don’t miss Ben Stein’s look at the Academy Awards and Hollywood’s Missed Tributes.

The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil — this is nonsense. All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave — this is pathetic, childish narcissism.

The brave guy in Hollywood will be the one who says that this is a fabulously great country where we treat gays, blacks, and everyone else as equal. The courageous writer in Hollywood will be the one who says the oil companies do their best in a very hostile world to bring us energy cheaply and efficiently and with a minimum of corruption. The producer who really has guts will be the one who says that Wall Street, despite its flaws, has done the best job of democratizing wealth ever in the history of mankind.

No doubt the men and women who came to the Oscars in gowns that cost more than an Army Sergeant makes in a year, in limousines with champagne in the back seat, think they are working class heroes to attack America — which has made it all possible for them. They are not. They would be heroes if they said that Moslem extremists are the worst threat to human decency since Hitler and Stalin. But someone might yell at them or even attack them with a knife if they said that, so they never will.

DUmmies can't handle the truth

A Marine veteran of Iraq returned home and was nice enough to answer questions from the Democratc Underground (DUmmies). Because he believed his own eyes and told what he saw, he was banned from the site.

Here is the condensed version.

Alizee

My daughters (8 & 4) think this girl's a hit. (No, they don't speak French.)

Free speech - ok for you but not for me

Legal Analyst Mercedes Colwin Doesn’t think Mohammed cartoons are protected by the First Amendment. She said that because the cartoons “actively incite violence” the University was responsible for the attack since they allowed the cartoons to be printed. The NYT had pictures of 'abuse' at Abu Graib on their front page for three months specifically because it was inciting violence. I'm offended to the point of wanting to hurt somebody every day when I go into work and look at some of the nonsense taped to office doors. If we restrict speech to only that which can not incite violence, we wouldn't be able to say very much at all.

And on a separate but related issue:

This is simply too beneficial for the Democrats for it to be coincidence - there could very well be collusion, and that would make what the AP did a de-facto campaign contribution to the Democratic Party. I believe that such a donation - which would have to be figured as a value of tens of millions of dollars - would be illegal under our campaign finance laws.

We should have a full hearing in Congress, with the AP and the DNC forced to turn over all documents

I don't like the new campaign finance laws since they label my free expression as political speech which is banned 60 days before an election, but if they are going to enforce these idiotic laws, they need to enforce them for the AP, too.