(1) Understanding the dangers of the propaganda meme of the "Deep State"

I had a recent thread on how "Political Communication Bubbles" can form around you without you even noticing it, especially in Facebook and Twitter. https://twitter.com/39Magilla/status/1306967605597687809

(2) Today I want to explore the very dangerous propaganda memes about "The Deep State" and "Fake News".

Though these sounded like nutty conspiracy theories when they were first floated, they are actually well designed propaganda that undermines those who oppose Trump.

(3) The most dangerous enemies of Trump's rise to power are the Free Press and Government Whistleblowers, Investigators, Prosecutors & Inspector Generals.

Trump's team needs to discredit the Free Press and purge all the others from government, so they can wield unchecked power.

(4) To get "The Base" to disregard Mainstream Media news outlets, the Trump team devised the propaganda meme "Fake News".

They infused false beliefs into the conservative bubble regarding these sources (e.g. Soros vendetta), and overemphasized any minor mistakes they made.

(5) They also admit nothing, even when they are caught on tape or video. Over time, the "Fake News" meme has grown from a crazy throwaway phrase to a deadly weapon.

"The Base" now rejects the MSM out of hand. It pains them to see it.

(6) The purge of dangerous government actors was trickier.

To get "The Base" to disregard these overt abuses of power, "The Deep State" meme was sown.

They infused false beliefs about Obama wiretaps & about Obama sleeper agents still in the government. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/837989835818287106

(7) They searched everywhere to find supporting facts they could overblow: Nunes and intelligence unmasking, Strzok's and Page's texts, the Carter Page FISA warrant application.

(8) "The Deep State" was the consolidating propaganda meme they spread in the conservative bubble to undermine Trump's collusion with Russia and the Ukraine, and to attack and purge US Attorneys, FBI managers, US Army Colonels and Generals, Inspector Generals and US Ambassadors.

(9) The chaos and corruption provided high cover for the necessary purges.

(10) Trump's "Mr. Magoo-like" appearance and his circus barker approach have led many to underestimate the Trump team.

Sophisticated and well designed mass propaganda techniques have been employed very effectively.

Don't underestimate this enemy.

(11) To defend Putin's killing of reporters on "Morning Joe", Trump employed classic Cold War "Whataboutism"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

(12) Here's a list of other techniques that the Trump camp employs. Some are trademarks of the Trump Team.

Beautiful People
Branding/Labeling
Demonizing the enemy
Dog whistles/Loaded language
False accusations
Gaslighting
Repetition
Scapegoating
Slogans
Smears
Testimonials

(13) Propaganda 101: Beautiful People

The type of propaganda that deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy people. This suggests if people buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be happy or successful.

(14) Propaganda 101: Branding/Labeling

A euphemism is used to increase the perceived quality, credibility, or credence of a particular ideal.

A dysphemism is used to discredit, diminish the perceived quality, or hurt the perceived righteousness of the individual.

(15) Propaganda 101: Demonizing the enemy

Making individuals from a different race or ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman, worthless, or immoral, through suggestion or false accusations.

(16) Propaganda 101: Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer is gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger opponent groups.

Supporting Bernie Sanders after he had no chance, and supporting Green Party candidate, Jill Stein and now Kanye West.

(17) Propaganda 101: Dog whistles/Loaded language

Specific words and phrases with strong emotional implications are used to influence the audience.

(18) Propaganda 101: Gaslighting

Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying to sow seeds of doubt in a target individual or group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, sanity, and norms.

@washingtonpost

(19) Propaganda 101: Repetition/Slogans

This is the repeating of a certain symbol or slogan so that the audience remembers it. This could be in the form of a jingle or an image placed on nearly everything in the picture/scene.

(20) Propaganda 101: Scapegoating

Assigning blame to an individual or group, thus alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned.

(21) Propaganda 101: Ad Hominem Attacks/Smears

A Latin phrase that has come to mean attacking one's opponent, as opposed to attacking their arguments.

A smear is an effort to damage or call into question someone's reputation, by propounding negative propaganda.

(22) Propaganda 101: Generalized Testimonial

Emotional testimonials are used to suggest rare events are very common, in an effort to get the target audience to generalize the events from the rare perpetrator to the majority of an opposition group.

(23) The descriptions of the Propaganda Techniques summarized here were taken from the following @Wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques

The article covers many other techniques employed by the Trump campaign that I chose not to highlight here.