Propaganda

I am listening to Borghesia, an old industrial genre band from the old Yugolasvia country of Slovenia. Incredibly enough, some bands from that place landed on the shores of capitalistic America, exactly to the Bay Area, a hub ripe with music of that kind. We thought it was cool. Intellectual to a fault. We liked the beats but cared little to listen to the lyrics or their message, often anti-establishment. The kids, of course, did not pay attention to the lyrics but the symbols of totalitarianism were cool back in the good old 80s. Or so we thought. I look back at this moment of my life to draw some connection to the present. Fascism is alive and present in today’s society, and it would seem like one of its key components, propaganda, is as well, alive and kicking.

There is no doubt that propaganda has shaped the current status quo. I am sure Putin’s Russia has had a good hand in it and the USA has turned a blind eye to it all along. The program included good old evangelists of all denominations in the USA and as far away places as Norway, a key aspect of the apparatus were loyal peeps brainwashed by religion were easy sheep to sway to vote as one said the Lord indicated to do. Old news if you will. We can call this a synchronic propaganda. It is occurring as we speak and is alive as you breathe the very air of it or you are exposed by it by the current “algorithm” that shapes or sways your preferences as you doom stroll or kill time with your expensive gadget that records your every movement with your consent of course.

I am more concerned about diachronic propaganda. Sorry if I took this long to come to this point but am certain that somewhere along the line I thought it was necessary to include all that verbosity. Mostly am interested and this combination of diachronic and synchronic at the same time type of propaganda. I am drawn to it because I am a North American Mexican that lives abroad, in this case, Sweden. In the Anglosphere on the WWW and beyond, one often finds all sorts of memes about how gringos, white peeps of the USA are made fun of by “Europeans” for being ignorant of geography. It is one of the most common memes thrown about on the net in that part of that English speaking world. Although the target audience is often directed at white people more often than not people of color feel targeted by it because they feel “American” and therefore react to it accordingly.

As a bystander watching the fray I am often amused by how Europeans themselves are even more ignorant about USA geography or North American geography than they care to admit. Suffice to say, both of these anglosaxonized parley bouts are about a drawn map in their heads because white people call Europe a country and Europeans are blithely ignorant of the fact the America is more than the USA. Their sociological imagination is painfully limited to a meme on both cases.

Which brings me to the conclusion that white people both in the USA and Westernized Europe are deeply brainwashed by simply memes. I say this not lightly mostly because the moment I identify myself as Mexican people blurt out their belief system to my face about what they “know” of North America. It is annoying to the hilt. As far as many people are concerned, and not just white people, but entire populations in the country of Sweden, have a preconceived notion about México that is baffling to better understood minds on the subjects. One is but left astounded at the depth of ignorance and misunderstanding of a country on said minds. Even more baffling is how the infamous Black Legend still plays out in favor of American Exceptionalism. Europe and the USA are in cahoots to stain the rest of the world and them as the better of all us. México if it is not a cartel or drugs or corrupt then it is poor and undeveloped. Little do people elsewhere know that is the preferred country of many Americans from both the South and North of the continent to live and migrate to.

I think countries ought to learn a thing or two from Israel. These people know a thing or two about propaganda. They sure know how to use it to their favor. This evil entity known as propaganda won’t disappear in the near future and we can combat it. We just have to lay down the foundations and spend as much time on said project to rid ourselves from the perceptions that people have of us who can’t align with Anglosaxon propaganda. Simple as that. White Europe and white America don’t own the instrument that plays in their favor, so we too can change the tune in our favor.