The most abused word in the English language?, page 1

Is I think, propaganda. I dont think its possible to get through a single conversation with somebody and be pro-American, without them throwing the words propaganda and brainwashed at you. So, is everybody pro-Western brainwashed by propaganda? Or are we just using this word too much? What do you think?

---

---

Starting a New Thread?...Look Here First


AboveTopSecret.com takes pride in making every post count.
Please do not create minimal posts to start your new thread.
If you feel inclined to make the board aware of news, current events,
or important information from other sites;
*please post one or two paragraphs,
*a link to the entire story,
*AND your opinion, twist or take on the news item,
as a means to inspire discussion or collaborative research on your subject.

reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

Originally posted by Slavich
reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

I dont know what any of this has to do with being propagandized? I just see you insulting somebody for refusing to see things from your point of view.

Originally posted by Slavich
reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

Do you think a system set up designed to hang homosexuals and persecute women is a good thing?
Do you think a system that makes no secret of its desire to exterminate the Jews is a good thing?

You are more concerned about making money then you are about Human lives. Admit it.
Whose soulless here?

Let me guess, my heads been filled with too much propaganda?

reply to post by theBigToe

---

First, an off-topic sentence or two. I don't understand where the anger is coming from on this site, have you seen it? It seems like the last week or two have gotten a little more heated without any real necessity for it. Oh, well, back to your OP.

"Propaganda" is certainly used a lot, why not use the simple word "Lie?" I think there are a couple of reasons. One, "propaganda" sounds more thoughtful and intelligent. The user may be giving themselves a pat on the back for knowing and using such big words. Two, "propaganda" may be used to deal with information which is entirely true but casts your side in a bad light. You try to make it look false, but it really isn't so you slap "propaganda" on it.

Unfortunately, in the West, there's some of both. There are some lies coming out of the White House. That isn't new, but the frequency and stupidity of those lies is remarkable.

For opponents of the West, and there are many, the second use comes into play. I don't want to start a fight on a side issue, but some terrifying news comes out of parts of the world, and those living there say "We wouldn't do that, it's inhumane, our religion forbids it, it was just crazy people, it's propaganda from the West."

Westerners see that bad news and say "Hey, we're better than that." That leads us to be pro-Western. The anti-Westerners have little to say but "You're beliefs are false, your image of other countries is false. You have to believe us when we tell you that the West is the terrible one."

The use of the word "propaganda" in this case is just trying to hide from bad news and deflect the attention to somebody else.

P.s. Sometime the anti-Western attack is more aggressive, taking the form of insults, but that's the topic for another post.

Originally posted by theBigToe

Originally posted by Slavich
reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

I dont know what any of this has to do with being propagandized? I just see you insulting somebody for refusing to see things from your point of view.

Maybe propaganda is the wrong word. I like to use the words brainwashed, conditioned from birth, blinded.... You can just look into big companies marketing strategies to see(if you really want to see it, you could be in total denial about it if you can't comprehend why our loving corporations would do this to us) how they use specific subconscious techniques to get people sucked into a fantasy world of materialism. It doesn't even stop there. Its a false teacher for people. A lot of media likes to portray things 'as is' as to get people to expect and follow such a pattern which is not beneficial for a society. If you can't see that we as a whole group of people are regressing instead of mentally, emotionally or spiritually evolving then you can live out your conditioned dreams.

Most people misuse the word propaganda. The media 'spins' things to make people think what they want them to think and react to. To myself it is common sense as i've seen it for so long. Those actors you see on cnn and fox news are just reading from a script written for them by writers who are given ideas and told to write it in specific form for the benefit on the media company and it's interests for the contributors.

Originally posted by jvm222

Originally posted by theBigToe

Originally posted by Slavich
reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

I dont know what any of this has to do with being propagandized? I just see you insulting somebody for refusing to see things from your point of view.

Maybe propaganda is the wrong word. I like to use the words brainwashed, conditioned from birth, blinded.... You can just look into big companies marketing strategies to see(if you really want to see it, you could be in total denial about it if you can't comprehend why our loving corporations would do this to us) how they use specific subconscious techniques to get people sucked into a fantasy world of materialism. It doesn't even stop there. Its a false teacher for people. A lot of media likes to portray things 'as is' as to get people to expect and follow such a pattern which is not beneficial for a society. If you can't see that we as a whole group of people are regressing instead of mentally, emotionally or spiritually evolving then you can live out your conditioned dreams.

Most people misuse the word propaganda. The media 'spins' things to make people think what they want them to think and react to. To myself it is common sense as i've seen it for so long. Those actors you see on cnn and fox news are just reading from a script written for them by writers who are given ideas and told to write it in specific form for the benefit on the media company and it's interests for the contributors.

