Propaganda repeats itself

Hi guys, ill start first by apologizing for my bad grammar but English is not my first language, a friend of mine sent me an email with a very interesting letter from 1866.

Its a bit of a long read but i think you guys will find it similar to what we are hearing from the media with this massive refugee crisis.

Canada, 1866

How can our government allow Irish immigrants to flow into this United Province of Canada while we continue to be terrorized by Fenian religious zealots?

Every Sunday in Catholic churches across the land, radical preachers are whipping their flocks into a catachismic [sic] frenzy, urging them to cram their Nicene orthodoxy down our throats three different ways.

On every ship coming into Montreal or Halifax, hidden among the malnourished, diseased Irish there are sure to be Fenian terrorists ready to slit your throat at the first opportunity. This needs to stop now.

We all know that the Irish are a bunch of uneducated, colonial savages with a primitive religion. How will our women and children be safe while hoards of drunken Irish flow into our cities and roam the streets?

Meanwhile they breed like rabbits, all part of their plan of Papist domination. It is a scientific fact that if Irish immigration continues apace Canada will be a Catholic state by 1910.

Enjoy having your wine with communion, because that's all about to end. And if we let the Irish in, who's next - Ukrainians? Chinese? Musalmen?

It is our sacred duty to preserve Canadian values now, before it's too late. In 150 years your children's children will look back and know that you did the right thing.

Be sure to share this leaflet with all your friends (or at least those of them who can read... and you can probably skip the women, not like they can vote anyways).

Say yes to Canada staying Canadian. Say no to Irish immigrants!

Rev. John Strachan,
York

a reply to: dukeofjive696969

Interesting letter. Looked the good reverend up found this

John Strachan (/ˈstrɔːn/; April 12, 1778 – November 1, 1867) was an influential figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto.

Tons on this guy seems he's a big deal in the history of Canada and the United States.

I also found this interesting in his letter:

Enjoy having your wine with communion, because that's all about to end. And if we let the Irish in, who's next - Ukrainians? Chinese? Musalmen?

At the time when he wrote the letter, the British and Russians were fighting over the Ukrainian region at that time, Britain busy in China with an opium war and Christians have historically always hated Muslims.

This letter shows that global politics are really about the same.

a reply to: hubrisinxs

Thanks for adding to the thread, ill go wiki the guy.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969
I'm sorry, this reads more like a modern parody than a letter written at the time.
For example, the sarcastic comments about women not being able to vote and people not being able to read.
The style is just not the writing-style of a nineteenth-century political leaflet,which would have been more elaborate with longer sentences.
No educated person of the time would have written for publication "not like they can vote anyways".

No Anglican bishop of the time would have ben ignorant enough to associate "Nicene Orthodoxy" with the Catholic church alone.He would have known that his own Protestant faith was also Nicene. That point alone gives away the fact that the item has been written by a modern conspiracy theorist.
Also anyone writing at the time would have been aware that the French half of Canada was Cathoilc already, so the "Catholics flooding into Canada" idea would not have quite worked..

i think you guys will find it similar to what we are hearing from the media with this massive refugee crisis.

Of course it is similar. Someone has just written it for the purpose of creating a fake parallel with current events.

originally posted by: hubrisinxs
At the time when he wrote the letter, the British and Russians were fighting over the Ukrainian region at that time

No, they were not. And the Opium wars were earlier.

a reply to: DISRAELI

What fake parallel, so your saying that the people in north america that made up lies to stop the irish immigration is different than the lies people are spoon fed today.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969
"Fake" in the sense that this is an item written in 2015 pretending to be a letter written in 1866.
Whatever they were saying in 1866, they were not saying it in the words presented in that e-mail.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thats true, but theres was tons of propaganda used back then to make the irish look like dirty ignorant people, which is what the media is doing today to muslims.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969
Fine, so the way to make that point is to find examples of the real stuff and quote that instead.
That item was so modern in style (staccato, half-literate), that I was surprised not to find at the end "Please retweet this".

Not to mention the way it insults the real Strachan, while trying to deceive the reader, by attaching his name to something so badly written.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Your right for that, i know when i am wrong, i was thinking maybe more than there was with the letter.

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: hubrisinxs
At the time when he wrote the letter, the British and Russians were fighting over the Ukrainian region at that time

No, they were not. And the Opium wars were earlier.

Crimean War (1853-1856) So, if the letter was from 1866, they would have known of this it was a major event.

Second Opium War(1856-1860) So again, this is fairly contemporary to 1866. The frist Opium War was a bit before, but the political actions of Europe raping Asia and Africa happened over and over again in the 1800's.

My point is both events were contemporary with 1866 just like the first Iraq war is still a contemporary well-referenced event.

The letter seems fake, but it still made a point I thought was interesting. The real Reverend would probably never write a letter like this, but it would still be within his means.

And I repeat, Politics on a global scale have not changed.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Yeah, it smelled stinky to me too. And no link either.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Its a letter that was re worded to reflect todays immigration issues, just google irish immigration and you will find tons of info on the propaganda and posters used in the late 1800s.

So stinky lol

a reply to: dukeofjive696969
I was commenting on the validity of the paper having been written in 1866, not the validity of the treatment of the Irish.

originally posted by: hubrisinxs
Crimean War (1853-1856) So, if the letter was from 1866, they would have known of this it was a major event.

Second Opium War(1856-1860) So again, this is fairly contemporary to 1866.

You orignally used the phrase "At the time he wrote the letter" to cover both wars. That is the point I was challenging.
And the Crimea was not at the time considered part of the Ukraine. Dragging in the Ukraine was one of the clues to the fact that this was a modern letter, not one from Victorian times.

Tje real Reverend would probably never write a letter like this, but it would still be within his means.

God, no. He was an educated Victorian man, and would not have been capable of writing prose of such poor quality.

And I repeat, Politics on a global scale have not changed.

As I observed to the OP, the way to illustrate that is by quoting genuine material from the time.
A faked-up letter from an historical personage is acceptable only as acknowledged satire.
When the writer offered it up as the real letter of a real person, thus insulting the memory of someone who had done him no injury, that went beyond the bounds of legitimacy.

It's very ironic, really.
The title of the thread was a criticism of propaganda, but the source material itself is an example of very crude propaganda.
It was a piece of disinformation, and I was deconstructing it.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I must concede that the letter is a fake, and the names of the regions have changed, example Turkey was the Ottoman Empire, but the same people from the same places are still fighting over the same lands.

So, while you are right to deconstruct this letter for being a sham job, I am still holding to the fact that modern global politics has not changed.

that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X[

en.wikipedia.org...