Worldbuilding & Writing 105: Propaganda

Greetings and stanjant! You know, that is a very classical look for a mighty lion! Today, I am being infested–I mean, I invited!–the glorious and fannetastic Anne Winchell! Also known as Lady Verbosa; I think she should get a name change 😉 But a quick disclaimer:

Disclaimer: In this post, we quote Joseph Göbbels from history. He was a terrible person who did terrible things. We quote him so much only because when it comes to propaganda, he was extremely skilled. A person being significantly skilled does not redeem them from being a monster, just as being a monster does not diminish their skills. He chose to utilise this exact skill to commit atrocities, thus demonstrating his inherent effectiveness with this skill while also illustrating the potential for extreme evil this topic holds.

Propaganda tells what to think

Image generated by ChatGPT and fixed by Humans

(Vivian:) Unfortunately, psychic powers are not a real thing and are kinda boring in controlling people, so instead we have…

(Anne:) Vivian and Lady Verbosa’s brilliant prose! Don’t worry, by the end of this blogpost, you’ll realise that our will is the only will that matters. Free will is overrated! And just to make sure you’re on our page, let’s get a good definition of propaganda. I’ll let Vivian have the first go at the definition, then I’ll add that lovely Lady Verbosa touch! Don’t worry, dear reader, you won’t have to think at all. We’ve got this. Go, Vivian, go!

(Vivian:) Of course I have to make a fool of myself first! BAH!

Propaganda is any attempt to communicate with people en large that has the purpose of influencing the opinions of and actions taken by the audience.

(Anne:) As usual, an excellent start, just needing those little touches that make you, dear reader, trust Vivian and I as the best worldbuilders and writers! There are really only two things I would add: being deliberate, and being persuasive. So let me try my version:

Propaganda is any deliberate attempt to communicate with and persuade people en large with the purpose of influencing the opinions of and actions taken by the audience.

How do you feel about those additions, Vivian?

(Vivian:) Bah!

I think mine contained all those things, but I guess it's better to be more explicit. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a broad definition and intentionally so.

(Anne:) No covert propaganda here! We’re going to tell you exactly what to think! But this definition is intended to cover a lot of ground because there are quite a few things that can count as propaganda.

Recognizing propaganda

(Vivian:) Well, you know the basic ones: advertisements, political ads, your mum’s holiday rant at the corner of the street as she eats the alcohol-stuffed turkey… What do you mean, your mum doesn’t do that!?

(Anne:) Even if your mom doesn’t, you probably have that relative who insists on sending you emails and spamming your social media with the latest theories and ideas that you just have to agree with! Those are all pretty explicit for the most part, at least when they’re recognizable as such. We’ll talk later about covert propaganda, but the first two there, advertisements and political ads, can sometimes be so subtle you don’t even recognize them. Those are the dangerous ones. If you can easily recognize it, it’s easy to resist. If you can’t, you often don’t stand a chance. So identifying is important, and then you’ll need to learn…

Fighting propaganda

(Vivian:) The first step to fight propaganda is to understand the techniques of propaganda. So step 0 is reading this blogpost! You’re doing well in your personal war against propaganda!

(Anne:) One thing that’s important to note is that “fighting” isn’t always the right word, as propaganda can be used for good purposes. Surprising, yes, but not all propaganda is evil! Still, it’s important to think critically so that you’re not just buying into what those in power want you to think. If it’s a good message, you want to reach it on your own, not because someone else is telling you want to think.

(Vivian:) Reminds me of a joke I’ve seen several times:

A CIA agent and a KGB agent met in a bar and each took a drink. The CIA agent looked at the KGB agent and said, “I am impressed by your propaganda.”
The KGB agent responded, “Bah, nobody believes anything it says. Your propaganda is superior to ours.”
The CIA agent, looking horrified at the suggestion, responded, “We don’t do any propaganda!”
“See! That is how good you are!” the KGB agent answered.

(Anne:) As an American, I can totally confirm that the US doesn’t do any propaganda! I believe that wholeheartedly! There are so many things telling me this, and I certainly shouldn’t think critically and question that assertion!