So commercials are trying to brainwash you because they want you to buy a product and they advertise it? Is there something wrong with material possessions? Isnt that what all people aspire to have in their life? There is nothing wrong with being poor, but do people want to be poor? Or do they want to be successful? There is nothing wrong with that. And our system is a bit stacked, but find me a better alternative and I might be happy to agree that our system could use some rebuilding?

Im really just very annoying that everybody who is against arguments like why Iran should be allowed to pursue nuclear energy always goes back to regurgitating the same thing when the conversation steers somewhere they dont like - they say youre "brainwashed by Western propaganda", especially when I get my news from the same exact places that everybody else using this site does. Seems like taking a different point of view these days is the equivalent to being brainwashed. I dont know how Human Rights watch groups are tools of the propaganda machine, and I dont know how perceiving governments controlled by Sharia to be evil fascists makes me an "evil, soulless sheep that has no empathy for other people".

Originally posted by charles1952
reply to post by theBigToe

---

First, an off-topic sentence or two. I don't understand where the anger is coming from on this site, have you seen it? It seems like the last week or two have gotten a little more heated without any real necessity for it. Oh, well, back to your OP.

"Propaganda" is certainly used a lot, why not use the simple word "Lie?" I think there are a couple of reasons. One, "propaganda" sounds more thoughtful and intelligent. The user may be giving themselves a pat on the back for knowing and using such big words. Two, "propaganda" may be used to deal with information which is entirely true but casts your side in a bad light. You try to make it look false, but it really isn't so you slap "propaganda" on it.

Unfortunately, in the West, there's some of both. There are some lies coming out of the White House. That isn't new, but the frequency and stupidity of those lies is remarkable.

For opponents of the West, and there are many, the second use comes into play. I don't want to start a fight on a side issue, but some terrifying news comes out of parts of the world, and those living there say "We wouldn't do that, it's inhumane, our religion forbids it, it was just crazy people, it's propaganda from the West."

Westerners see that bad news and say "Hey, we're better than that." That leads us to be pro-Western. The anti-Westerners have little to say but "You're beliefs are false, your image of other countries is false. You have to believe us when we tell you that the West is the terrible one."

The use of the word "propaganda" in this case is just trying to hide from bad news and deflect the attention to somebody else.

P.s. Sometime the anti-Western attack is more aggressive, taking the form of insults, but that's the topic for another post.

How do we know everything is a lie?

For example: after watching it live on television when I was in the 5th grade and after studying it for years afterwards, I have come to the conclusion that those who think 9/11 was perpetrated by the U.S. government are lazy and refuse to invest time into researching the actual truth because its too complicated and would take too long then to watch a 2 hour documentary that makes a case for why the U.S. gov might have motive to commit 9/11. Just because the motive is there does not make it true. I could have motive to kill my fiance over an insurance policy, and she could be hit by a car the next day. Does that make me guilty of murder because there was motive for me to have her killed?

I have watched all of the 9/11 was an inside job conspiracy documentaries, but then I have watched all of the debunking the 9/11 conspiracy theory videos. The ones suggesting radical terrorists committed the atrocity are the ones that make more sense to me, not because im brainwashed, but because I have also studied the Quran and know full well that the fine line between reality and fantasy for somebody who takes their religion too far is very thin and combine that with a political aspiration to overthrow a secular government and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention that close to every argument to support 9/11 was an inside job has been debunked time and time again, which is why those who produced Loose Change have redistributed like, I dont know, seven copies of Loose Change?

Originally posted by Slavich
reply to post by theBigToe

---

Do you think consumerism and obsession with material wealth is a good thing?
Do you think a system set up for rich people to benefit and poor people to suffer is a good thing?


It is not so much that you are brainwashed or sheep. It is that you have no soul and the ability to see things from any other point of view then your own.

lol. This.

Bipartisan Congressional Bill Would Authorize the Use of Propaganda On Americans
  Posted 8 days ago with 5 member flags

No introduction, but strange Claim is this for real?
  Posted 8 days ago with 3 member flags

Propaganda & Distortions Against The Serbs, Article Written By Jeffrey T. Kuhner of the WP
  Posted 4 days ago with 3 member flags

Aspects of disinformation, some nuts and bolts.
  Posted 19 days ago with 1 member flags

Why Syria Makes Me Upset
  Posted 15 days ago with 1 member flags

Really bad hoax video of drone allegedly flying over US?
  Posted 13 days ago with 1 member flags

The Case of the Missing Terrorists (or Who is Jose Rodriguez?)
  Posted 13 days ago with 1 member flags

About the alleged Zionist Israel... let\'s look at this link/ possibly pick it apart.
  Posted 9 days ago with 1 member flags

Newest topics, updated in real-time:

Newest topics getting flags, in real-time:

Newest topics getting replies, in real-time: