• Schmoo@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 days ago

    Propaganda is not necessarily deceptive, though it can be. The word has gained a negative connotation over time but it just means systematically disseminating information in support of a doctrine or cause. That can be any doctrine or cause, and the information can be true, false, satire, or pure opinion. Propaganda is a neutral term and the internet has made producing it so simple that almost everyone has done so.

    • Hadriscus@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 days ago

      Oh, I thought it was propaganda when the information conveyed was deliberately deformed, or entirely false

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        That’s a connotation it has gained, but is not the literal definition.

        The term originated from religious missions using it to refer to propagating the faith, and was later adopted by revolutionary leftists to describe their attempts to spread their ideology. It gained a negative connotation, ironically, from anti-communist propaganda. Communist states used the term openly and neutrally to refer to both their own propaganda and that of their enemies’, while capitalist states used it derogatorily only to refer to communist propaganda and not their own (they tended to use various euphemisms to refer to their own propaganda without calling it that explicitly).