Al-Ahed Translations:Media Disinformation -Raping the Mind

By Professor Abdel Azim al-Bashir

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda, forced the German people to open the windows of their homes while raising the volume of their radio sets to the maximum, so that ideas broadcast through the radio could be heard by every German, whether they liked it or not.

Back then many thought that this was nothing more than a nuisance. But German Liberal writer Sergei Chakhotin had a different opinion. He followed-up on, monitored and studied the interesting experiment. He discovered how Goebbels succeeded in reformulating a densely populated nation - with a long history, advanced in science and civilization – into the Nazi Party’s vision of one block willingly following Hitler to war. That war ended in disastrous defeat, Hitler’s suicide followed by the suicide of the man responsible for the nation’s insanity - Goebbels, who killed his five children while his wife poisoned herself.

In 1939, Sergei Chakhotin published his findings in a book bearing a title with revolting connotations: (The rape of the masses). The title signified the ugliness of the forced degradation of the mind’s sanctity and the smearing of the purity of thought and instinct.

Goebbels’ only means of channeling propaganda came in the form of newspapers and the radio. He, however, managed to convince 80 million Germans that Germany and the Aryan race were globally superior, that Eastern Europe was a strategically vital territory for the Third Reich and that Hitler was an inspirational leader who does not make mistakes and could not be defeated.

Shortly afterwards, the West and America inherited these mechanisms from a defeated Germany. Among the things they inherited was the science of moulding the minds of the masses and its basic laws. This science was called the science of "propaganda" or "media". Hundreds of thousands of philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and thinkers devoted themselves to studying and teaching it. Scientific and technical advances provided them with all the tools for temptation and seduction. That is how propaganda turned into a “political power” in the twentieth century, monopolized by the strongest and used by colonial powers to impose their hegemony on the people by weakening their ability to resist. Hence, the term: “cultural imperialism”.

Sociology:

A critical study of power, conflict and change in 1975 by the American sociologist Victor Baldrige - where the colonial powers try to impose their own values on other societies and encapsulate their economic ambitions with a false and misleading cover (democracy and support for popular revolutions, springs of freedom or the fight against terrorism or the fight against communism ... etc.). This colonial activity primarily depends on data collected by the students of civilizations - “Applied Anthropology”. Under the banner of field and scientific research, the components of the targeted community’s personality, weaknesses, and inherited gaps are identified, allowing for those communities to be penetrated and disassembled. In the case of our nation, the inherited Salafi religion has been dismantled, and the takfiri virus has been picked up, along with the bitterness of the social conflict, which is known as the great sedition. Thus, they discovered the scourge of sectarianism … etc. which would be used to strike the nation from the inside. The modern media was an effective weapon. The Arab arena was flooded with channels of incitement, sedition, and the falsification of problems. This keeps the nation weak, fragmented, and a consumer for Western products, including everything from industry, culture and art, to jets and stupid American fast food.

Leaders of public opinion:

Western social psychologists (and all the sciences in the service of the imperial project) have discovered that the best advertising methods for shaping people's thoughts involve what they call “leaders of public opinion”. They are those who enjoy social, religious, scientific, or tribal positions in their communities, enabling them to influence the trends in public opinion. The campaign of media disinformation, raping the minds, and brain washing recruited its fifth column. They secretly hire through material or moral returns and polish their recruits with glamorous names – defending human rights, media freedom, religion, freedom, etc. – then they provide them with oppressive propaganda laws to penetrate and misinform.

Oppressive propaganda laws:

Five oppressive propaganda laws were derived from Chakhotin’s previously mentioned book:

First Law: The focus on a simple axiom: a principle or slogan the propaganda device broadcasts and repeats - “Al-Jazeera” for example. The leaders of public opinion call for the axiom without exposing its merits until it becomes glued to the conscious or subconscious mind. The “barrel bombs” for example, the mere mention of it puts the recipient in a certain psychological, neurological, and physiological state, enabling him to conduct a “conditioned reflex”.

Second Law: The focus on anti-principles or anti-slogans: Amplifying the defects of others and focusing all the discussion only on those defects, in order to keep the first law safe from any public discussion. For example: The issue of “barrel bombs” remains un-debatable, and an investigation into the realities on the ground is off-limits. The focus is strictly on what is meant to be believed - there is a regime in Syria bombarding its people, and thus the case of the barrel bombs becomes an axiom un-debatable or unquestionable.

Third Law: Encircling the minds of the masses using the duel affect: “the slogan and its opposite”. Another example from Syria - the slogan: “a people revolting for freedom / the opposite: a regime bombarding it with barrel bombs.” Questions about the peaceful movement or its militarization, the countries supporting the opposition, or whether it was democratic before it was spread, are not allowed.

Fourth Law: Ideas meant to be implanted in the minds of the masses are not thrown into a vacuum but rather into a civilized historic reality. According to the fourth law, the oppressive propaganda effort must be directed towards dismantling the cultural components by questioning the authenticity of beliefs and creating intellectual confusion, which allows for the condemnation of the past. “Is this not exactly what Daesh is doing?”

Fifth Law: Directing propaganda without the slightest regard for the problems of the real social reality. If it is required to topple the regime in Syria, then the speech suggests that there is no problem in the nation other than the question of whether Bashar falls or remains in power? There is no Zionist occupation, no Quds, no poverty, no backwardness, not even a problem of an invasion or hired killers. All these problems are merely an attempt by Assad and his aides to divert attention from the real battle. “There is no voice higher than the voice of the nation’s battle – to topple Assad!!”

This is the size of the ugliness caused by media disinformation. It really is “the raping of the minds!”

This is how the emotions of the masses and their energies are drained in a “virtual world” dominated by satellite channels and other means of propaganda. So, we see how stars in culture and thought as well as political figures were exposed. They were merely tools carefully prepared in order to brainwash their people. From here we can understand the fact that satellite channels flooded the airwaves with talk about freedom, nationalism, and patriotism. But they are merely Arabic-speaking colonial horns!