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Shirer Saw Power of Propaganda in Nazi Germany; Profs Propose Universities’ Role in Fighting Trumpistani Bushwah

Listening to the absurdities pouring from the mouths of Kristi Noem and Donald Trump isn’t just hard; it’s hazardous to the mental and intellectual health of our society and of us journalists who try to report honestly on it. Cross-apply this quote from William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:

I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one’s inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were [William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Simon & Schuster, 1960].

I encounter Shirer’s foreboding passage in this essay by professors Phillip G. Clampitt and M. Lee Williams, who offer “four modest proposals” for universities to lead the fight against the propagandists of faux-populist Trumpistan:

  • Fast-track network and data-science concepts into the undergraduate curriculum.
  • Expand critical-thinking education to include units about self-persuasion.
  • Enhance cybersecurity training for university personnel to include cyberinfluence strategies.
  • Position universities as intellectual hubs for open debate on data-privacy legislation…. 

Fostering understanding of influencers’ technical capabilities and tactical practices can inoculate our students from the propagandists’ messaging. Cultivating professional communities trained to spot nefarious messaging, while debating related cyberpolicies, builds even further resistance to virulent strains of propaganda. At the very least, universities can commit to enhancing understanding about how shrewd propagandists use our digital footprints and networks to influence public opinion. The more people are educated about these issues, the more likely they will develop mental countermeasures to protect themselves from dubious claims propagated in information spheres around the globe [Phillip G. Clampitt and M. Lee Williams, “How Universities Can Neutralize the Propagandists of the Day,” Inside Higher Ed, 2019.04.10].

That sounds like an excellent field for Dakota State University to incorporate into its Digital Humanities Graduate Certificate! Maybe after four months in the propagandists’ den in Pierre, Interim Education Secretary Dr. Ben Jones will be happy to come back to campus and lead such an academic effort to educate students to resist the modern propagandists.

12 Comments

  1. bearcreekbat 2019-04-11 10:55

    Great post Cory! I recently had the pleasure (or perhaps more to the point displeasure) of reading “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History” by Kurt Andersen.

    This book documents a history of American propaganda that is frighteningly accurate. This book should be required reading for everyone, but especially young impressionable folks in high school and college. It helps open our eyes to the techniques that have been used, and continue to be used, to convince us of an alternate reality, most often for primarily nefarious and selfish reasons.

    Some of the more offensive uses of propaganda today include the mendacious assertions designed to harm innocent men, women and children who seek only safety, freedom and economic opporunity in the USA. (e.g., “Our country is full, they take our jobs, they bring drugs and crime, they are diseased, etc). Recognizing these lies and the ulterior motives behind them is a critical skill necessary to any meaningful and peaceable development of humanity.

  2. Donald Pay 2019-04-11 12:06

    Yes, great post.

    I’ve been taking a course on the Art and Architecture of the Fascist State. “Art” includes film, so we’ve watched snippets of Hitler and Mussolini’s speeches, parades, etc. Much of their strutting, posing,and parading around was all stagecraft, as faked and full or unreality as a Donald Trump press conference.

    Both Hitler and Mussolini had huge egos, like Trump, and they were surrounding by “yes men.” They had a largely censored press, so they were much more effective in spreading lies and creating myth and hate than Trump, but we see that the FOX viewer is more or less in the same boat as the German and Italian populace, fed a steady stream of lies and myths which they have come to believe. They, like the German people, are largely lost to reality, and will follow Trump off the cliff.

    The difference I see is that Hitler and Mussolini were at least partially competent with good leadership skills. They were studious with plans for their countries. They also had the benefit of competent and studious compatriots. Trump is a lazy bumbler who attracts corrupt and lazy bumblers. He has pronouncements with no plans, and if he did have a plan, he can’t seem to focus on them to completion. He also has no one who is competent to do what he commands, partly because what he commands is not thought out.

    Donald Trump is a Mel Brooks Hitler character. He’s still hateful and dangerous, but he’s addled.

  3. Debbo 2019-04-11 15:04

    Outstanding post, Cory. The suggestions by Clampitt and Williams are critical needs, not only in SD, but across the USA and Europe.

    The fervency with which trumpelstilskins cling to the propaganda is a bit frightening at times. I include a cousin and a neighbor in that group. It’s as if a part of their brains have become damaged. It is genuinely sad.

  4. Debbo 2019-04-11 15:35

    “Americans owe much of their economic success to a rich set of truth-telling, truth-discovering and truth-verifying institutions. Central among them are freedom of expression and media independence. Like all people, journalists are fallible; but, as part of a robust system of checks and balances on those in positions of power, they have traditionally provided an essential public good.”
    Joseph Stiglitz

  5. Debbo 2019-04-11 15:36

    “America’s “greatness” has depended upon–and varied with– the extent to which the nation has adhered to that truth-telling and has honored human rights and the rule of law. Greatness is not a product of bluster, or White Supremacy, or faux Christianity, or the worship of wealth and power and celebrity; it is a product of evidence-based allegiance to individual liberty and civic equality.”
    Sheila Kennedy

  6. David Newquist 2019-04-11 16:40

    A problem is that many colleges are cutting those courses which offer the mental counter measures that deal effectively with propaganda. Those are the language-based courses that examine the narrative of human history and the interplay of fact and idea. For example, U. of Wisconsin at Srevens Point, which is a mid-size university that had earned an admirable reputation for its comprehensive curriculum, announced early this year that it was eliminating programs in history, French, and German and replacing them with “career-focused” programs.

    The liberal arts are considered abortions by the right wing and must be banned and punished. Our colleges and high schools have undergone purges of the human]ties during the last half century. At NSU when it was decided that we had to adjust the course distribution so that students could still earn a baccalaureate degree with 125 or so credits. A meeting was called for a weekend review by deans and department chairs. It became known as the Friday Night Massacre, as course requirements were reduced in every department of the humanities. In English, the literature requirement was reduced to one introductory course. While courses in diversity, such as African American and American Indian Literature had been developed, they have ended because students do not have room in their schedules to take them.

    To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “And so it goes.”

  7. Donald Pay 2019-04-11 17:29

    David Newquist: The UW-Stevens Point story has flipped, and they will retain their liberal arts majors. The plan to dumb down UW-Stevens Point was drafted and floated last year. When Scott Walker lost, there was a re-thinking of a lot of Scott Walker’s goofy ideas. Of course, we still have the goofy Republicans in power in the Legislature, but I think even they have gotten the message that Tony Evers ain’t Scott Walker.

  8. David Newquist 2019-04-11 18:10

    Donald Pay: I had not heard that the plan was revoked. That’s good news. I did know that the opposition was fierce, and hope that the state can rid itself of Scott Walker completely and restore some intelligence. I had property near Spring Green in the pinelands where I did much of my work and planned to retire at one point. But as there seemed to be a drift back toward McCarthy era attitudes, I changed my plans. The election of Tony Evers is an encouraging sign.

    In my home state, Western Illinois University is facing some of the same proposals Steven Point was. I hope there is a reversal there, too.

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