The truth shall set ye free
Oh, goody, Robert will save me from some horrible fate. Quick, Robert, where is this propaganda machine, that I'm somehow unaware of?
Is it CSPAN? Charlie Rose? The Daily Show [it's my favorite, so it has got to be, THE ANSWER. How do they do it? They so tricky, aren't they? Because I actually think it's got a bias to the left- oh the humanity]. Please Robert, tell me how can aviod their ugly tricks.
Or Perhaps it is some blog? Is it Instapundit? Drudge? It can't be the BBC, can it? Oh, these people are so clever.
Wait. I watch Meet the Press almost religiously. That *has* to be it, right? How do they it- it's done only once a week. Are they using bright flashes?
You're making the fundamental mistake of looking for "THE ANSWER", the secret weapon or magic bullet. The answer is less flashy than that, yet nevertheless impressive in its own way. The overall strategy is to simultaneously use a great many individually unremarkable techniques in a way designed to slip in under the general radar.
The Right's spent the last three decades patiently building up its propaganda infrastructure. Wealthy patrons of the Right, notably Scaife and Coors, have provided literally billions of dollars to fund the establishment of a network of think tanks, most of them specializing in particular areas of propaganda: Policy development, organizational development, and language studies. The latter has been particularly fruitful, by developing the technique of "framing" that you've probably read me describe on CE. The Right's created its own dialect of English, in which words have different meanings, and are put together in a special syntax that weaves a tight conceptual noose around your brain.
In parallel with the thinktank effort has been the development of a strong Party organization, a hierarchy as vast and pervasive as the Catholic Church: Local and state Party "cells" coordinated up the line to the national level. Then there's the parallel networks of special-interest organizations funded to push specific hotbutton issues: Gay marriage, abortion, prayer in school, fabrication of a "cultural elite" to serve as the villain, and in general to build up high levels of class resentment that can be manipulated by Rightist demogogues.
The result of all this is easy to discern. The Right's ability to coordinate the rhetoric of an army of spokescreatures is chillingly evident. Speaking of "The Daily Show" (which I watch just about every day myself), you've seen them shine a spotlight on the phenomenon, when they splice together clips of many different RightWing pundits and "journalists" speaking the very same words, over and over. Somebody at the RNC or a thinktank creates those words, pushes a button to send them out, and within hours you'll see people on TV speaking their assigned lines, and shortly thereafter you'll notice those words being parroted by the obliging media and the Party faithful, and spread at the speed of light through the RightWing blogosphere--so that, within a few more hours we'll get to read Tom repeating those lines.
Of course you don't notice it, gb, any more than a fish notices the water. You're swimming in a sea of propaganda, and your brain's been rewired by it. Notice your internal reaction to the word "liberal"--you can't think of the word objectively, in isolation, because Rightist propaganda has created a network of associations around it that trigger emotional waves, of fear of people "out to destroy America" and "obviously crazy". The word "liberal" is tied to words like "treason" and "traitor" in your mind.
And I played a trick on you just there, when I used "liberal". I used the lowercase form that has nothing to do with politics, and just means "expansive" or "broader". E.g., the Fed pursuing a "liberal monetary policy". But nevertheless it triggered an emotional reaction, didn't it?
That's what they've done to you, gb.
Oh, goody, Robert will save me from some horrible fate.
It's not within my power to save you, Geoff. I can point out how you've been misused by Rightist propagandists, but it's up to you to muster the effort to focus on what I'm saying and tune out the voices planted in your head by the Right. I can't do that for you.
But I hope to have planted a few seeds that might bear fruit down the road. You're guaranteed to be reminded of what I've said next time you watch "The Daily Show", and you'll notice next time they illustrate the propaganda techniques. You'll start to link together the words uttered across the spectrum of talk shows and in official statements, and start to notice the pattern. When phrases turn into slogans and everybody's parroting them, you'll notice, and maybe even analyze the words to try and understand why they've lodged in your brain.
That won't be me saving you, that'll be you using the tools I'm trying to give you.