If there's one term people might remember most from the tenure of the 45th President of The United States, it's the term "fake news." However, a legion of his followers nonetheless believed what he said, with the President inadvertently, or intentionally, creating his own propaganda.
Sadly, people will too easily believe almost anything they hear in this day and age, even after something has been unequivocally proven false.
Often resulting in dangerous consequences.
Redditor 6FeetDownUnder was eager to learn which conspiracy theories and propaganda people continue to believe, despite it's being definitively proven false, leading them to ask:
"What is something debunked as propaganda that is still widely believed?"
The Muddled Meaning Of Propoganda
"That propaganda is necessarily misleading or false."
"Propaganda is simply a method of directional persuasion."
"Can it be false or misleading?"
"Without question."
"But it can also simultaneously be factually unimpeachable and rhetorically suggestive."- dreamrock
Who Was Really Responsible For 9/11
"That the 9/11 hijackers were sponsored by Iraq."
"In reality, 15 of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia and 11 of them received large amounts of money from members of the Saudi royal family shortly before the attack."
"In 2016 the Obama administration, under pressure from the families of the 9/11 victims, tried to investigate Saudi Arabia. In response to the JASTA act."
"Saudi Arabia threatened to sell $750 billion worth of American assets they own."
"This would destabilize the dollar."
"The 9/11 Commission’s final report stated that it found 'no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded' al-Qaida."
“'This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida'."- Ctheo27
It's All Lies!
"Lie detector tests."
"They are easily rigged/straight up false most of the time and were outlawed from being used in court as evidence back in the 70s."
"idk why when Youtubers or sh*tty reality TV shows use them many people treat their answers as factual."
"They aren’t."- Conscious_Day2425
The Truth About McDonald's Coffee
"Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's Coffee Case."
"In case you never heard of it, a woman sued McDonald's because the coffee was too hot and caused injury when she spilled some on herself by accident."
"McDonald's spent millions on smear campaigns trying to make her look like some sort of idiotic buffoon who filed a frivolous suit."
"Tons of corporate influence was applied in the media to villify her."
"Ask most people, they think she lost and McDonald's won."
"Only that's not what happened."
"The coffee was between 180-190F (88C), far higher than safe temperature and far higher than competition."
"She suffered major third degree burns resulting in an 8-day stay in the hospital and skin grafts."
"A jury awarded her $200,000 in medical injuries and $2.7 million in punitive damages against McDonald's."
"Later reduced by the trial judge."
"The parties settled without disclosure out of court during appeal."
"Basically, McDonald's was completely in the wrong and scalded this woman, and the court found them liable, but smear campaigns made her look like a moron and losing party."- Kent_Knifen
Glitch Mcdonalds GIFGiphySome People Just Have High Standards
"That napoleon was short."- NiallCCFC17
Nope, Just Annoys Other People...
'That cracking your knuckles causes arthritis."
"Science nerd Donald Unger cracked the knuckles on his left hand only for 50 years, no arthritis."
"Suck it Nana."- Unable_Version_3955
Just Read The Label
"That plastics are easily recyclable, and that MSG is bad for you."- AZSnake
Climate Change Sustainability GIF by INTO ACTIONGiphyNext time you hear something whose validity is questionable, seriously evaluate who you heard it from, and then do some research of your own.
After all, facts are facts.
And no, there are no "alternative facts".
Audiences can get so engrossed in certain films or TV programs, they fail to notice the potentially subtle ulterior motives disguised as entertainment.
The opportunity for a company's big marketing push can be subliminally buried in viewers' favorite shows, while other programs are less discreet about shoving their products or ideas down the audience's throats.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Ponymations asked:
"What piece of media is just straight up propaganda?"
TV shows are easily convenient places for propaganda.
Dedicated TV Station
"in my country philippine we got tv station 'net 25' and 'smni sunshine'. pure government propaganda channels run by cults who have deep connections with Ferdinand marcos."
