If propaganda is just the the propagation of ideas whether factual or not, should we cease to use it as a derogatory term for misinformation/disinformation and instead just call it such?
If propaganda is just the the propagation of ideas whether factual or not, should we cease to use it as a derogatory term for misinformation/disinformation and instead just call it such?
In the Spanish language, and I’m guessing others too, the word is used to refer to advertising and doesn’t really have such a negative connotation as in English.
According to Adam Curtis - a boomer lib, so not necessarily the most reliable source - Edward Bernays apparently coined the term advertising as a way to sell propaganda techniques “for peace”.
In France (idk for other Frenc-speaking places), “propagande” is, in one case, used in a neutral way to designate the leaflets that are mailed to the voters before each election by the mayor. Despite that, in the common language it does bear a negative connotation, sometimes it is literally pointed as “something totalitarian regimes do!!!” which kinda shows how collectively braindead France is.
I have read Edward Bernays’ Propaganda, short book, basically explaining how most things people want or believe is from elaborate propaganda with figures we don’t even know deciding such things, he also lays out a method of advertising to make people want things they wouldn’t have any reason to want otherwise.