inscitia on Nostr: "I was rather proud of my deduction– which admittedly it took me an unconscionable ...

"I was rather proud of my deduction– which admittedly it took me an unconscionable time to make– that within an established totalitarian regime the purpose of propaganda is not to persuade, much less to inform, but rather to humiliate. From this point of view, propaganda should not approximate to the truth as closely as possible: on the contrary, it should do as much violence to it as possible. For by endlessly asserting what is patently untrue, by making such untruth ubiquitous and unavoidable, and finally by insisting that everyone publicly acquiesce in it, the regime displays its power and reduces individuals to nullities. Who can retain his self respect when, far from defending what he knows to be true, he has to applaud what he knows to be false– not occasionally, as we all do, but for the whole of his adult life?"

Theodore Dalrymple in the book The Wilder Shores of Marx.