But, alas, I do have a tendency to be highly suspicious of things that those in power tell me, at least when I can recognize the subtext and hidden messages. By the way, you can find out more about advertisements and how they are used to manipulate people in this long post. I touch on propaganda, but not in detail. I also go into detail on subtext quite a bit in this blogpost, if you want more information on how the cultural understandings of your world influence the messages that your characters receive and give.

Pressing Propaganda

(Anne:) Now, I don’t mean that you should be squeezing propaganda! I mean that people use the press to create and reinforce messages that persuade people to do and think in ways that those in power want, which means… PROPAGANDA!

In the future, I’m going to have a whole blogpost on the press and news and how it all works together to build subtexts, messages, and underlying truths about society, but that’ll be another day. For now, here’s a nice way of looking at it from a totally innocuous person who Vivian will properly introduce in the next section:

As you see, some totally random person named Joseph Göbbels advised those creating propaganda to

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

It’s of course not always the government, though in his case he was talking specifically about the government, but all of those in power can manipulate the press in various ways.

(Vivian:) This is the exact reason why, after it has been so severely abused, most Western countries are obsessed about having a free press, and why any intervention by the government starts making people nervous. But you know, since when has that stopped us from abusing it for a good story? After all, we’ve always been at war with Eurasia, the Ministry of Truth says so, and they would never lie.

But to add to this, it is not just dystopias or hell holes that have the press, or media, controlled by the state. Up to World War I, it was quite common for the press to be controlled by the state even in the good countries (good for the time, that is). Just like secret police were common even in democracies.

(Anne:) Press is powerful because it purports to tell the truth as it happened, no spin. However, it’s impossible to give unbiased information. Everyone has bias. And if the right people can get the right reporters to put a subtle spin on various stories, then to the readers, it seems like reality reflects what those in power are saying. Stories can be framed to sympathise with different sides, fringe stories can be emphasised and made to look mainstream, and quotes can be given from one side only. After all, if the police say something happened, why bother getting the other side? They would never lie!

(Vivian:) I use an unbiased 🎲 to write my news.

Propaganda has always been

(Vivian:) It is as old as civilization itself. One of the earliest forms is, and please understand it correctly, religion. Now, I am not in any way dunking on religion; I wrote a blogpost about religion, so you know I mean well! My point is that religion has been used to influence people on what to think within the religion and things not related to the religion as well. This has, like everything, been used for good and bad, and it doesn’t make a religion bad. It is people being people doing people things.

(Anne:) Look back at our definition, and you’ll see how all sorts of things fit into this category. Any deliberate attempt at persuasion to get people to think or act a certain way. That’s it. It’s not inherently evil, but, well, people be peopling. It’s not always bad, and every religion has elements that are genuinely good, but most religions also have elements that people use for less savoury purposes, whether it’s burning witches or waging holy wars. That doesn’t invalidate the good that religion does, but again, you have to be critical of everything.

(Vivian:) Why propaganda has such a negative connotation today is that what I like to call the father of propaganda–despite it predating him, which should tell you how good he was at it–is the not-so-kind German who mastered it. Namely Joseph Göbbels. For those who might have read history, he was the Propaganda MInister of the Greater German Reich, aka Nazi Germany.

He is famous when it comes to propaganda because he was so ruthlessly efficient at it. The USSR and USA grabbed all the valuable Nazis they could after the war; I bet if Göbbels had been alive, they would have fought for him, too, so they could use him on their own people. But because Göbbels was a very evil man working for a very evil government and was so incredibly good at propaganda, the whole concept of propaganda has gained the modern negative connotation despite it being used for good and bad historically.

(Anne:) There are so many great (and sobering, and horrifying) quotes about the power of propaganda over the ordinary person, one of which you can see in that superb poster above that may or may not have been photoshopped a bit by a certain Lady Verbosa. In case you can’t read despite my glorious efforts, the quote is:

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.

And it’s by, of course, Joseph Göbbels. So what does this mean? It means that the key to good propaganda is getting people to completely internalise it so that it’s no longer those in power speaking, it’s the people themselves. If you think back to Vivian’s Big Lie, you’ll see that those lies are ones that a society tells about itself that everyone (or almost everyone) buys into absolutely. These are often established, and occasionally changed, through propaganda.

