Isn’t propaganda just a form of persuasion? What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?
Edit: Not all propaganda involves lying. For some reason, we seem to be more comfortable with a person lying to us than we are with viewing a propaganda poster that uses verifiable facts.
Edit 2: Another interesting note is that in some countries, propaganda is not viewed negatively like it is in English speaking countries.
It’s because propaganda is by definition false. It’s purposely misleading information intended to control people. There’s not really any way to put a positive spin on that
Not all propaganda is false, sometimes propaganda uses facts to persuade. All forms of persuasion involve controlling others, but for some reason propaganda is the most taboo.
If the information were true then it wouldn’t be propaganda anymore, it would just be facts. Propaganda is a negative word intended to alert people to misinformation
You can still be manipulative without lying, by simply choosing the right facts.
It’s not about choosing the right facts. It’s about how the information is presented. One such case I can recall involved covid propaganda. A qultist anti-vaxxer I know posted an article with the headline (paraphrasing) “70% of covid deaths in hospital were vaccinated”. Turns out that was true. Except the article was presented as if this was evidence of the vaccine failing. Unfortunately for the qultist idiot, that’s an expected outcome. The area it happened in, had pushed hard for early vaccination. The population was like 90% vaccinated and vulnerable people were targeted early. Quite the opposite to the tone of the article, reality is that the vaccine was massively effective. But the facts were presented with an ignorant and incorrect interpretation.
That’s how facts can be used in propaganda.
That’s not true. Persuasive dialogue allows others to make their own choices. The persuader’s job is to get the person with the decision to choose the desired option. In this sense, persuasion preserves the autonomy of the other and, more importantly, respects them enough to reason with them.
Propaganda largely does not do that.
Fox News is basically a propaganda factory, so it’s my go-to example. Look at how they talk about the border situation: it’s an invasion, a crisis. That’s not bad, per se, but there’s no discussion about how the problem came to be in the first place. It’s here’s an urgent problem that’s a direct threat to you, and here’s the specific thing we should do about it. Propaganda of an urgent nature is an underhanded technique because it precludes other feasible solutions.
Similarly, propaganda that persuades by omitting important facts also doesn’t give the audience a chance to reason through the problem and respect their right to choose among the feasible options if that information were included.
That’s why propaganda is often considered coercive and controlling while persuasion generally is not.