Friday, July 15, 2016

Police Propaganda?

I'm seeing all over the net - and for some time - pictures of cops giving shoes to a homeless person, pictures of cops hugging black women, pictures of cops helping inner city kids, pictures of cops doing all manner of happy feel good things.

Do you know what I'm not seeing all over the net?

Pictures of taxi cab drivers, bank guards, liquor store clerks and prostitutes giving shoes to homeless people, pictures of them hugging black women, pictures of them helping inner city kids, pictures of them doing all manner of happy feel good things.

Do you know why?

Because people in those professions - which all are MORE dangerous than police work - are not killing over 1,000 citizens per year due to shooting first, and asking questions never.

You see, the point of propaganda is to change how you feel about a thing, a cause - or a group of people.

Thus Soviet propaganda would show the Red Army soldier as a liberator.  Why?  Because they weren't liberators, but the government needed the people to believe they were.  Hence posters of Soviet soldiers helping an old lady cross the street, or taking bread to a peasant.

Thus Nazi propaganda would show their police and soldiers playing with children, doing good deeds, etc.  And Hitler himself in a room full of smiling German children!

When you see then a picture of a cop bringing milk to some woman in Boston - after putting that city under martial law that only ended when someone defied their orders, left their house, and thus found the guy the cops could not - do not think, "Oh, see, cops are wonderful!"

Some no doubt are - but what you should be thinking is - why are we having to be told so? 

You see too many pictures that tend to try to persuade you that barbers are kind?  Or that iron workers aid the poor?  Or that hotel maids do good deeds?  But can you doubt for even a second that roughly the same percent of each of those groups does as much charitable good as the police?  A given percent of humans enjoy aiding others, and you may find that percent in any group you look at.  Even the meth-dealing Hells Angels participate in Toys for Tots!  Yet of all such groups doing the same amounts of good, we're only asked to look at certain groups!

Also remember that even such as Soviet soldiers and Nazi Gestapo did have that same percent of individuals doing good.  They believed in what they were doing, wrong as it was, and it did not interfere in the least with their church attendance, charitable outreach or loving their kids.


Do I thus compare American police to Nazis and Soviets?  NO!!  Not in the taken to the extreme sense of "they're taking over whole nations and exterminating six million Jews."  But I do compare them to those two hated groups in the sense of...

...oh, yeah, the same methods used to sell those two hated groups are now being trotted out to sell us our own police! 

Some might disagree.  They may say, and with sincerity, "We aren't trying to persuade people to think of cops as good because they are bad.  We're trying to persuade people that they're good - because some few hate on them and try to hurt or kill them!"

Perhaps.  Though perhaps previous governments could have claimed the same - and did claim the same.  Soviet posters extolling the virtues of the Red Army liberators did not say that they did so because those soldiers were killing Kulaks and thus needed their reputations white washed!  They said that they needed that propaganda campaign so as to educate the people, in that some few hateful Kulaks were trying to hurt and kill the People's police and soldiers!

Likewise, it would be absurd for the government - or any pro-police group that aids the government for free - to admit, "Yeah, we know that a good number of folks are fed up with how poorly our police conduct themselves in the disproportionate killing of minorities!"  So it is natural for them to instead say, "We are trying to educate people because some few haters like the BLM are trying to get folks to hurt or kill cops!"

Please notice that in all cases, it involves the group doing bad to a certain number of people, those people and others becoming aware of it and growing angry, and the government responding with a propaganda campaign designed to quell that anger and shift feelings over to love.  AND a dislike of the very group being victimized!

It also has the effect of reinforcing the views of the majority not being oppressed, so that if they start to be concerned, they can see in the propaganda, "No, it's okay, those Jews aren't being singled out!  Our brave boys round up all such types who betray and sabotage our Fatherland!"

Or, "No, it's okay, it's not that Kulaks are being targeted specifically - it's that our brave boys fight all such enemies of our Motherland!"

Or, "No, it's okay, it's not that blacks are 12% of the populace but 33% of those killed by police - it's that some criminal thugs are endangering our brave boys, who nobly put their lives on the line each day for our Homeland!"

And in each of those three cases, posters - nowadays internet pictures - of the Soviet soldier, the Nazi Gestapo and American police officer with the smiling child, the grateful poor person, the crippled vet, the elderly and infirm.  Or even - trust the Nazis to come up with this - kittens!

Oh, I know - I leaped to "Hitler", I leaped to "Stalin".  Generally a "no-no" in making a point.  But could they have made it any easier for me to do so?  I mean, it's like the grandchildren of the Soviet and Nazi propaganda poster makers could legitimately sue these modern meme makers for Intellectual Property infringement!

Identical posters.  Identical ideas being put across.

And for identical reasons. 

Otherwise?  Where's the deluge of posters about those brave taxi drivers aiding the poor?

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