chandrashekar.beingalpha.com

1. Opinions per minute > Facts per minute - Whether its video or audio (or perhaps even print) listen or watch carefully and calculate, if you will, the number of value judgments and opinions passed over a given period of time. Then look at the facts expressed over the same interval. By facts I mean numerical or logical statements that can only be true or false and never both at the same time. If there are more opinions than facts, then maybe what you are watching/reading/listening to has an agenda. Beware!

2. Analogies galore - Factual, unbiased information can be powerful. But, analogies can blow facts out of proportion and evoke visceral reactions. And therefore, propaganda is full of this stuff.

So when you read Andrew Roberts as he compares British colonialism to American hegemony and portrays them as beacons of civilization, you know you should watch out.

3. Music to set the mood - Music is an incredibly powerful psychotropic agent. Here is a great ad that explains what I mean much more lucidly than I can:

Take a step back and try to picture the scene with different music (or with no music). That’ll give you an idea of what the music adds to what you are watching.

4. (unnecessary) Use of authority - Statements from the “Chief Editor of the Journal of Research” sound more reassuring than ones from me. But, is the authority relevant? Is it being used to push an agenda? What is at stake for the person issuing the statement?

5. Editing: concealing circumstances - The way a video is edited and pieced together indicates biases. When someone makes a statement, is it possible that the statement is incomplete? Could it be part of what the person said? Under what circumstance could that statement have been made?

6. Strong polarizing language - This ties in with the point about opinions over fact in propaganda. One specific kind of opinion that propaganda often uses is the black-or-white opinion. You might be familiar with statements like:

“You are one of us or you are a heretic”

These are strong statements that in effect don’t carry much meaning. Are you really a heretic because you, lets say, don’t believe in the war on terror? Perhaps not. Does making that statement add anything to your knowledge about the situation? No.

7. In summary, ask yourself this - does it affect you emotionally? If the answer is yes, then it might be worth questioning the motives of those that created that video, audio or text.

I decided to write this because I was watching this. You should too.

The Great Global Warming Swindle