Saints' Discussion Forums

Define it, realize it and understand it historically, and learn how it is used in today's culture, every day to influence you.

:)

Just because we see & hear stuff it doesn't mean we'll follow. That's the good thing about having your own mind !

Truth! And it doesn't just apply to politics. Think about the nutrition news!

Really - I wish I'd hear butter is actually very good for your health but I think that's pushing it ! Oh, Jim ( that would be my husband, ya know ) would be ALL over this topic .  ;D

Oh, you haven't gotten the email forward about "the difference between butter and margarine" yet?   O:)

In what context are we supposed to use this in everyday conversation (unless our profession is Russian history or leftist theater)?

Well, I intend to talk about it more with news analysis.

In other words, take all the news articles you read in a single day, and analyze them through the filter of: agitprop.

Ask yourself: Is the news article agitprop?

How does it seek to agitate me?

What 'moral' truth does it seek me to believe is the solution to this agitation?

Do it enough times, and see where it gets you. :)

After that, it may indeed become a new word you use at the dinner table.

"Did you realize how much of our news is agitprop?" you might say. Or, "Look at how this article is trying to make me believe this or that!"

When before, you just believed this or that, because naturally, the news articles led you to believe this sort of moral truth must be reasonable and true and the solution to problem 'x'.

Agitprop is very prevalent today, and is one of the primary means propaganda about various issues is spread everywhere.

Every day there are millions of potential news stories throughout the world.

Yet many people complain that the TV news and newspapers have the same old stories regurgitated all the time.

But they don't have to have these same old stories. It is their choice to have these same old stories.

Why do they have the same old stories?

What different kind of stories could they have but choose not to?

What would a newspaper story look like flipped upside down?

These are good questions to ask.  ;D

Since I live alone and refuse to look at the newscasts/paper anyway (too depressing and violent), I really liked the idea of looking at a newspaper story flipped upside down (literally).

Honestly it's just as well to not read or watch the news mostly. :)

Actually, I think I saw a website (wish I'd bookmarked it) that turned what you posted upside down.

I'd like to revive this thread to note that our society and media are not Catholic at large, and have a large influence on much of what is called 'Catholic' media -- a good deal of it isn't.

Foundationally, we as Catholics, can't be children of the views expressed commonly in an anti-Catholic culture.

Part of the Faith journey for those of us born into it, is getting out of it, becoming fundamentally different in our worldview.

Agitprop is one of the means the media uses to excite people to pursue the moral causes of its values. These values are also taught in public schools, and inculcated at large through simple peer approval.

Part of being a Catholic is not allowing oneself to be so easily influenced. :)

When you look at your day to day life and what emotions drive you -- how pleasing and God oriented are those emotions? What is their foundation? Self or Christ? World or Christ?

It's painful to begin to rewrite who you are, but it's more painful not to, and it is also liberating to no longer be a child of the world media.  :D

[clap, clap, clap]

I looked up agitprop....... political propaganda.......
This is a really good topic........ should it not be under Catholic General Discussion?   ???
I hope this thread gets long.........

I second that suggestion. :D

Shin, can anything be done to move this to the other section of this forum? 

Certainly, there's a way to do it. As you wish, so shall it be! Wala wala Washington!

I'm thinking back now to some of the books I've read by Chinese survivors.. by survivors I mean those who lived through Mao, or through the One-Child Policy, etc. .  . The methodology used to promote the current policies from the current 'Great Leader' were always moral in tone.. and based on warfare.. warfare between those who supported the regime's policies and those who would even dare to be negligent in doing so. In other words, neutrality was not tolerated.. only at least feigned complete support.

Or as a proverb from the East goes, 'The nail that sticks up, gets hammered down.'

What we have in America is called 'political correctness' and what it teaches us is that those that use different language than is permitted are 'hateful' people who are 'extremists' and rightly to be condemned and removed from the table of support and discussion. In other words, it is politically correct to 'hate' the 'haters', but the word 'hate' is not used for those who support this policy though they reject and condemn, and claim to reject and condemn all condemnation..

One of the interesting things I've explored as I've read the lives of the saints is that hatred, anger, all these negative seeming emotions have their place too. It can even be a sin not to have them to some degree on some occasions. What occasions are these? Against sins, and in spiritual warfare especially. Against all evil, where-ever it is, whomever it may lie within.

In other words if we do not hate sins we have a problem. We cannot love everything -- because if we love sin, and do not reject strongly, we are lost because of its attraction and because we do not respect the harm it does and how God views it. But now we have 'hate crimes'. And we have people being arrested for teaching what the scriptures have to say about sin.

How can this be gotten away with? By making the sinful fervent.. and the virtuous weak. Agitating towards promotion of sin, and discouraging promotion of virtue. So that today, in public life, many Catholic teachings -- the teachings of God cannot be expressed easily without fear of reprisals.

But here I go off rambling about the overall scheme of things.. when it might be better to look at the minutiae and quote some articles that demonstrate agitprop in some way or another. Perhaps I'll do that in a bit or someone else will. :)

Is agitprop kind of like brainwashing? You see it everywhere, hear it everywhere,  and you start believing it? If everyone is doing it , it must be right and moral....

Am I on the right track here? Let me know. :)

Is 'agiprop' from the same root word as agitating?

Yes, just looked it up.

But you know, I was composing something for another thread and it completely blanked out on me..... this has happened twice today.... just so someone knows.

I have a lot of thoughts on this subject.  Please bear with me....... I won't get to it tonight at all! 
Have a good evening.

That's the goal!  :D

At the risk of sounding like a broken record the best method of combatting propaganda is to turn off the box  :)
I was hoping maybe to open another thread on the topic of, " Should our spiritual life also incorporate care for the body"
I was wondering about this and to what degree we should be aware of threats to the body insomuch as they have a bearing on our spiritual life.
An example would be the substance called Aspartame that is put in almost every sugar-free product you can buy. Aparantly it can cause defects in the brain and in general has the tendency to "Dumb Down" our natural ability to think.
Another one would be the use of Floride in our water supplies.          Any thoughts ?

Good one.  Start a thread! 

It's a good idea for a thread. :)

Here we go with another word for the day. (http://saintsworks.net/forums/index.php?topic=2186.0)

I find that a very effective tool that the media (aka satan's puppet) uses is the blurring of the lines between the sin and the sinner.  We seem to live in a society now where it is now assumed that hating the sin is the equivalent of hating the sinner.  Hate speech has now turned into "hurt speech".

Yes and it all has its roots in Communism.

Agitprop is a Communist technique.

Agitprop -- agitation, propaganda. That's how to remember it if the word's a little too new to some folks vocabulary. Agitation propaganda. The goal is to get in the news, with a story to generate the most powerful propaganda for the cause that will agitate people to act on it.