– betawings
Undercover Boss
"At this point, any worker should know if they see a middle aged white guy or woman with a bad wig, make up, and a camera crew behind them should be able to figure out they're on Undercover Boss."
– finmoore3
Hotel Promotion
"Ugh. Even if we were to believe that stuff wasn't staged and people were genuinely surprised to discover it was their boss, it's often a puff piece for the company where the undercover boss finds some problem and takes decisive action to fix things up, and they are shown to be kind and compassionate as they listen to their employees troubles in their private lives and then with the massive life changing gift at the end."
"One episode I watched it was so obviously transparent. It was a guy with a chain of hotels and a massive ego talking about how he pulled himself up on his boot straps and how amazing his hotels are. He talked to some cleaner who basically said life was hard because she gets paid peanuts. So then he announced at the end he was giving her fifty grand or something, no announcement about raising the wages for the rest of his staff though!"
– Corka
About Forensics
"Anything dealing with forensics. A job in forensics is boring. You know when they match a fiber sample and can exclude it from 5,000 other samples? Someone had to compare the fiber in question 5,000 times and say, 'Nope, next.' Not to mention, the paperwork required is painful."
"Source: Three years working in forensics. To this day my signature looks like a doctors from all the chain of custody documents I had to sign."
– beanomly
Getting Into The Crime Lab
"I went to university in the peak of CSI’s popularity and forensic science was one of the most oversubscribed degrees at our uni, thousands of students, they were standing in the lecture halls. Someone explained that given the number of crime labs in the country the likelihood of any one of those kids getting into the industry was super slim."
– Z8pG2yQkZbGMJ
News Featuring Private Stock Owners
"Any news targeting stock owners. Not the big companies, but the private people who have a few thousand dollars worth or less. The way it works is some scandal comes out and it's designed to make people panic and sell, swinging the price down by a lot, some times half the price. Then big companies buy up billions of dollars worth and this swings the price back up. Then they sell it again making a fortune."
– Janfredrikjohansen
Sob Story
"America’s Got Talent. It promotes the idea that talent goes hand in hand with struggle, so much so that genuinely awful acts make it through on the strength of their sob story."
"People have a hard enough time accepting the work that goes into being a creative without having to attach a tragic backstory to it."
– SaltySteveD87
The Struggle Is Real
"That's why I can't watch American Ninja Warrior anymore."
"Once it got to the girl who equated beating the Warped Wall as equivalent with beating her cancer, I was out."
– -RUNPMT-
Sure, films are entertaining, but they're also pushing for more than just box
Push For The Navy
"I love Top Gun. It's a huge guilty pleasure of mine and I can't wait to see Maverick in theaters. That being said, it is 1000% propaganda for the Navy, to the point where the Navy had a lot of say in the script and they set up recruitment booths outside the theatre."
– The_Big_Daddy
Cost Of Getting Equipment
"To be FAIR, almost all western films that feature US military hardware are at least mild propaganda. DOD openly invites Hollywood filmmakers to 'loan' their equipment, giving them access to tanks, helicopters, planes, trucks, bases to film on, etc, provided it gets a say in how it's used, which basically means they want access to scripts, ask to make changes whenever they want, and reserve the right to pull their resources at any time, for any reason. Their general policy is that you're not allowed to cast [the US Military] in a bad light, and usually ask for at least a positive portrayal."
"All that equipment is SUPER expensive to get ahold of outside of this offer, so filmmakers will generally take the deal. Iirc they also provide pilots for planes and soldiers for extras."
– GilligansIslndoPeril
Google's Stake
"The Internship (2013)… just Wedding Crashers but taken over by our Google overlords. Praise be."
– 215487
It Still Holds As Hilarious
"The movie, Reefer Madness."
"Terrible movie, but hilarious today."
– TheSmegger
It's Triggering
"American Sniper. I’m still mad that I got tricked into thinking it was a movie about PTSD."
