Propaganda, like History, repeats itself

"Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood."

This powerful quote comes from the book Mein Kampf, and this book is the reason for this thread. By now, most of us have learned that this is one of our President’s favorite books and that according to his staff and his family he keeps multiple copies of it. Ivana Trump first brought this up in a 1990s interview where she said that Trump kept Hitler’s books for bedtime reading and that he has My New Order, a collection of Hitler’s speeches, on his nightstand at the time of the interview.

This was before he was a political figure and it did not create the storm it would today, and in a later interview Trump confirmed that a friend gave him a book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). The friend, Marty Davis, later acknowledged that he gave Trump a book on Hitler but that it was My New Order and not Mein Kampf. He had acquired Mein Kampf separately.

In 2018 we found out that after Trump and his friend Steve Bannon had a falling out, Trump angrily tossed out the signed copy of Mein Kampf that Bannon had given to him in 2016 during the campaign, as a token of friendship. In the interview in New Yorker, it was noted that this was not seen as a big deal as the President kept other copies of the book.

I found this very important and started looking into these books a bit more. If our President has acquired a particular liking to these books, then as critical thinkers we must also take interest in them. We must remain open minded and accept the very real possibility that knowledge and techniques contained within are being used against us, as a nation.

“There are certain truths which stand out so openly on the roadsides of life, as it were, that every passer-by may see them. Yet, because of their obviousness, the general run of people disregard such truths or at least they do not make them the object of any conscious knowledge. People are so blind to some of the simplest facts in everyday life that they are highly surprised when somebody calls attention to what everybody ought to know.”

Now, I understand that connecting any public figure to the Nazi regime or writing will be dismissed immediately by any supporters, and attempts to discredit such ideas will be many, but it is important not to disregard one fact – none of us put those books on his nightstand, he did. However, it is our right and our obligation to discuss what that means.

While we have been victim to propaganda for decades and have slowly been conditioned not only to accept it as truth but also not to question it, I believe we are entering more dangerous times than those of the past couple of decades. Every word has to be dissected and every attempt at disinformation and warmongering must be condemned in return. It is the intention of the propagandists to create an enemy where there is none, in order to solidify their hold on the nation and the ideas that are allowed as prevalent. As global security weakens and as potential for war increases, we must remain vigilant and do our best to expose those attempts, or we will allow those who have an interest in history repeating, to succeed.

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.” -Herman Goering

“The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.” -Heinrich Himmler

Equally of importance is the understanding that ‘the enemy’ can be anything or anyone. An enemy can be an opposing nation or a group of nations, it can be an ethnic minority within the country or it can be a political party or an ideology. And when there is no enemy, one can still be created or imagined. Fear is such a powerful emotion and we are all so hardwired to protect ourselves and our families that if fear is cultivated, an enemy is not far behind.

I’ll close this thread with some of the basic rules Hitler went by that are outlined in his books, and I believe they are very much being applied today, whether that is on TV and in the news, or right here on our own beloved forums.

“Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

Thank you all for reading.


Wiki . New Yorker . Business Insider . Mein Kampf

P.S. My New Order is more difficult to find in PDF format, although it can be purchased for a $1 or $2 at a few places. I torrented a copy for research so I would suggest looking for one that way if anyone wants to read it.

“Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” o

Sorry but your theory falls apart right there. The biggest threat right now is Kim Jong Un and Trump is making inroads to a peaceful solution.

Or were you talking about

illegal

immigrants?

a reply to: Kharron

Interesting how those principles fit perfectly with what I see from the MSM.

Btw, none of that is particularly original. You can find similar assertions from much older sources.

a reply to: Kharron

Incredible claims require incredible proof. An unknown aide just doesn't cut it, especially in libtard rags. Maybe you could post some video of trump or Trump's ex-wife makng these statements? Until then, this just looks like another propaganda thread lol. The only people stupid enough to publish slander and libel are, well, the liberal mass media.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Kharron

Trump is no Hitler and the anecdotal evidence suggests he's never read a *full* book in his adult life. I've read much of Mein Kampf and didn't finish it because it's long-winded garbage. I doubt Trump would read anything as tedious as that.

I'd have a totally different reply if you'd left out all the Hitler/Trump comparisons and focused on modern propaganda. It's been shaping society since WW1 and its engineers are getting better ever year and have saturated social media with it. Most of us have more chance of seeing fresh air than seeing the propaganda around us.

We should all be trying to see past the BS whether it reflects our personal beliefs or not.

Good post.

But not just Trump, this seems to have been followed by Bush & Obama pretty much the same.

The US never feels sorry even after those wars in the ME, all that suffering and god knows how many died, wounded and displaces, all that destruction and still ongoing (much longer then WW2 already, the war against ''terror''. Supporting terrorists (just called rebels of course) with trying to topple Assad (making him the mean/bad man for justifying such actions). Destroying Iraq, Libya and Syria.. Iran is maybe next.

The war on terror, is just a wet dream for justification for horror by some really twisted and sick people in power and and never even feel sorry or bad and the country meh they basically are ok with that, it's a far from their bedroom show and they just eat all the propaganda.

originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: Kharron

Incredible claims require incredible proof. An unknown aide just doesn't cut it, especially in libtard rags. Maybe you could post some video of trump or Trump's ex-wife makng these statements? Until then, this just looks like another propaganda thread lol. The only people stupid enough to publish slander and libel are, well, the liberal mass media.