People in power have always been persuading the people around them to do and believe what they want, whether it be to die for their country or stop smoking to save their health. And just as propaganda has always been…

Propaganda will always be

(Vivian:) There are two certainties in life: taxes and death. And that is propaganda, because propaganda is the third one never mentioned. No matter what society becomes, propaganda will be there. Because there will be people, and there will be people who want people to think and want what they want.

Albeit if you have psychic powers and characters, propaganda is kind of pointless because you can manipulate the brain of people. Or have technology or magic that can do the same. You don’t need propaganda if you can literally rewrite people's brains to be whatever you want it to be! I hope you humans never figure that out; it is scary 😨 Though it would be fun if a fantasy story did more focus on propaganda or mind manipulations similar to this. I want a World War Magic now!

(Anne:) Yeah, the only way to get rid of propaganda would be maybe a hive mind or, well, if everyone except one person died. I think even with brainwashing, it’s then going to become a battle of which powerful group can manipulate the most people, and I’d say brainwashing is just an overt type of propaganda (see below).

Anytime you have one or more individuals with more power than one or more other individuals, they’re going to try to use that power to benefit something they believe in. Maybe you’re in a dystopia, and they’re benefiting themselves at the expense of everything and everyone else. Maybe it’s more of a utopia, or at least a nice, peaceful status quo as Vivian always likes to have, and those in power are promoting things that benefit everyone and cause real good in the world. Good or evil are human constructs; propaganda, like many other things, is a tool that can be used for either.

(Vivian:) But the eternal nature of propaganda cannot be denied. After all,

Propaganda is the art that never dies, always shaping the hearts and minds of people.
- Some weird alien named Vivian

Propaganda informs your world

(Anne:) Even if you don’t have a dystopian world like I usually do, there will be propaganda of some sort.

(Vivian:) SHOOO!!! This is worldbuilding, my section! Where wasn’t I? Oh yeah, taking over your minds! Maybe 😉 But as we have hinted at, or more overtly said, propaganda is something that is ubiquitous to any society. As long as there is civilization with lots of human-like people, there is propaganda going on by those wanting to affect the opinions of others.

And this means worldbuilding! Woohoo! Dance with me! 😀 Now, what kind of propaganda would exist in your world? Well, those groups and people that do propaganda have the resources to affect large swaths of people, and that means 💰MONEY! And money means power! So whoever has the power has the money. As I have said in this blogpost, look at who has the largest buildings, and you see who is in charge.

So think about who is the ruling class, why they are in charge, and what their desires are. Sure, they will be, “I wanna stay in power,” but you can’t do that! If you tell that to people, they will not like you! You have to make the people believe that you should be in power! Oh look… There is a good point for propaganda! But for it to work, it cannot be at odds with what people already believe. If you believe firmly that purple is the best colour since the discovery of cyan, then someone saying green is best is not going to convince you because it is at direct odds with your beliefs.

Propaganda needs to build on pre-existing beliefs or slowly bend pre-existing beliefs to eventually become what you want.

(Anne:) Exactly so. That’s why you, who come to this blog knowing that Vivian and I know our stuff, are so susceptible to everything we say! I’m actually now realising we should be doing something malicious, but I think instead we’ll be an example of positive propaganda. By giving you all detailed, accurate information, we’re building on your pre-existing belief in order to make it an unassailable truth! And that’s what propaganda can do, too.

So what’s the best way to build those beliefs? Repetition, repetition, repetition! As our wonderful-in-literally-the-worst-way Göbbels says,

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly–it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.

(Vivian:) Divinum fucking damn it! Back to the damn Nazi!

(Anne:) Nazis really did have the whole manipulation thing figured out… to chilling effect. But this success of simplicity and repetition is why politicians who try to talk actual policy are drowned out (and usually voted out) by those chanting slogans, no matter how stupid the slogans are. If you can’t easily shout it in unison with a crowd and hear it repeated over and over again in slightly different formulations, it’s not going to become part of your everyday thinking. The press is, again, influential, because if powerful people get the press to cover stories with the slant that they prefer, then the very nature of truth will bend towards those simple messages that people will absorb into the essence of their being.

