2012 Primer: Wearing Down The Masses With Anti-Obama Propaganda

There is a psychological theory called cognitive dissonance.  We each have beliefs that we accept because they were taught from childhood; an unquestioned legacy, from experience, or from open-minded education — which is a conscious effort to reevaluate and test existing paradigms.  When we believe something, whether it’s about ourselves or other people, and something occurs that is the opposite of those beliefs, we become uncomfortable experiencing anything that conflicts with those beliefs. “The discomfort often feels like a tension between the two opposing thoughts.  Cognitive dissonance is a very powerful motivator which will often lead us to change one or other of the conflicting belief or action, thus, to release the tension we take one of three actions:

• Change our behavior.
• Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting thought.
• Justify our behavior by adding new thoughts.

Cognitive dissonance is central to many forms of persuasion to change beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors. The tension can be injected suddenly or allowed to build up over time. People can be moved in many small jumps or one large one.” (source: www.changingminds.org)

Here’s a real time example: President Obama is an African American, Christian, highly intelligent man with a law degree from Harvard, graduating magna cum laude and was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.  Many people in the United States believe the stereotypical views of what defines an African American, i.e., stupid, lazy, evil, angry, corrupt, et al.  Therefore President Obama is not an African American, in spite of the facts and credible evidence.  Hence we have the Birthers who are obsessed with proving what’s not provable because there is nothing to change the facts. If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth, or so they believe.

It is equally fascinating to read how there was a brief effort, after President Obama’s inauguration, to prove that he was actually an Anglo, how in spite of the fact that there is absolutely no evidence to support the myth, the same people think the President is of the Muslim faith, and therefore is a terrorist, because all Muslims are terrorists.  Here is a hint for those not understanding the Muslim faith: If one is Muslim, one cannot and does not claim to be of any other religious faith. 

Adjunct to cognitive dissonance is counter attitudinal advocacy.   Sometimes people will state an opinion or otherwise support a point of view that is actually against their own beliefs.  Especially when they can benefit from it.  A covert manipulation tactic.  An example: you get people to agree with you, perhaps on a small point, about something with which you want to persuade them. Ensure there is no significant external justification. Continue to gain agreement on subsequent points. After a while, their beliefs will change. Think frog on a hot plate.

Another real time example: A woman decides to build an online publication to sell at a huge profit.  In order to sell the publication, she creates the perception that she is liberal and it is a liberal-leaning publication where people can comment on the events of the presidential campaign and other newsworthy articles, growing its readership into the millions, with advertisers forming a long line with checkbooks in hand.   Post-election, the voice of the publication slowly begins to change, shifting decidedly to the right.  Commenting bloggers find their daily/hourly entries are being moderated and eliminated when they didn’t fit the new meme.  The dissonance was internalized.   I was, in fact, relieved to find out other bloggers felt the same way.   Soon after, it was announced that the publication was sold to a conservative right wing corporation with a penchant for publishing articles that instigated comments from their base that were openly radical and racist. Further, deeper investigation showed that prior to the presidential election, she was always a conservative.  While the publication’s readership is shifting, as many realize what the publication is becoming and who is being hired to write for it, some of us haven’t made the leap yet, still believing the publication will return to what it once was.  The reality?  We were punked and she profits. It will be no surprise to see the publication veer decidedly to the right,  offering more journalism provocateur in  exchange for more clicks on its articles.

African Americans. defined as people of color and African descent whose ancestry includes those brought into the United States as slaves, have  other enemies to fight in the form of propaganda.  We have been both complacent and complicit as we sit on the sidelines, just inside the parameters of our mental plantations.  For, well, ever, we have asked for permission to choose what we believe, how we think, what we should or shouldn’t buy, where we should or shouldn’t go, how we should or shouldn’t define ourselves.  When the many African Americans chose to vote for Barack Hussein Obama as U.S. President, that decision was the talk of corporate media and political pundits.  Blacks came off their social/mental plantation and made a decision without permission.   Our choice was dismissed and denigrated as being “an emotional decision” or as one as though we were nothing more than silly children who didn’t know any better than to choose someone based on the color of his skin.  Never mind the fact that many  didn’t vote for Jesse Jackson when he ran for president, or that African Americans comprise only thirteen percent of the U.S. population. Never mind the fact that the use of social media gave us direct, even immediate, access to more information outside of the usual sources provided by news shows and networks. Never mind that in spite of the stereotypes that are consistently emphasized, caricatured, demonized in the media, the majority of African Americans are educated, intelligent, hard-working, creative, moral people. The inherent and repeated message is that we made a mistake, we were wrong, we were brainwashed, that we needed to be defined;  we are not qualified to make good choices in important matters and most importantly we made the decision without their permission.

In the years after the President Obama’s inauguration, main street was bombarded with insinuations, unfounded allegations, a protracted temper tantrum that was designed to wear down the masses, including you and me. Wearied, we became apathetic.  Like parents who give in to the screaming tantrums of spoiled children just to stop the noise, we stayed on the sidelines during the 2010 elections, not voting, assuming the usual passive position, just to get a temporary moment of peace.  And here we are.  Unbelievably, I just received a Facebook comment an hour ago in which a person said the following in response to the subject of debate: “…if that’s the case perhaps it’s best to just leave things well enough alone. People may not be interested in change, nothing anyone or any letter can do about that…“   Yes, let’s continue to ignore critical matters that affect our communities and country, while we worry over the latest occurrence on the non-reality reality shows or what some above-the-law actor is doing to feed his or her addiction to media attention.

Now I get what’s bugging me.  If we, as individuals, don’t put down the remote and the joysticks for a few minutes and pay attention to what’s really going on around us, then we shouldn’t be surprised at the outcome when it’s too late to do anything about it.  If you are willing to consider the notion that I might be on to something, do this:

1.    When you are being covertly or overtly defined by others and/or you are asked to do things about which you have no clear view, ask yourself what they could gain by your believing something about yourself in this particular situation.
2.    When you are listening to or reading the debates between opposing entities – whether you side with one or the other — think not only whether something ‘makes sense’, objectively consider whether it is possible or true.  It either side cannot come to the table with facts to support their point of view, you have to ask yourself why you would believe it’s true?
3.    Pay attention to evidence. Avoid ignoring what you see, just because you’ve already made up your mind. Irrefutable facts are hard to deny, even when they make you uncomfortable.
4.    When you feel conflicted or uncomfortable about a choice you’ve made, ask yourself is it because someone else has created that conflict for you?  Is that what always happens when you aren’t compliant?  Then the likelihood is that the problem isn’t you, it’s the person or persons defining you on their terms.
5.    When you reach a conclusion that is irrefutably the truth, have the courage to stand up for it, don’t stand by waiting…on the sidelines…for someone else to do it.  No one else is coming.   “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” — Albert Einstein

TRUTH: “Often the truth is looking us dead in the face, yet we look the other 0way for what we want, as opposed to what we need. We sit, settle and soak in the company of self pity and misery for too long, inevitably peddling that safety and security towards an untimely doom and demise. Nothing more dangerous than a lie than the ones who “lie” around and close their eyes in it.”  ~ Kerry E. Wagner, author

Enough said.  The next move is yours.