(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Semantic propaganda: How accelerationists and revolutionaries attract followers [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-13 The pose resembles what you'd find in a yearbook photo. A couple of weeks ago, I came across a segment on Sam Seder’s The Majority Report where David DePape, the would-be political assassin, gave an interview to a local Fox affiliate (KTVU in San Francisco). As has been established by DePape’s own confession to police, he had arrived to the Pelosi home with the express intention of abducting or viciously harming then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi but settled for the nearest target instead, Pelosi’s husband Paul. It was a heinous attack that conservatives at the time razzed as a joke. Glenn Youngkin notably used the attack as a punchline in a stump speech, as though the line had been prepared long before but had somehow not been scrubbed from the speech in the aftermath. Tone-deaf is the diplomatic characterization. Seder and crew analyzed the “interview” that DePape gave to the outlet. It really was a one-sided conversation that allowed DePape to accomplish his goal, which was to speak directly to an audience of folks who think, or who are coming around to thinking, just like him. What DePape released to KTVU, what he delivered—a prepared statement—was a commercial. DePape’s performance even began with an embedded, familiar phrase found in commercials: he said he had an “important message.” The sales pitch soon follows—in fact, directly. The semantics used, too, are to be noted. DePape: The tree of liberty isn’t dying. It’s being killed, systematically and deliberately. The people killing it have names and addresses. The inverted (pseudo-ironic) meaning of the word ‘killing’, then repeating it 2-3 times in quick succession: these are tried-and-true techniques of not only propagandists and salesmen but public speakers, clergymen, teachers of all types. Con-artists and liars, too. People in all of those professions know the power of a burst of frequent repetition. [This is an aural device; most writers and editors are trained to vary the form of a word unless the repetition is for explicit and deliberate effect. It can appear clumsy in either medium, spoken or written; but voice, intonation, prosody, rhythm, all in various degrees and in combination, can couch or disguise the repetition. (A person might even play with the word: they may elongate the word or take a whimsical tone, etc.)] For comparison, view a section of “How Hitler Manipulated the Law to Solidify His Power” (Timeline World History Documentary), beginning around 13:15: [Uniformed men shout to passersby: “Germans, defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!”] Narrator: After targeting the Communists, Hitler turned his attention toward his next enemy: the Jews. From that time on, virulent anti-Semitism dominated the philosophy of the fast-growing party throughout the 12-year Reich. Translation of sign in picture window: Attention Germans! These Jewish owners of the five PS stores are vermin, and are gravediggers of German craftsmanship…. [Uniformed men shout: “Germans, free yourselves from Jewish tyranny. Don’t buy from Jews!”] This idea of the grave returns again and again in Nazi propaganda, unifying an underlying theme of decay, dirt and death; and because these words have these natural associations, the connotations build not only into something of a given but also a crescendo of feeling, of fervor. In fact, the Nazis threaded this motif throughout their rhetoric; and these images had the potential to accumulate in the citizen’s mind, underscoring each other. (Also, by linking Jewish people not only to the grave but also insinuating that they are gravediggers, the Nazis purported agency, intent. It was a will toward destruction the Nazis themselves were inciting in the populace as a whole but simultaneously scapegoated that incitement as the work of despised outsiders. It is doubly effective, as it paints the scapegoat as inherently untrustworthy just as it identifies that group. This is an efficient, efficacious propaganda.) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/13/2152690/-Semantic-propaganda-How-accelerationists-and-revolutionaries-attract-followers Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/