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A Brief History of Propaganda in the U.S.

What is propaganda, and how is it being used against the American people? This is just a brief overview.

From Wikipedia: “Propaganda is communication that is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented.[1] Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups, companies, religious organizations, the media, and individuals can also produce propaganda.”


During the world wars, propaganda was used heavily in the United States to get citizens on-board with wars that were wildly unpopular. This propaganda included posters, radio shows, news articles, etc. It also included censorship of alternative ideas. By the end of WWII, there was a heavy negative perception of government propaganda both because of how it swayed public opinion in favor of the wars in the U.S. through half-truths and censorship AND because of how propaganda in Germany led to extensive anti-Jew and pro-Nazi sentiments. In 1948, the Smith-Mundt Act was passed to ban the use of propaganda against the American people.


When people think about propaganda, they usually think about Rosie the Riveter and old war posters, but it includes all forms of media we consume and is meant to infiltrate all aspects of life. During the Cold War, the CIA started (illegal) Operation Mockingbird to manipulate the news and target college campuses. There's a reason why radicals are coming out of the universities. In 2012, the Obama administration passed the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, which once again made it legal to use propaganda domestically to sway public opinion. (I’m aware of the articles that say it didn’t do this. I read the actual bill.) Soon after this time, we saw a marked change in the flavor of the media. The news moved from being objective presenters of facts with the opinion pages in the back of the paper to being all opinion pieces sprinkled with cherry picked and decontextualized bits of facts. Sitcoms moved from being a-political, funny forms of entertainment to being political platforms sprinkled with entertainment. Compare “Friends” and “The Steve Harvey Show” to “American Housewife” and “Blackish”—all shows that I loved, but the difference in messaging between decades is pretty obvious. These are just minor examples.


Political and social messaging intensified over time to groom the public for what is happening today. The first episode of “American Housewife” aired in 2016. It normalizes germaphobia and mocks people who think that people have immune systems as “anti-science.” It’s funny, so while we don’t take the show seriously, the seed is planted in our collective mind. Fast forward to 2020, and “The Good Doctor” airs a coronavirus episode that tells people to “Do your part,” and “Utopia” is just…damn. Messages about collectivism, government authority, and icky germs prevail. I’m sure there are a lot more examples, but admittedly I don’t watch very much TV. Maybe that’s why I haven’t become the proverbial frog in boiling water.


Moving on to the mainstream news media—the ultimate creators of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Propaganda is found in all they do—in the stories they choose to cover vs. the ones they don’t, in the sound bites they clip and decontextualize and spin a story around, in their demonization of any groups that don’t agree with them, and in their repetitive, brainwashing phrases. The other day someone challenged my opinions by saying that all the major media outlets say the same thing, so they must be right. Besides the fact that majority thought does not equal truth (look up Galileo’s heresy), that might have a little something to do with the fact that 90% of the MSM is owned by SIX companies. Switch between channels, and they are saying not just the same information but the same exact words. They are scripted. There is no such thing as investigative journalism in these outlets. Their broadcasts are agenda-driven. Chew on that when someone who only watches CNN or only watched Fox tells you that you’re living in an echo chamber.


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