segunda-feira, 7 de setembro de 2020

A linguagem e a propaganda | Language and Propaganda

 

Deparámos no site resistir.info – que já divulgámos mais do que uma vez em artigos anteriores – com um artigo da autoria de Daniel Vaz de Carvalho, com o título acima, que pela sua importância motivou a n/ contribuição para divulgá-lo.

 Para os leitores em português, apens citamos uma parte inicial do artigo, remetendo depois para a parte restante no respectivo site. Para os leitores em inglês, apresentamos a n/ tradução completa.

We came across in resistir.info – a site we have publicized more than once in previous articles -- with an article by Daniel Vaz de Carvalho, with the title above, which, due to its importance, motivated us to contribute to make it known.

 For readers in Portuguese, we only quote an initial part of the article, then referring to the remaining part on the respective website. For English readers, we present the full translation.

 

A linguagem e a propaganda

(1 – O conteúdo ideológico da linguagem; 2 - Conteúdos da mistificação linguística; 3 - Linguagem como estratégia de propaganda e manipulação; 4 - A linguagem da calúnia)

 Daniel Vaz de Carvalho

 Original: resistir.info

Language and Propaganda

(1 - The ideological content of language; 2 - Contents of linguistic mystification; 3 - Language as a strategy of propaganda and manipulation; 4 - The language of slander)

by Daniel Vaz de Carvalho

 Original: resistir.info (tr. by JMS)

 

1 – O conteúdo ideológico da linguagem


Quando os media falam da "comunidade internacional" referem-se a posições da NATO, seus aliados e vassalos, como se a larga maioria da população do mundo não tivesse direito a ter e dar a conhecer a sua opinião, sendo constituída por "bárbaros" no sentido greco-romano ou "estados párias" no sentido do imperialismo atual. Não se trata apenas de uma forma de dizer, mas de uma forma de pensar: a imperialista.


Segundo o marxismo a linguagem é um fenómeno social que permite a comunicação entre os seres humanos, o resultado de um processo mental, a expressão real e prática da consciência. A cada palavra, a cada expressão, corresponde uma ideia. Sendo a linguagem um meio de expressão de ideias e comunicação, quem controla a linguagem controla as ideias. Os interesses das diversas classes sociais não são, pois, indiferentes ou independentes da linguagem procurando utiliza-la em proveito próprio expondo com um léxico próprio as suas prioridades, os seus interesses.

Controlar o sentido das palavras é portanto controlar o pensamento, controlar a perceção das pessoas sobre a realidade, dar às questões que se colocam na sociedade o sentido pretendido por quem a domina. Porém, quando o sentido das palavras corresponde a ideias falsas, as sociedades vivem numa vasta teia de ilusões e inverdades, conduzindo a um agravamento das contradições e à sua decadência.

 

A propaganda é um dos aspetos da linguagem, diz respeito à propagação ou vulgarização de ideias que determinam comportamentos. Propaganda é uma técnica, ao serviço de determinadas ideias, para as divulgar e incutir, mas também impedir que se estabeleçam outras que se lhe oponham.


Não vale a pena os puristas escandalizarem-se com a propaganda. A propaganda é necessária a qualquer sistema de ideias políticas, religiosas, etc. A questão é o seu conteúdo e em que sentido se exerce: a sua verdade, a conformidade com princípios humanistas, a legítima defesa da soberania dos povos e dos interesses populares. Porém, aquilo a que assistimos nas nossas sociedades é o uso da informação como propaganda instrumentalizada pelos objetivos imperialistas e oligárquicos.

 

Continuar para resistir.info

1 - The ideological content of language

 

When the media speak of "international community" they refer to the positions of NATO, its allies and vassals, as if the vast majority of the world's population had no right to have and make known their opinion, as if being constituted by "barbarians" in the Greco-Roman sense or "pariah states" in the sense of current imperialism. It is not just a way of saying, but a way of thinking: the imperialist one.

 

According to Marxism, language is a social phenomenon that allows communication between human beings, the result of a mental process, and the real and practical expression of conscience. Each word, each expression, corresponds to an idea. Since language is a means of expression of ideas and communication, whoever controls language controls ideas. The interests of the different social classes are not, therefore, indifferent or independent of language; they try to use it for their own benefit, exposing with their own lexicon their priorities, and their interests.

