War can only be justified if we paint the opposing side as less-than-human.

It’s a strategy that’s been deployed in pretty much every war in the modern era. Propaganda hypes the troops up, because they feel like they’re heroes fighting monsters. If they feel like their enemy is human like themselves, with families and lives, it ruins their motivation and causes all kinds of mental turmoil. I mean, who wants to be the bad guy?

By World War II, our government had war propaganda down to a science. It’s where most of our comic book heroes were born. Captain America and Superman were both created as a form of war propaganda. They were good American heroes that fought against the evil Nazis and they both were released 4-6 years before the US’s involvement in WWII, grooming their target audience to become just like their heroes.

Movie theaters also played Adolf Hitler’s angry, animated speeches and portrayed him as an unhinged, demonic figure. And it was easy for them to do so, too. After all, he was doing some really bad things, and German is an angry-sounding language. But it’s important to note that they never translated his speeches into English out of fear that people would sympathize with some of the things he said, because that would break the non-human immersion.

They did this same thing with Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin-Laden, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and countless others. Can you remember a direct quote from any of them? Of course not, only allies get translated.

During the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese people learned this and used it against us. They created a radio station that played US music to entice our soldiers to listen, and then in between songs Hanoi Hannah would talk. She would say things that caused doubt in the soldiers, such as “Isn’t it clear that the war makers are gambling with your lives, while pocketing huge profits?”, and “your government has abandoned you. They have ordered you to die. Don’t trust them. They lied to you”.

Imagine how unnerving it was to hear these kinds of messages while stationed overseas, especially if you already had the seeds of doubt in your mind already. There’s no real way to know how effective her program was, but the Vietnam War ended simply because so few people approved of it that our government abandoned the idea, so I would consider her effort to be successful.

One of the most recent pieces of propaganda we’ve seen was all over the media during the Israel-Palestine war. Hamas was painted to be this evil bully terrorist organization, and we needed to help Israel defend itself with full force to save the citizens from them. It started as a very successful campaign that painted Israel as an innocent victim that needed help.

But there’s been some advancements in technology since the days of World War II that have rendered the media less effective to control the narrative these days.

For example, now anyone can go online and see that Israel’s prime minister, Netanyahu, funneled money to arm Hamas through Qatar as a form of controlled opposition so that they can bulldoze Palestine and fulfill their dreams of expanding their borders.

Israel’s also trying to spread the same narrative with the Lebanese militia of Hezbollah, claiming that they are only attacking Lebanon to defend themselves against the radical Muslims of Lebanon. We’re supposed to keep quiet and accept Israel attacking this country, killing over 2000 people, and annexing their land to expand Israel because they’re saving them from radical Islam.

But, again, anyone can look up online that Lebanon has the highest amount of Christians in the entire Middle East. Even their president is Christian. But the media has a vested interest in us rooting for Israel, so they would never share those figures.

Because this and other information is available to the public, support for the state of Israel has dropped exponentially in the past few years.

But the internet is a double-edged sword when it comes to modern propaganda. Even though it can be easy to search for the truth, there are hundreds of bots or paid influencers  trying to convince you of all sorts of things. And these people have hidden affiliations with foreign countries, corporations, and even our own government.

Have you noticed that since the government began to be concerned about the birth rate dropping, there has been a surge in influencers speaking out and saying all kinds of bad things about birth control?

That’s just one example of many at how easy it is for the government to persuade us into different opinions. In today’s internet, it’s extremely important to question the motives of every influencer and any video that we see.

Iran has recently leveraged viral videos to spread a series of videos that are similar in sentiment to the Hanoi Hannah radio shows. They all feature catchy raps and Lego-inspired cartoon imagery, but with hard-hitting lyrics. They speak of things like accusing Trump of starting a pointless war to take people’s minds off the Epstein Files, and claiming that they are fighting this war to get revenge for all of the people America has harmed, naming in that video Native Americans, the Vietnamese people, and others.

I highly recommend looking these up if you haven’t seen them yet, because there’s a high chance your kids or family members have seen them floating around on TikTok or Instagram, and they are incredibly persuasive.

Hanoi Hannah was limited by only being able to be heard by American troops on deployment. Iran’s Lego videos can be seen by anyone, even though the US government is trying their best to take them down. YouTube and Meta(Facebook/Instagram) have both banned the channels that were distributing the videos, but people continue to re-upload them to their own channels faster than they can be removed, so they are still relatively easy to find.

My point is that the governments of the world run on propaganda, especially during wartime. They can only wage war successfully with our support. They may not show it in any way that helps us, but they know how much they need us.

I want you to use your mind when you read anything on the news or watch anything on the internet, especially on any hot-button topics such as immigrants, Muslims, Jews, trans people, etc. Ask yourself if the person posting that was paid to have an agenda, and it’s good to always assume the answer is yes.

Because it usually is.

Taryn Ogletree is a local small business owner and author with previous experience of several years in finance.