– LONGSWORD_ENJOYER
Missed Opportunity
"They really took The Punisher and f'ked up the message."
– KittyKenollie
How aware are you of some of your favorite shows shoving propaganda in your face?
Does it bother you or are you indifferent?
Some programs don't bother me with their deliberate endeavors.
The annual ABC Disney Christmas specials are just ploys to get viewers to get out to a Disney park.
Even though the show features various performing artists and A-list celebrities sharing their joys of what the holidays mean to them, it's really one big magical commercial to get kids to convince their parents to whisk them away to the happiest place on earth.
Sounds good, but who's paying?
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Nearly 30 years ago, Rwanda's Hutu population initiated perhaps the most successful genocide campaign in recent history, systematically murdering more than 800,000 members of the Tutsi population over a three-month period.
The period before the genocide began was marked by heightened political tensions. Hutus and their supporters would take to radio broadcasts to brand Tutsis "cockroaches," which normalized animosity toward them. It was successful propaganda that altered the lives of millions.
This isn't the first time that people have used propaganda for nefarious reasons – far from it. People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor fitboy15 asked the online community,
"What piece of propaganda did the most damage?"
"That Oxycontin..."
"That OxyContin had a low rate of dependency."
No-Discussion6480
If Dopesick didn't send you down a rabbit hole learning about the Sackler family, then you did something wrong.
"Kids lost..."
"In the 90s, child abduction fear porn was all the rage on the nightly news. And they were always the 1 in a million, crazy stories with horrific deaths and would play weekly. Chris Hanson's "To Catch a Predator" didn't help."
"However, these kidnappings were extremely rare in reality. Kids lost almost all unsupervised play time, which as it turns out is very helpful for learning how to socialize."
[deleted]
Not to mention most kidnappings were done by close relatives of the child rather than complete strangers.
"When Coca Cola..."
"When Coca Cola paid off doctors to say that fat was what caused fatness rather than sugar. This has destroyed the health of generations. It was the total converse of the truth, pushed to all American children (and many internationally) about their health."
andycambridge
There's a looming crisis in Mexico just because of this. The commoner is so brainwashed about sugar that the drink is almost consumed ritualistically/ceremoniously.
This dude!
“Dr.” Andrew Wakefield and his false study."
Xboarder84
People talk a lot about the harms Wakefield did by spreading distrust in vaccines, and that's huge and unforgivable, but the harms he caused to the autistic community are huge and unforgivable too. So much unnecessary hatred.
"When big tobacco companies..."
"When big tobacco industries made doctors endorse cigarettes."
Sandracotta
Made? They gave them kickbacks and direct payments.
Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok's 1968 letter..."
"Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok's 1968 letter in New England Journal of Medicine talking of Chinese restaurant syndrome caused by MSG without any scientific evidence."
doesntcareatall
Indeed, this added a lot of content to preexisting stigma towards East Asians. However blinded experiments could not prove his claims.
"It might not be the worst..."
"It might not be the worst, but when the woman spilled hot coffee on herself from McDonald's. She ended up with 3rd degree burns because the coffee temperature wasn't regulated correctly and McDonald's paid people to make fun of her, and people still do to this day."
mksports
Her burns were so severe that her labia were fused together. She suffered horrifying, debilitating and expensive burns and she was mocked and painted as irresponsible. All she wanted from McDonalds was the cost of her medical expenses, too.
"The United States..."
"The United States FDA Food Pyramid."
yawmush
One of the biggest lies ever told. Grain is more important than vegetables? Yeah, right.
"The War..."
"The War on Drugs."
[deleted]
"Perhaps..."
"Perhaps not the most damaging, but certainly a vile example… when Pope Benedict XVI told the people of sub-Saharan Africa that condoms would actually make the HIV/AIDS crisis worse."
PosterNutbag
It was largely rooted in a belief that birth control goes against the word of god. "Go forth and multiply" taken to the extreme.