 

Controlling the meaning of words is therefore controlling thought, controlling people's perception of reality, and imparting to the questions that arise in society the meaning intended by those who dominate it. Meanwhile, let us note that when the meaning of words corresponds to false ideas, societies live in a vast web of illusions and untruths, leading to an aggravation of contradictions and their decay.

 

Propaganda is one of the aspects of language. It deals with the propagation or popularization of ideas that determine behaviors. Propaganda is a technique, at the service of certain ideas, in order to disseminate and impart them, but also to prevent the establishment of others that oppose them.

 

The pure souls shouldn’t be scandalized with propaganda. Propaganda is necessary to any system of ideas: political, religious, etc. The question is its content and in what sense it is exercised: its truth, conformity with humanist principles, and the legitimate defense of peoples’ sovereignty and interests. However, what we observe in our societies is the use of information as propaganda instrumentalized by imperialist and oligarchic objectives.

 

Current expressions, such as the intensely repeated "structural reforms", are euphemisms that mask reality, functioning as formulas with magical content, to be accepted as dogmas without allowing their examination.

 

This applies to the "Havana communist regime" (a falsehood, in terms of defining what communism is) or the "populist regime of Caracas", as if fulfilling electoral promises to the benefit of the majority were "populism", associating the progressive policies of the Bolivarian Revolution to the terminology applied to fascistoid parties. Note that the capitalist system is never referred as a regime.

 

Tyranny, dictatorship, totalitarianism, means that, regardless of popular support, the government does not follow the "Washington Consensus".

 

"Bringing freedom and democracy" to the Middle East, Africa, or to any other part of the world, means that a government harming the interests of transnational corporations is subject to interference with a view to overthrowing it, or that war actions have been launched turning the country into a dysfunctional and chaotic State.

 

"More Europe" means more bureaucracy, more austerity, more inequality, and less sovereignty.

 

"There is a need to liberalize labor markets, otherwise unemployment will not be reduced" or "unemployment results from high labor costs and social benefits, compared to what the market copes with," means that measures are being prepared that will cause more unemployment and poverty.

 

In reality, unemployment results from insufficient demand and lack of investment. The lack of investment is, in fact, a consequence of financial systems dedicated to speculation and free movement of capital without taxation to tax havens.

 

"It is necessary to uphold the principle of trusting private business, moving away the intrusive and dirigiste state from economic management". The meaning of this is privatization of public services and of strategic economic sectors, creating private monopolies and rentier capital, with no risk and innovation, such as "public private partnerships" (PPP).

 

"Let us fight irresponsible overspending in health services, education, culture, and public transportation, allowing instead freedom of choice". This means that education, health, and culture, are only for those who can afford it. However, the concepts of wastage and efficiency disappear from the discourse popularized by opinion-makers when private profit is guaranteed by tax benefits and rents paid by the State and consumers.

 

As regards culture, which should serve to spread the most pure humanism, it has been submitted to the dissemination of by-products imported from transnationals of the sector or from their substitutes.

 

2 - Contents of linguistic mystification

 

EXPRESSION

CONTENT

Bureaucracy detrimental to the competitiveness of enterprises and workers

Trade-union organizations

Structural reforms

Increase of capitalist exploitation and workers’ insecurity

Archaisms

Social rights conquered by the workers through hard struggles over the years

Functional market

Relocation of enterprises, rising unemployment, financial speculation

Promotion of efficiency

Foster the monopolization of the economy and the penetration of transnational companies

Courageous and responsible measures

Spoliation of workers and pensioners

Flexibility and rationalization of the labor market

Foster employers' arbitrariness and competition among workers themselves in their struggle for survival

Put an end to privileges

Reduce workers' rights

 

Examples of the language used, for identical situations, when country A is considered an "ally" of the US and country B is simply not.

