You go to school, you learn history, THAT IS PROPAGANDA!

You watch news, you watch POLITICAL NEWS, THAT IS PROPAGANDA!

You hear of all the gun violence, school shootings, THAT IS ANTI-GUN PROPAGANDA!

You will soon see a media highlight of missing and exploited children, THAT IS "CHIP YOU KIDS FOR THEIR OWN PROTECTION" PROPAGANDA!

You will hear "Patriot Act" success stories, THAT IS ANTI-BILL OF RIGHTS PROPAGANDA!

You will see a media highlight of the negative aspects of "SOOOO many credit cards", THAT IS NATIONAL ID PROPAGANDA!

And I can't even begin to name all the anti-liberty/Big Government propaganda.




So my question: How does one immunize himself against GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA?

I don't think it is possible to completely avoid propaganda. It's far too prevalent and it assaults us from all directions. Much propaganda is so well disguised that it is difficult to distinguish as such.

The best way to arm yourself in my opinion, is knowledge. The more you arm yourself with accurate information, the more you are prepared to recognize and disseminate propaganda for what it really is. It's a struggle we all face daily, and even though we may shield ourselves from it, it still has an insidious way of working it's way into our lives.

The primary method of defending oneself from propoganda is learning to recognise it for what it is.

Once you do that, you can compare that propoganda to another example of propoganda on the same subject, as after all, All information could be said to be one form of propoganda or other - even that which is established as Fact.

All we can do is listen to the voices, and then think about how they conflict with one another.

Somewhere between the lines is the truth, but each one of us has to find that truth for themselves.

This is a good question but do you want to protect yourself from what you might consider harmful propaganda or do you want to learn how to recognize all propaganda thus revealing deception? To become enlightened and 'remove the veil of deception', as some put it, is not easy and many times very unpleasant. Keep in mind that we don't need to focus only on deceptions hiding negative things, propaganda is also used to hide the positive as well.

I agree with SystemiK and Anti-Tyrant, see it for what it is. Such a seemingly simple answer for a massively illusive and complicated problem. Some say knowledge is power but herein lies the problem, knowledge is controlled and manipulated with propaganda as you pointed out and power is an illusion, it is not something anyone can possess.

I would say the way to truly see things for what they are is though understanding. To understand not just the definitions of the words used by people but also the meaning in what they are trying to convey will reveal intent. To understand the true purpose of our emotions and feelings goes along way in revealing deception and opening our eyes to propaganda and the intent behind it. A small example is the emotion fear, it's true purpose is to alert you of danger and keep you safe but when others use it to manipulate and control you it becomes misused and false.


[edit on 4/29/2008 by Devino]

I would recommend meditation. Just a bit of clearing the mind and general relaxation will work wonders for you.