So, okay, you know you have to be repeating these things in your worldbuilding. How exactly do you go about doing so?

Overt propaganda and world entities

(Anne:) Ever seen an ad and known exactly what it’s selling? Seen a politician say outright what they want you to believe? Seen a poster telling you exactly what to do? Those are all examples of overt propaganda, where the fact that it’s propaganda isn’t disguised. For all that propaganda works best through infiltrating a person’s worldview, sometimes you just need to hit people over the head with it.

(Vivian:) Those will, of course, happen as well in stories and your worlds, but you are only overt in that which you are comfortable will not be instantly rejected by the masses. As I said before, if it’s too contradictory, people will react the opposite of what the people in power want! So showing overt propaganda is actually a very good way to show what is openly considered within the norm of a society without stating it. If there is a poster in the story with a woman and with her are a half dozen men and the text “Women deserve good husbands,” you can, as a consumer, quickly conclude that polyandry is considered the norm in this society, and you didn’t even need to say it as a writer.

(Anne:) If you think about any three word slogans you’ve heard chanted ad nauseum at political rallies (because people love doing things in threes–yay rule of threes!), you’ll notice some things in common.

(Vivian:) It feels so surreal given I have never seen such chants at 🇸🇪ish political gatherings.

(Anne:) Hmm, okay, my American-ness is coming out. Ahem. If you think about them at rallies in countries with a heavy emphasis on propaganda 😉 –which is totally not the US, how could you even think that?–then you’ll notice that they follow some of the guidelines that Göbbels sets out:

Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth [is] unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.

People don’t care about facts, they care about feelings! It’s always interesting when I teach composition classes in college because students are taught to focus on factual information and not include any emotions whatsoever, but if you want to be persuasive, emotion is key. Now, obviously, in an academic paper, you don’t want too much emotion, but if you don’t have any, your paper will, well, feel like it was written by ChatGPT. Propaganda works on this same principle. People will follow their gut instinct even when the facts say otherwise, and propaganda manipulates what that gut instinct is so that people instinctively react in a way that benefits those in power.

Not everyone will fall prey to this, however. Intelligent people who question things and actually do look at facts and reality won’t be swayed, but Göbbels suggests not even bothering with them:

Intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger.

So when you’re looking at more overt types of propaganda, just keep in mind that the people in power aren’t trying to persuade more intellectual characters who may see through the naked power grabs and obvious lies. That can be a great way to reveal character, actually: how do they react to propaganda? Of course, even the most intellectual person and character can fall prey to the next type of propaganda…

Covert propaganda and character motivations

(Vivian:) Not everything is so obvious as to scream in your face what they want you to do. Some are much more subtle! Let’s take the example I made above. You watch films and read stories, and it is a world where polyandry is indeed the norm, but you don’t want to be too obvious about it. After all, calling too much attention to something can make it so people pay attention to the degree where they start questioning things; you don’t want that!

So instead, you and all other polyandrists make films where people are people, but men who are in polyandrous relationships get better endings, are shown to be happier, and so on. You are at no specific point saying that men should absolutely be in polyandrous relationships… You are, however, implying it, and if a character or person grows up surrounded by this, they will firmly come to believe this without even knowing it. Happiness comes from being one of many husbands.

I don’t know Anne… But doesn’t this feel familiar?

(Anne:) It’s definitely not what Hollywood and the media in general do all the time! After all, haven’t you seen all of the movies about writers struggling to make it with their honest, heartfelt stories, and of course they succeed in the end and become famous, or if they face a tragic end, they’re portrayed so sympathetically that the viewer will love them even if the world in their story didn’t. Clearly writers are good people!

So you can see how the media feeds into people’s perceptions of the world and each other, and changes in what is considered acceptable are also visible in the media. Sometimes media reflects the trends society is taking, but a lot of the time, mainstream media like Hollywood is actively promoting an ideal or status quo that benefits the people in power making the movies as opposed to genuinely reflecting the world around them. This is a great way to manipulate people without them being aware of it, because of course there’s a Göbbels quote about that.