 

SITUATION IN COUNTRY A

IDENTICAL SITUATION IN COUNTRY B

Ally, partner

Satellite

Maintaining order

Repression of pro-democracy protesters

The forces of order

The repressive apparatus of the regime

The authorities

The repressive forces

Criminal disturbances; vandalism

Demonstrations against the regime. Struggles for democracy and human rights

Terrorists

Rebels. Freedom Fighters

Irresponsible self-marginalizing opposition

Dissidents who represent the will of all the people

Editorial criteria

Censorship

Clashes between protesters and the police

Violence over civilians

The demonstrations degenerated into clashes… The police forces were forced to…

Brutal repression fell over the pro-democracy elements

The incidents left several injured in the police forces ...

The repression caused deaths and injuries among the protesters

Crowd; many thousands of people

A few hundred supporters

 

The description of situations in country A in the first column; the language used or the communicational attitude is that of the second column:

 

Torture

Fighting subversion

Absence of measures to defend national production

Open markets

Political power subordinated to economic power

Democracy

CIA flights of detainees without trial to torture centers.

 

Ignore. Cut the word if the topic is mentioned on the radio or TV. At most consider it an unconfirmed hypothesis spread by enemies of the free world

Political repression and crimes in Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, etc.

Ignore, never mention

Dictators masked as democrats

Ignore, never mention

Coups d'etat against governments that defend national sovereignty

Actions to save democracy and against populism

Corruption, speculation and capital flight

Free enterprise, free market

Neoliberal capitalism, social regression

Democracy, open and competitive society

Austerity, tax cuts for finance and large economic groups

Healthy and responsible policies. Doing what has to be done.

Civilians killed

Collateral damage

Bombing defenseless cities (like the Nazis in Guernica)

Humanitarian intervention. Defeating the dictatorship; exerting pressure in order to save the people

Political persecution, thousands of tortured people, mass killings by US and EU-backed governments

Ignore, never mention

Journalists, trade-union members, social activists, murdered in Latin American countries

Ignore; claim repeatedly that there is no freedom in Cuba [1]

Neocolonialism, political and economic dependence

Economic integration, free trade,

When friends take power after a coup, and conduct a policy of persecution and repression.

Democracy has won

The criminal sect that ruled Cambodia until it was overthrown in 1979 by soldiers from the People's Republic of Vietnam with exiles mainly from the Communist Party.

The Communist "Khmer Rouge" [2]

Massacre of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army.

Clashes in the Gaza Strip

Making information available that reveals the hidden face of US domestic and foreign policy.

Criminal attitude suspected of supporting and providing aid to terrorists (e.g., Julian Assange, Chelsea (Bradley) Manning, Edward Snowden)

Cruel and unfair treatment, suppression of legal rights, applied to Julian Assange (also Chelsea Manning)

Ignore, never mention

 

Description of situations in country B in the first column; the language used is that of the second column:

 

Imperialist actions of interference and application of sanctions

Promotion of democracy

Defense of national sovereignty

Reactionary and archaic isolationism

Democratic economic planning. Control of economic power by political power

Totalitarianism

Social concerns put into practice

Radical and populist left

Demonstrations of support for the government

Ignore. At most, select images that diminish the event.

Individuals paid by bodies of foreign countries to conspire against governments with popular support

Dissidents, fighters for democracy

Country that does comply to US intents

Threat to "Western" interests

Nationalization of country's natural resources, with the support of the overwhelming majority of the population and fulfilling electoral promises.

Country heading for dictatorship. Pariah state.

Civilian deaths in attacked countries or as a result of economic sanctions

Ignore, never mention or else blame the "regime"

Destruction and massacres by terrorists financed by the empire

Moderate sectors fighting for freedom and democracy.

Cluster bombs and depleted uranium. Deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, civilians overwhelmingly. The total is estimated at two million, including damages caused by sanctions [3]

Humanitarian interventions (e.g., Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, etc.)

 

 

3 - Language as a strategy of propaganda and manipulation

 

The strategies of collective manipulation aim to distort meanings, to block critical thinking and mentally condition the listener. Let's look at some of these strategies:

 

Euphemisms – Aimed at inducing ideas contrary to the original meaning of words, making what should be rejected as desirable. (e.g., Structural Reforms.)

 

Oxymorons  – With the same objective, putting contradictory concepts in the same expression.