Cheers - Dave

Links are in the OP, with more links inside those, including Ivana's interview. Had I left all links out it could be seen as propaganda. However, I WANT people to click on them and verify it themselves. Don't take my word on anything.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Kharron

Trump is no Hitler and the anecdotal evidence suggests he's never read a *full* book in his adult life. I've read much of Mein Kampf and didn't finish it because it's long-winded garbage. I doubt Trump would read anything as tedious as that.

I'd have a totally different reply if you'd left out all the Hitler/Trump comparisons and focused on modern propaganda. It's been shaping society since WW1 and its engineers are getting better ever year and have saturated social media with it. Most of us have more chance of seeing fresh air than seeing the propaganda around us.

We should all be trying to see past the BS whether it reflects our personal beliefs or not.

Please, give the other reply as well. I know that the Hitler/Trump link will not be taken well, but I accept that. It is how this research started and it is solely because Trump owns and reads these books that I find this interesting.

We've all discussed propaganda on here for years and years, but we've never had a President with such a connection to them. That's worth exploring, I think.

originally posted by: Kharron

Mein Kampf (My War)

Wrong. "My War" would be "Mein Krieg" "Kampf" means ordeal or struggle, hence "My Ordeal" or "My Struggle." Pretty major difference there. I have a copy myself.

By now, most of us have learned that this is one of our President’s favorite books and that according to his staff and his family he keeps multiple copies of it.

Of course a totally illogical post about Trump is literally Hitler.

Was this an e-mail sent out by the DNC?

originally posted by: Kandinsky

We should all be trying to see past the BS whether it reflects our personal beliefs or not.

^^^^
THIS

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: Kharron

Mein Kampf (My War)

Wrong. "My War" would be "Mein Krieg" "Kampf" means ordeal or struggle, hence "My Ordeal" or "My Struggle." Pretty major difference there. I have a copy myself.

You're very right, thank you, I translated that wrong myself. Updated.

a reply to: Kharron

You're post is propaganda to try and incite a negative emotion towards Trump by playing the Trump/ Hitler narrative.

Prove me wrong.

This is what the actual "Trump is literally Hitler narrative is all about.

Time.com

Great marketers are great storytellers. They create narratives around products that we can grasp quickly at a simple, emotional level. A slippery few use stories that stretch or aren’t remotely representative of their product’s benefits in order to mislead and manipulate.

this is EXACTLY what you just did in your OP.

Politicians do the same thing when they single out one family or person to manipulate us into using emotional, rather than logical, reasoning. The suggestion is that the anecdote is representative of the world. By playing to our emotions in this way, a master manipulator can trick us into believing that our feelings represent a larger truth, without a rational or factual foundation.

EXACTLY the liberal narrative

Another way marketers and politicians use emotionalization is by stroking our egos. We have a primal and fundamental need to feel significant in this world, and yet we increasingly feel invisible and unimportant.

EXACTLY on point what the OP is doing

When we’re in a hurry, or are distracted or anxious (and we are all of the above much more often these days), we’re especially susceptible to subconscious cues. By that I mean the bits of information that circumvent the thinking parts of our brain and simply cause us to feel a particular way.

I couldn't have laid out a better more detailed explanation of exactly what the anti-Trumpers are all doing and falling for, all emotions ZERO logic

I feel like this article was written specifically as a response to you.

If Trump was Hitler.

His haters would have already been marched off to concentration camps awaiting the gas.

That entire op was propaganda.

Trump doesn't remind me of Hitler ... he reminds me superficially (facial expressions and stances) of Mussolini.

His politics, though I don't agree with most of his agenda items, are not "Nazi" in the least.

If we imagine that illegal immigrants (mostly from south of our border) are the "declared scapegoat" for his rise to power, he's falling waaay behind in both scope and the nature of what he's doing.

The "solution" for the Jews (socialists, liberals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) was not temporary incarceration and relocation (deportation) but elimination.

It's just not the same, it's not comparable, and it lessens both what the victims of the Holocaust went through as well as what the illegals are going through.

There is nothing wrong with enforcing our laws while working with Congress to get better laws. I am the first to say that the zero-tolerance policy is draconian and unneccessary ... but, these aren't concentration camps that illegals are going to.

Do I feel awful imagining what the kids and their families are going through? Absolutely.

Trump is not Hitler; his supporters are not Nazis. They're fellow Americans and we are all going to have to relearn how to live together.

Just so my words are not twisted for the next few pages, I will respond to all those right now.

Trump is NOT Hitler. Trump is not even close to being Hitler.

However, he seems to admire his writing and is taking notes from his books. He employs similar rhetoric and has a penchant for exactly the same type of tactics I put in the final quote of the OP.

I will not reply to attacks that want to put words in my mouth as I was clear about the intent of this post, how it started and how it came to fruition, and I posted all the links needed to verify. I also expect critical thinkers, whether they agree or not, to research more themselves. As with any thread I make, it's meant to only be the first crumb, not the last one.

This is not inconsequential, there is a link here.

a reply to: Kharron

Your intention of this post is to create a subliminal association between Trump and Hitler which is exactly why you made this entire post in the first place. You're just not lucky enough to be in a place where the majority of people are silly enough to fall for it.

Many members here are well versed in NLP and other Freudian/ Jungian models of psychology and how they are used to manipulate people.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Something weird in the universe is changing when I agree with Gryphon and Ascube on something.

am I dreaming?

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes

“Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” o

Sorry but your theory falls apart right there. The biggest threat right now is Kim Jong Un and Trump is making inroads to a peaceful solution.

Or were you talking about

illegal

immigrants?

Fat Man The Little Boy Kim is only dangerous to a chinese buffet.