You know those pesky intellectuals I mentioned earlier who are too smart to fall for obvious ploys? Yeah, don’t worry, you can still get them to go along with whatever you want. Just warp society and interpretations of reality and the very status quo, and they’ll never even notice it happened. As Göbbels says,

This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.

So there you have it. You can manipulate–uh, persuade–anyone! But as I’ve said a few times now, this doesn’t have to be for evil. Obviously Göbbels was abusing his knowledge to hurt people, but you can use these lessons to create positivity and love in your world. Or you can be like me and create dystopias. Whatever you want!

(Vivian:) Always such SAD WORLDS! SAD! But still cool.

Propaganda is a house of cards standing tall… until it falls

(Vivian:) Let me tell you a tale from my youth as a wee lil Limax. I went to university and quickly fell into a depression, but I lived with my mum back then, and, of course, I lied. I lied everyday going to classes and doing work and all. I could have done it, but I had no motivation or will. The lies kept building and building, and then… It all fell. I had to come clean because it was unsustainable.

Why did I tell this story? Because the same applies when it comes to propaganda that is based virtually entirely on lies, damn lies, and more lies. Truth and reality will remain as is, and no matter the money to buy all the printers, all the stations, all the servers, there is no human, organisation, or anything that is powerful enough to rewrite reality itself. Thus the truth will always start coming through and illuminate the lies told.

Even Göbbels knew this, and the quote is once again from him.

There will come a day, when all the lies will collapse under their own weight. Truth will again triumph.

That is why one has to always keep fighting for truth because it will always, eventually, triumph.

(Anne:) Weirdly, I had almost the same thing happen to me except in high school. I just… stopped going to one of my classes. I don’t even remember why. I lied about it, of course, and then I was in too deep and had to keep up my cover through more lies, but there comes a point where no amount of lies will work. Ironically, this was my English class, and I ended up barely passing it, but I’m now an English professor! Which is just to say to all the kids out there failing your classes, don’t give up!

But back to the truth. It may take time, and things may get ugly as more and more people seem to fall prey to obvious untruths, and I feel like I’m living this right now where I am, but eventually, truth will prevail. Have hope.

Summa summarum

(Vivian:) What have we learned besides that Göbbels knew what he was doing? A lot, and it is scary. Propaganda has been used for well over 4000 years and keeps on being used for good and bad. While we will, hopefully, not go out and use this for evil, in writing we can easily use it to build up the world and show what is considered normal and who is the enemy! Wait, did I say that? Anyway, got any words to add, Comrade Supreme Revolutionary Leader?

(Supreme Revolutionary Leader, formerly known as Anne:) Be critical of everything. And yes, I mean everything! Every bit of information you absorb from other people has some element of persuasion in it, and you need to know if it’s propaganda or not. You can choose to act as the propaganda advocates if you genuinely believe in it, but watch for messages that you see repeated in various ways and through various means. Look for subtexts and not just obvious meanings. Scepticism is what can free you from the tyranny of propaganda!

So when you think about this blogpost, think for yourself. Do you agree with what we said here? Now, granted, Vivian and I are geniuses, but you’re not so dull yourself. Trust in yourself and your own thoughts and beliefs. If you agree with us, great! You happen to be right! 😉 And if you don’t, then try to come up with your own set of thoughts and beliefs. In the end, it’s your choice. But if you want to fight the evils of propaganda and promote its good use, then join the revolution with Lady Verbosa as your Supreme Leader!

(Vivian:) She got a score of 7 on an 18 hole course in golf at age 3.

Want to dive into a discussion about Stellima or the art of writing on Discord? We’d love to have you! And if you have any topics you struggle with or that you would like to suggest for a future blogpost, we’re open to suggestions!

Interested in supporting our work? Join our Patreon and become a part of Stellima as a citizen of Mjatreonn! Or would you like to give us some caffeine to fuel our writing? Consider buying us a coffee at Ko-fi! Every contribution inspires our creativity and keeps us going. Thank you for your support!

Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as propaganda and its uses along with the quotes from Göbbels are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.

We at Stellima value human creativity but are exploring ways AI can be ethically used. Please read our policy on AI and know that every word in the blog is written and edited by humans or aliens.