As the tail wags the dog. ABC Propaganda

The more accessible the information, the more it is around. The faster it spreads, the less time is left to check it. Gradually, the information environment turns into a kind of “white noise”. It is harder and harder to build new informational filters inside oneself to eliminate too much: put aside slogans, agitation, propaganda, and leave only what is really behind them. And they are constantly trying to manipulate our thoughts, and I’m not talking about the 25th frame (it doesn’t work), but about more mundane things - propaganda techniques that politicians, advertisers and, generally, all use so skillfully (and often very clumsily) who is not lazy. About these techniques and will be discussed in the article.

The tail wags the dog. (" Wag the dog ") - to avoid a big scandal or "hush up", to leave unnoticed some important but unpleasant event, a simple but clever and clever method is often used, which English-speaking political technologists call "Wag the dog", and Russian-speaking - "The tail wags the dog." It consists in raising a wave of discussion around the question of secondary importance in time, against the background of which another, more important event or action will pass unnoticed.
Examples of such questions: Cancel the transition to winter time, Depardieu’s Russian citizenship, Putin’s or Sasha Gray’s trip to Lada Kalina in Russia, flights with Siberian Cranes, etc.
The name of this reception was in honor of the English expression tail wagging the dog , which, in turn, emerged from the following national passage:

- Why is the dog wagging his tail?
- Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, he would wag the dog.

The effect of the general car ( Bandwagon effect ) - also called "Car with an orchestra", "Common platform". This technique consists in the selection of phrases that require like-mindedness or uniformity in behavior, create confidence that everybody does this: “No normal person would say that ...”, “Any sane person knows that ...”, “ All Russians see that ... "," Well-educated people are sitting on Habré, you should understand that ... ", etc. This method causes a person to feel that the majority of the members of the social group to which he considers himself, or would like to attribute, or whose opinion is significant to him, consider this way and not otherwise, have specific values, ideas, share one point of view.

“ Name Calling ” is a simple technique that can be watched on television, in LJ Navalny’s comments, on Echo of Moscow, and in everyday life. It consists in the choice of offensive metaphors, names, derogatory epithets, names for specific individuals, categories of people, phenomena. Vivid examples of recent times: “Hamsters of Navalny”, “Creakly”, “Liberasty” in relation to liberally-minded people, “Nashi”, “Kremleboty” in relation to supporters of the current government, “Fashisty”, “Natsiki” in relation to nationalists; conscious perversion and mangling of names: “Oval / Anal”, “Putler”, etc. With the help of this technique, it is relatively easy to discredit, cause hostility to a whole group of people or to a person.
')
“Brilliant generalizations” ( Glittering generality ) is almost the exact opposite of the previous technique. It consists in replacing the name of a social phenomenon, idea or group of people with a more general one, which has a bright positive color. This technique exploits the positive emotions of people in relation to the words “peace”, “freedom”, “happiness”, “patriotism”, “democracy”, etc. With the help of this technique, properties, qualities, attitudes inherent in a particular person or group are attributed to a well-known phenomenon. As an illustration, the substitution of the concept “Orthodoxy” can serve as a more general, obviously positive word “faith”, the definition of Russia as an “energy superpower”, or vice versa, as a “raw materials appendage”, etc.

“Link to authorities” ( Testimonial ) - a widespread method is to give statements of individuals with high authority, or vice versa, causing a negative reaction from the target audience. Statements should contain value judgments about people, ideas, organizations, express condemnation or approval. Bringing classics' quotes often taken out of context, a video message by terrorist Doku Umarov (by the way, here are the labeling - nobody knows what Umarov is seeking and what he is fighting for, but everyone knows that he is a terrorist) before the presidential elections, where he expressed his disapproval of the ruling party, quoting Lenin in conversations with the Communists, etc.

“The game of the common people” ( Plain folks ) is the presentation of an individual as a person from the people, a simple inhabitant, the same as his target audience. A person’s biography can be used (or written from scratch), slang specific to the audience can be used. An example is the unforgettable “To Pee in the Toilets”, stories about the childhood of Ilyich, the appointment of a worker at UralVagonZavod as plenipotentiary, a recent duck about veteran of the Chechen wars Sergey Maslenitsa, etc. With the help of this technique, the trust towards the object and a positive attitude at the “friend-foe” level are formed at the target audience.

“ Card Stacking ” - the reception consists in one-sided, tendentious presentation of facts, when only the positive aspects of a person or a phenomenon are announced, or vice versa, only the negative aspects of a person or phenomenon are announced. “Navalny stole the forest”, “Limonov is a fag”, “Under Stalin, there was no such thing” or, on the contrary, “The Bloody Stalinist regime” is an illustration of this technique. The main purpose of the reception - using a one-sided selection of facts, to show the attractiveness or, conversely, the unacceptability of any point of view or idea.

“Transfer” (you will not believe, Transfer ) is a technique consisting in the skillful, imperceptible and unobtrusive distribution of authority and prestige of what they value to what the source of communication presents to most people. With the help of the reception, the associative links of the object with something of value and significance are initiated. For example, to call patriotism loyalty to the current government, to shoot the president against the backdrop of the country’s proudly roaring flag (as well as the Olympic champions), etc.

Conclusion
I believe that in order to preserve the clarity of consciousness, it is necessary not only to be able to notice these techniques, but, first of all, to independently analyze information. And in no case do not take the words of authority as an axiom - everyone is mistaken, and many are purposefully lying. You need to be critical of everything around you. Including this article.

Thanks for attention.

Sources:
Melnikov V.P. "Information Security and Information Security"
Kara-Murza S. "Manipulation of consciousness"
Wikipedia
Life experience