Yeah... if you walked away from these not feeling at least a bit ambivalent about the human race, then I don't know what to tell you.
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One of the more fascinating films I've seen is Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Riefenstahl played a seminal role in producing Nazi propaganda and Triumph of the Will is her magnum opus, chronichling the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg and featuring speeches from such figures as Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess.
The film makes for disconcerting viewing these days given the... you know... Nazis, but there is no doubt that it is technically innovative, having a profound impact on film and documentary production thereafer. Riefenstahl, who was detained after World War II and lived to be 101, claimed to have been politically naive and later said her biggest regret in life was meeting Hitler.
Her life–and Triumph of the Will's production–have been the subject of numerous documentaries over the years though efforts to make a biographical film about her life, including one that would have starred Jodie Foster, have stalled due to concerns about the potential project's commercial appeal.
Of course, Triumph of the Will is not the only film out there that was made for purely propagandic purposes or that hosts specific underlying messages.
We heard more about those after Redditor fjeek asked the online community:
"Which movies do you think are straight up propaganda?"
What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004)
"Oh man, there was a "documentary" a while back called "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" that advertised itself as a science documentary exploring the weirdness of quantum physics. It sounded cool and I actually went and saw it in the theater."
"Turns out it was a flat-out scam promoting the ideas of a new age cult called the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. A handful of physicists were duped into appearing and heavily edited to appear as though they agreed with the cult's message. I've never felt so cheated leaving a theater."
NotaBonobo
The director of that film went on to be a central figure in the NXIVM cult. Messed up, right?
Rocky IV (1985)
"Rocky 4. Love the movie whole heartedly but Rocky winning the Cold War was a bit blatant."
[deleted]
One of the most unsubtle films to come out of the era. Cold War propaganda was everywhere!
Rambo III (1988)
"Rambo III hanging out with Osama bin Laden and other anti-Soviet child Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan."
norbertus
Funny how the Rambo movies went from “messed up Vietnam vet goes psycho because war is hell” to “let’s shoot the Commies."
Battlefield Earth (2000)
"Battlefield Earth. It was based off the book written by the nut job who made up Scientology."
UpstairsTraffic9221
It is also one of the most unintentionally hilarious films ever made. They took themselves sooo seriously.
The Green Berets (1968)
"The Green Berets with John Wayne is a straight up U.S. propaganda film for the Vietnam War. When I saw it, the build up/rationale for Iraq was going strong and you just had to edit "Iraq/Afghanistan" where they said Vietnam to hear the same things the politicians and news at the time were saying."
mrzizzerdly
This is spot on. It would be almost comical if... you know, people hadn't gone to Vietnam and died.
God's Not Dead (2014)
"Even as a Christian I'd say the movie 'God's Not Dead.' It's such an over-exaggeration of Christian life and it demonizes everyone who isn't a Christian, especially atheists and people of different beliefs. It's a bad film and should be offensive to everyone including Christians."
MrMcFrostee
The fact that there's been a successful film series including films with increasingly comical names really sells it.
Transformers (2007)
"The Michael Bay Transformer Movies. Think about it, weird evil robot aliens attack earth and the American military helps fight them off and save the day."
RD0AM300
The American military is utterly faultless in these films. Faultless.
American Sniper (2014)
"American sniper turned an absolute psychopath who bragged about killing people in New Orleans during Katrina into an American hero."
Unsettlingpresence
Top Gun (1986)
"Top Gun was a recruitment movie for the Navy and the Air Force."
n_original
Don't forget gay volleyballing! So important.
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
"Behind Enemy Lines (2001). Owen Wilson, of all people, plays a smart@ss military man, who gets stuck in an Eastern European war zone, while his superiors scramble to find him, and bring him home."
"I don’t think it was meant to be propaganda, but it DID come out just after 9/11 happened, so it was touted as the “Rah rah America!” super patriotic film that so many were thirsting to see at the time."
