My mother, born, raised, and still lives in Norway, was anti-mask during COVID and refused to take the vaccine because of micro-robots (and the scary 5G towers), so we all know where she stands in certain topics. She also believes that Zelenskyy is the reason for Russia invading Ukraine…
Anyhoo, I was talking to her then other day, and she told me that I need to stop reading anti-propaganda. I laughed and asked if she could explain it, which she, of course, could not, but she said it’s a wording being used online all the time. I don’t frequent the sites she does, and I’ve known she’s been reading conspiracies for at least 10 years, but anti-propaganda? Does words not have meaning anymore?
If you ask me, anti-propaganda is facts, but hey, I might be wrong, considering English is my second language.
If she has accepted that she is pro-propaganda then maybe you need to link her to the Wikipedia page for the word.
“Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented”
I like the Oxford dictionary definition:
“The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a particular cause or point of view, often a political agenda.”
I’d like to add that Wikipedia itself, while an amazing resource, can be full of propaganda. I came across a page for an international organisation against chemical warfare and went to the edit history. Sourced additions regarding complaints by scientists on the ground in Syria that their findings were being completely misrepresented to show Assad was using chemical warfare were consistently scrubbed without any reason given.
It’s funny that I was actually looking at that page randomly while considering how to code a tool that would highlight the most recent (and therefore unreviewed) edits on wiki. I got the idea from a Defcon talk on how to counter and deal with misinformation. It’s ironic that in this instance, it was the more established editors that were propagating misnformation.
I managed to logic my parents out of one thing.
My parents actually asked me if it was possible that the vaccines contained 5G micro robots.
After taking a moment to maintain my composure and put on my “pretend I wasn’t asked a stupid question and answer seriously” face, I asked them to take out their phone.
When the phone was in their hand, I asked them to consider the fact that it must be charged every day to keep working, and that the vast majority of the size of the phone was taken up by the battery. Then I pointed out that a device small enough to be injected wouldn’t have enough power to still be on when it left the needle.
Luckily I didn’t have to go further than that.
I think that’s the only time I’ve had any success pounding logic into them. I think the problem is they can’t think of me as anything but a child, except where computers are concerned.
They paid for my computer science degree, and they know I’ve been working in IT for 32 years, and I answer all their computer questions. So, if the subject is computer-related, I’m their expert. Anything else and I’m just a deluded child.
I haven’t tried talking to my mom about the SSA COBOL AI rewrite yet. I’m not sure if she heard about it or if she did whether she understood enough to even be concerned enough to ask me.
This reminds me of the people that say they are anti-antifa.
"Anti-propaganda aims to undermine the effectiveness of propaganda by exposing its manipulative tactics, providing alternative perspectives, or offering factual information to counter biased claims.
I’d pick my battles and try to address the most harmful lines of thought first. Like anything medical for example. Deprogramming is a popular topic online so there are some resources out there.
Best of luck, it’ll be difficult until you find a foothold.
I started using anti-vaxx propaganda tactics satirically.
The goal is to show how the tactic is manipulative by applying it to something obviously not dangerous.
Water is easy, start insisting that “dihydrogen monoxide” is dangerous:
Celebrity just died? “They had dihydrogen monoxide before they died, maybe it killed them”
“All traffic fatalities in the last 5 years were link to people using dihydrogen monoxide”
“Dihydrogen overdoses kill people every year”
“Why is dihydrogen monoxide in everything? Why is big dihydrogen monoxide putting this in everything, what are they trying to do?”
“I bet Trump was on dihydrogen monoxide when he thought of his tariffs plan”
Etc
Did you know there are more hydrogen atoms in a single water molecule than stars in our whole solar system?
there are more hydrogen atoms in a single water molecule
Hydrogen atoms?! Didn’t they use that in the hydrogen bomb? And in the Hindenburg Disaster? OH THE HUMANITY!
Technically, no propaganda of any sort at all.
Counter propaganda or anti-propaganda is just differently angled propaganda. You cannot fix propaganda with more propaganda.
If you want to understand your mom, you need to see or read what she sees. Just telling her she is wrong is not going to help. Repeating that she is wrong is just not going to help.
Plus as an adult that she is, you might not be able to dissuade her. Perhaps, you may have to simply not touch the topic when with her.
When I was younger, I naively used to think that if I had the facts or Academic papers or research to prove point XYZ on my side, that I would be able to argue valiantly against some people I used to know. Ha, I was so silly. I could literally point or give the proof to my arguments on a silver platter, be empathetic about it, down to page numbers or exact quotes, and people would simply not even bother to read them, because they were certain they were right. Some people just want to be Right, not Correct. Due to such worldviews being driven not by fact but by emotion. Fear, anger, bias, lies by omission, but usually peppered with some facts here and there, etc. Hence you need to know where your mom is coming from. Takes patient and an open mind.
Trying to change them, will just end up in damaging your current bonds. Do you want to risk that? Maybe over time. But just focus mostly on what you have and enjoy the time you have, over spending it arguing. Life is short enough as it is.
Cut the source of the actual propaganda being pumped into her head.
Curiously, when these people are cut of from the source of hate and fear being pumped into their heads for a month or so, they start to be more rational.
That’s doing to be hard. She’s reading all the right-wing websites in Norway and Europe. I wish I could, and my brother and myself have told her multiple times in the past 5 years how wrong she is (“Norwegian government is hacking my Facebook because I’m critical to them” when Facebook photos were down for all of Europe for a few hours), but she does but listen. Might be because she looks at her children as children, and not actual grown men with degrees. She also lives in Spain now, so hard to do anything with her WiFi.
Yeah, I understand it’s easier said than done. I’m dealing with this with my older sister.
Wouldn’t it just be facts?
That’s what I said lol
I feel like the word propaganda gets a little misused. There’s so much negativity attached to it, but propaganda at it’s core is media that tries to persuade someone. So media trying to undo misinformation about COVID is also propaganda.
anti propaganda is still propaganda, even if it’s factual.
