Spotting Propaganda
By Brent Regan
Politics is packed with propaganda, some blatant and some subtle. Often the propaganda will have a “tell” that makes it easier to spot. Once you are familiar with tells you will start seeing the propaganda. Here are a few examples.
The “So” Tell. If someone starts off a sentence or post with “So” then there is a very good chance that whatever follows is language designed to bend the truth. An example would be if you said that you liked oranges the response would be “So you are saying you don’t like bananas” and then the poster will accuse you of being bananaphobic. Watch for the “So” Tell and study what comes next.
The Misstatement Tell. This one is popular with the media where they make a false or out of context statement about events and then criticize someone for something they didn’t do. Misstatements happen most often in headlines as clickbait to attract attention while the truth, if offered at all, is buried several paragraphs deep. Many of the common hoaxes fall into this category. The Fine People Hoax started as a partial quote which inverted the meaning of the full quote and was followed by President Trump being called a racist.
The Mind Reading Tell. The only person that knows your true thoughts is you. If someone claims that they know what is in the mind of someone else they are lying, hallucinating, or projecting their thoughts onto another person. Look for someone saying they know what someone “really” thinks or what is actually on someone’s mind.
The Time Traveler Tell. Propagandists will take events and rearrange them in a new sequence to claim things that never actually happened. An example would be if someone took a picture of you shaking hands with another person and that person commits a crime at a later date. The propagandist will post the picture with a caption claiming you are shaking hands with a criminal as if you should have known about future events.
The Accusation Tell. In Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” Alinsky advises his followers to accuse the opposition of the crimes you commit. Democrats are notorious for this tactic. They accused Trump of destroying our democracy while they anoint Harris as their candidate without a single vote.
Now that you know the basics you can practice on the North Idaho Republican opinion piece “Regan rewrites the rules…” published a few days ago.
It opens with mindreading followed by a misstatement of the bylaws, which they put in quotes to fool you, and then ask you to time travel. They accuse others of breaking the rules that they refuse to follow.
They claim the bylaws state that a vacancy occurs when a committee member “fails to attend four (4) consecutive regular meetings of the KCRCC without excuse acceptable to the KCRCC.” These words are in the bylaws, but not in this order.
Here is an accurate quote of the bylaws. See if you can spot the difference.
“A notification of vacancy shall be given by the chairman when any committee member resigns from their position; dies; moves their primary residence from their precinct; changes their party affiliation from Republican; ceases to be a qualified elector; or without excuse acceptable to the KCRCC, fails to attend four (4) consecutive regular meetings of the KCRCC.”
Notice at the end that the excuse comes before the fourth absence but they swap the order and argue that you can give an excuse after the fourth meeting is missed.
Imagine you are driving your car and you drive through an intersection with a STOP sign but don’t stop. Halfway down the next block you stop in the middle of the road for a few seconds and then proceed on your way. A police officer witnesses this bizarre behavior and pulls you over. When he explains that you failed to stop at the STOP sign you argue that you DID stop, even though it was after the sign. Unmoved, you are issued a citation for a moving violation. The sequence of events matters.
Let’s examine the bylaw language to understand why they were followed to the letter.
“A notification of vacancy shall be given” where “shall” means MUST, it is not optional.
“by the chairman when” means when it happens, not some nebulous time in the future or after other unspecified actions.
“without excuse acceptable to the KCRCC” means that either a KCRCC member did not make a motion to accept an excuse or they did and the committee voted not to accept it.
“fails to attend 4 consecutive regular meetings” means not physically present for any portion of the meetings. (The only exception for “physically present” would be an electronic meeting per State Party Rules Article XI.)
Putting it all together, when the fourth meeting adjourns without the member being present for four consecutive meetings and the committee has not by then voted to accept an excuse then the chairman is REQUIRED to give notice of vacancy. This is precisely what happened according to the requirements of the Bylaws and the Chairman of the Republican State Party and their lawyers agree.
The North Idaho Republicans is a group that lacks credibility, transparency, and has a long history of shady operation. After claiming to be the official Republican Party they were sent a Cease-and-Desist letter from the Republican National committee. The Idaho Secretary of State fined them the maximum allowed by law for campaign finance violations. They tried to fool Republican voters by counterfeiting the KCRCC recommended voter mailers and listing their candidates, which were identical to the Democrats endorsed list. They joined an unsuccessful statewide attempted hostile takeover of the Republican Party. One of their founders is a Never-Trump Biden voter who bragged that Kamala Harris would be an excellent VP. It is difficult to imagine a true Republican boasting about being endorsed by such a shady organization.
It’s just common sense.