ActingAspie
Some horrible stuff went down in Bosnia in the 1990s. The Bosnian Serbs were responsible for a large part of that horror. However the other two sides were not without their own acts of horror. Anyone who tells you they really understand what went down is full of it.
The movie basically sets the premise that the Bosnian Serbs were the sole evil bad guys, even going as far as having some guys wearing Soviet style communist uniforms which you would have never seen in Yugoslavia just to make it easier for the viewer to understand who was bad and who was good.
Think about the media you consume. Our brains are just really susceptible to propaganda and conspiracy theories, and they don't have to be elaborate.
Have some thoughts of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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Few topics get me as riled up as unpaid internships. They can take up the time of a full time job, making it difficult for some students who may need additional sources of income.
At the end of the day an intern is doing work for a company and they deserve to be paid for their labor.
But it's crazy to think about how much companies have normalized this practice. How many students do you know who are or were burned out by the stress of their internship, their actual job, and the need to keep up with their assignments?
Companies have normalized a lot, by the way, thanks to having the resources to produce enough propaganda.
People shared their thoughts after a Redditor asked the online community:
"What is something that's considered normal today but is actually successful propaganda made by corporations?"
"Attaching..."
"Attaching health insurance to your job and if you have a family and leave your job, you're f*cked."
Ennion
Ah, yes. The United States is quite behind compared to most of the world.
"I don't ask my mechanic..."
""Ask your doctor if JDGYRHKX is right for you!" WTF isn't that his job? I don't ask my mechanic or plumber if I need a certain product. Pharmaceutical marketing is a total ruse."
patches181
I can't imagine falling for one of those commercials. They really boggle the mind of people in other countries.
"Politicians being..."
"Politicians being a middleman for corporations to influence government policies, instead of middlemen for the people to influence government policies."
OneTwoKnow
"Sugar industry blaming fatty foods for obesity, sparking the low-fat trends and ignoring how bad sugar is for your health."
BlackSage8
Interestingly enough, being poor did wonders for my palate.
"People eating KFC..."
"People eating KFC during Christmas time in Japan because of KFC's marketing campaign that promoted their products as a traditional Western Christmas treat."
ClementinaGriffe
I heard about this from a Japanese person once and it blew my mind.
"Most products..."
"Most products made for the care of babies. Babies need very little in the way of furniture, gear, special foods etc. But people are so willing to buy so much stuff."
lexrp
The same is true for pet products too. It's a total money pit.
"Companies like Intuit..."
"Companies like Intuit have lobbied to make sure filing taxes can't be free and easy."
FunnOnaBunn
In Norway you only have to check the government’s calculations of your taxes and file any deviations or potentially unreported income/wealth.
They have it so easy.
"It was pushed..."
"Plastics Recycling."
"It was pushed by the plastics industry back in the early 70s when laws were about to be passed to deal with the environmental impact of plastics. In reality a lot of the plastics that have a little recycling symbol on them are not feasible to recycle at all."
"They are still pushing the lie to this very day."
FriendlyWisconsinite
When I learned about this, it filled me with rage.
"The way we celebrate holidays is much more of a production than it used to be - Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day. Just more excuses to consume crap en masse."
[deleted]
The commercialization of holidays is a big reason why so many people dislike the holiday season.
"Not discussing your income..."
"Not discussing your income with coworkers. At least in the US, employees are protected, so they are allowed to discuss income amongst each other without fear of getting fired for it. However, a lot of companies have kept the idea that it is taboo or that your job may be at risk for doing so and a lot of people still buy it to this day."
Chico119
Fun fact: Your employer can't stop you from discussing your wages. It is protected by law and you should do the work to keep such discussions as transparent as possible.
You're annoyed now, aren't you? It's astounding the amount of influence that companies have–and continue to hold–over our daily lives.
Have some thoughts of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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