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Propaganda -- Mephisto's sig

Melendwyr said:
Thus providing an excellent demonstration of forum propaganda.

Goood God, man, what are you on? Just how far are you into illegal states of mind?
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I'm sorry? I honestly don't understand either statement.
 
Tmy said:
Propaganda is more commonly known as BS! It may technically be true, but even the speaker knows its BS.
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No it is not.

I pick this definition as most relevant. Note that it is unbiased with regard to one side or the other.

  1. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda.
So by your defintion anything said by anyone, including presumably yourself, is BS if it promotes one position or another. So what is left? The weather?
 
Tmy said:
Propaganda is more commonly known as BS! It may technically be true, but even the speaker knows its BS.
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No. This is a misconception. Sure, spin is a popular form of propaganda but it is not the only one.

If you accept this view then just about everything every person says in a political context is BS. Politics, in large part, is about influencing opinion. A politicians job is not to impartially provide information. Think about that for a moment. Politicians are not professors or journalists. Their purpose is quite different, their job is to zealously espouse their position. This doesn't mean that they only lie or "spin". It means that they engage in propaganda. That is appropriate. That is their reason for existence. Sadly many become a little too evangelical and many believe that the ends justify lying or unethical behavior. It is this reason that some have come to view propaganda as only pejorative.
 
RandFan said:
Politicians are not professors or journalists. Their purpose is quite different, their job is to zealously espouse their position.
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And that makes them different from your typical journalist or professor HOW? :D

Man, Randfan. You are just going down through the list of people I hate. Politicians, professors, journalists. You gonna toss in lawyers and fundamentalists next? :)
 
RandFan said:
Since this is in Mepthisto's sig I suppose he thinks there is something ironic about it.
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Talking about irony! Look at my sig, RF. Now who is making a big deal? I've had this sig since I changed my avatar at least a week ago. Don't tell me you're going to complain about freedom of speech for cartoons, but I can't quote the President (that quote was regarding Dubya's lack of English skills in another thread)?
 
President Bush said:
That which is viewed as blasphemy should be sacrament precisely because such a view IS irrational.

RandFan
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I love that line. I'm particularly proud of it. It is rhetorical I admit but it is delicious in irony and it does a great job of conveying my message.

:) I never thought I would say this but thanks Sock Puppet.
 
Elind said:
No it is not.

I pick this definition as most relevant. Note that it is unbiased with regard to one side or the other.

  1. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda.
So by your defintion anything said by anyone, including presumably yourself, is BS if it promotes one position or another. So what is left? The weather?
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Its BS cause they know they are slanting/exaggerating/ignoring things in order to futher their cause or whatever. Sort of like your resume! :)
 
RandFan said:
I just realized that this is not Mephisto's sig. I was wrong. Sorry.
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Hey, no sweat GI. You can find a lot more of Dubya's funny "propaganda" at Dubyaspeak.com

There are plenty of sound files to download too. ;)
 
Mephisto said:
Talking about irony! Look at my sig, RF. Now who is making a big deal? I've had this sig since I changed my avatar at least a week ago. Don't tell me you're going to complain about freedom of speech for cartoons, but I can't quote the President (that quote was regarding Dubya's lack of English skills in another thread)?
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Too late dude. I beat you too the punch.

RandFan said:
I just realized that this is not Mephisto's sig. I was wrong. Sorry.
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Oh, and let me be quite clear. Please feel free to mock, deride, ridicule, patronize, condescend, excoriate, etc. etc., Bush or any other person. Let me agree with you that Bush is worthy of ridicule when it comes to English skills. That however has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread.

Glad we got that cleared up,

RandFan
 
Tmy said:
Its BS cause they know they are slanting/exaggerating/ignoring things in order to futher their cause or whatever. Sort of like your resume! :)
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You read my resume, on Monster? You must be older than I thought then:rolleyes:

Come on, why do you make statements like that? Anything anyone ever says in defense of their position is BS?

You are full of S****, and we are all full of S**** and we all like to wallow in it it? Is that what you think?

I think not, you are just getting too hung up on semantic labels. Don't worry. It will pass once you get the baby food out of your nose:p
 
RandFan said:
. . . Bush is worthy of ridicule when it comes to English skills. That however has nothing to do with the purpose of this thread.

Glad we got that cleared up,

RandFan
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You could have been easier on yourself and left out the demonstration. ;)
 
Tmy said:
Its BS cause they know they are slanting/exaggerating/ignoring things in order to futher their cause or whatever.
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Slow down and read the definition and think about what is being said. There are many causes and many people whose job it is to further those causes. It is not their job to neutrally impart information. It is their job to influence people to that cause. Now, is it unethical to passionately make a one sided argument in favor of a cause? Is it lying to state only one side? Should all politicians state the oppositions POV? Should we implement the Fairness Doctrine on all forms of speech? Or should we assume that all statements made by politicians are lies? Of course not. But this is propaganda.
 
Freakshow said:
And that makes them different from your typical journalist or professor HOW? :D

Man, Randfan. You are just going down through the list of people I hate. Politicians, professors, journalists. You gonna toss in lawyers and fundamentalists next? :)
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You know you've got a point. :)

"Poets, priests and politicians
have words to thank for their positions..." --Sting

I guess they have propaganda to thank also. :D
 
Elind said:
You read my resume, on Monster? You must be older than I thought then:rolleyes:

Come on, why do you make statements like that? Anything anyone ever says in defense of their position is BS?

You are full of S****, and we are all full of S**** and we all like to wallow in it it? Is that what you think?

I think not, you are just getting too hung up on semantic labels. Don't worry. It will pass once you get the baby food out of your nose:p
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Im just getting to the point. Whats propaganda is really just a matter of semantics. Sort of like calling Saddam the dictator of Iraq and General Masuraff the President of Pakistan. They are both. But depending on how you want to portray them depends of the title you use.
 
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