 

Repetition Blocking critical thinking through intense repetition. "In the USA, the repetition of echoes (echolalia) is called debate" (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

Vehemence and indignation – The lies, said in this way, condition the search for the truth. This is particularly relevant when a process of dehumanization and demonization is intended, establishing a climate of collective paranoia against a designated enemy. Public opinion was thus prepared to accept the aggressions carried out against Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, the Russophobia, etc.

 

Dissociation – Exacerbating the consequences and concealing the causes. It serves as an alibi for the "populism" of the various right-wings.

 

Distraction – Diverting attention with irrelevant information from what is socially important.

 

Crisis as an opportunity – Letting problems grow up or even causing them in order to bring about solutions that would otherwise be rejected (as in the case of austerity and privatizations).

 

Phasing-in – Unpopular policies that would be immediately rejected are applied gradually, as they are presented as realistic and with no alternative. Promoting resignation by "habituation".

 

“Evidentiation” – Turning what is false as being evident through errors of syllogistic reasoning; taking as absolute truths dogmatic axioms and images that misrepresent the real, etc. (e.g., the State as a "good housewife")

 

4 - The language of slander

 

The language of slander is the most perverse in terms of mental intoxication, and is used to demonize those who do not submit at all to the empire. Rumors are promoted to the rank of news, and fake news become facts on the basis of which "commentators" develop their harangues without contradiction.

 

The criminal coups in Indonesia, Chile, were preceded by slander: "the communists were preparing to assassinate the military" was circulated in Argentina by the AAA (Aliança Anticomunista Argentina [Argentinian Anti-communist Alliance]). The wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yugoslavia were preceded by slander. The same applies to the sanctions against Venezuela and other states. Fidel Castro was portrayed as a murderer, in the same way as Nicolas Maduro, Gaddafi, Milosevitch, etc., promoting the revulsion of the uninformed citizens toward progressive policies, and the hatreds on which the far-right feeds. [4]

 

Against China, considered the main enemy of the empire (with Russia), an attempt is being made to unleash a Uighur revolt in Xinjiang. Some examples of the ongoing slander:

 

• A Uighur woman is shown in blood, from whom an executioner Han pulls out her nails: a video shot in 2004 in Chicago with an actress.

 

• A baby Uighur with a leash, eating from a dog bowl: a photo released in 2015 in the Philippines by the (unworthy) mother of the child.

 

• A naked Uighur beaten on the floor by a soldier: a beating of a delinquent by an Indonesian soldier in May 2017.

 

A Uighur woman was shown, somewhat embarrassed, because she had to explain her pregnancy after having been forcibly sterilized. And "disappeared people" were found with a joyful smile in their homes. [5]

 

International news coverage by the Western media is provided almost entirely by just three news agencies based in New York, London and Paris, defining the type of global language and propaganda, serving the oligarchy and imperialism.

 

Only the clarification and elevation of the social conscience of the working people will make it be possible to overcome the effects of lying and the uninterrupted slanderous propaganda. Only then will the roots of hope develop for a different and better future.

 

Notes:

1- The last journalist murdered by the political power in Cuba, was in the time of the dictator Batista, supported by the USA. Murders of journalists took place in countries supported by the US (eg Colombia, Honduras). These situations are ignored by Amnesty International and "Reporters without borders".

 

2 - The "red khmers" were supported by the US, which kept them as guerrillas in Thailand to overthrow the new government of national salvation and reconstruction. The US did not recognize at the UN the new government as representing the country, supporting the representation of the Khmer criminals.

 

3 - In the case of Libya, the UN mandate to guarantee the exclusion of airspace from hostilities between government and rebels, and to protect the civilian population, resulted in the death of 40,000 to 60,000 civilians due to NATO bombing.

 

4 - In the case of Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court has posthumously cleared the president of Serbia, Milosevic, whose alleged crimes served as justification for a sowing of hatreds and bombings that killed thousands of civilians.

 

5 - Théophraste R. (editor of www.legrandsoir.info/) Et si le mensonge photographique devenait trop difficile?, 08/17/2020 The detection of false images was made with the InVID application (In Video Veritas).

 

See also:

 

• La intoxicación lingüística. El uso perverso de la lengua , de Vicente Romano, 185 p., 740 kB

• I.V. Stalin, Marxism and Problems of Linguistics, Pravda, June 20, July 4, and August 2, 1950.