Propaganda in World War I

1132 Words3 Pages

‘’Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.’’ (Eric Hoffer). Propaganda is a broad approach to persuasion for something or against something. Every day you are exposed to some piece of propaganda, it could be an advertisement, or something you heard on the news, or maybe something you saw on Facebook. Another way countries around the world use propaganda is in wartime. The usage of propaganda for wartime isn’t necessary because it leads to prejudice, distrust, and hostility. Propaganda has been here for a long time and we weren’t the first to use it, for example Adolf Hitler used propaganda to convince the Germans that the Jews were to blame and that getting rid of them would make everything better. The beginning of Propaganda in the United States was in World War I. Propaganda in World War I was used to persuade people to get into the Army, such as the “I want you” poster with Uncle Sam. Propaganda was then used in the 1920’s for advertising all the new things that came out such as TV’s, Automobiles, and appliances. In the 1920’s the country was now settling in and, companies were creating new appliances, people were now dealing with credit cards. There were all these new things that you could do, new music to hear, new places to go. Propaganda was everywhere to convince you what to do and why. There were billboards advertising all over the city: roads, buildings benches, sidewalks. Propaganda has increased over the years, today we see propaganda even more places like the internet. The internet is a big target for propaganda since people spend so much time on it. Propaganda is great when it comes down to advertisements but, then it gets more serious. Propaganda then shifts from wha... ... middle of paper ... ...and those are not democratic principles. A war can be won without propaganda, and a war can be won without discrimination and the harassment of any ones race/group. A war can be won without violating human rights, thus leading to hostility. A war can be won without violating democratic principles which leads to distrust in one’s government. The government shouldn’t use fake information to get us convinced that attacking a country is okay, if it deserves attacking then fake information (propaganda) shouldn’t be appropriate. A war is lives being taken away, a son coming home hoping his dead isn’t dead. Wars are extreme and they shouldn’t be handled by fake information. Using propaganda on a product is tricking you into spending your money on something that isn’t as advertised, But using propaganda during war-time is tricking you into get killed or killing.

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