“Teach how to think, not what to think”, was the motto of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), which operated in the United States (US) in the early 1900s and was instrumental in popularising the need to recognise and counter propaganda, which can be defined as mass-scale efforts to disseminate information promoting a certain narrative, idea, point of view, etc.
The IPA’s solution was to develop critical thinking in the population through strong education and awareness, so that the public will be able to identify and resist the effects of propaganda from all kinds of sources. But, what happens when a generation, driven by fear and ignorance, begins to develop such a strong yet false sense of security that they actively reject critical thinking on the perception that they already have it and education because they do not see any need for it? This, coupled with an incredible proliferation of manipulative and questionable sources of information (and an almost non-existent understanding of propaganda), begs the question, is just teaching how to think, enough?
The discourse on social media lately has been enamoured with a curious phenomenon where many young people from Generation Z (1997-2012) have been finding the most inaccurate and defective claims from all sorts of uncanny sources; ranging from the questionable (like using TikTok videos as sources in an argument about the legitimacy of media in the US) to downright horrifying (like using deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s manifesto as some revelatory masterpiece [that the US Government has allegedly attempted to hide] to reevaluate, and, in extreme cases, justify his actions). Strangely enough, all of this was accompanied by a very intriguing rallying cry: Gen. Z is the first generation immune to propaganda.
This dangerous and fundamentally-incorrect perception comes from two main factors: The bias against the status quo, authority and hierarchy, and the critical lack of historical knowledge. The first one, of course, is not something unique to Gen. Z, but, because of the proliferation of sources where they can access anti-establishment information and the subsequent ease with which consensus with like-minded individuals can be built on the Internet, this issue has been exacerbated. Of course, this is not to argue that being anti-status quo is inherently a bad thing, but rather that the rebellious and anti-establishment sentiments of this generation have been much easier to enlarge, manipulate, and weaponise.
Self-righteous ignorance, when it comes to propaganda, is perception without knowledge. Confidence without education. Education here is not only the kind given to recognise and counter the effects of propaganda, no. The lack of historical knowledge of much of the generation in question (of course, this is not an issue exactly confined to them) is the driving factor behind this false perception of immunity to propaganda.
The feeling of finding new facts and knowledge, finding some historical incident or something new about a known historical incident is invigorating. And, that feeling is being weaponised now. Finding some piece of knowledge like that from a source which is not official (or not “establishment”, for the reasons mentioned above) can not only give a false confidence of discovering something relatively unknown to other people – who, at this point are seen by the person in question as poor souls who have fallen prey to information control by the Government (giving the person a feeling of superiority and a saviour complex, making them want to share the information that they found even more) – but can also give the impression that they have discovered something that the government has been trying to hide and suppress, especially if that narrative is actively promoted by the propagandists behind the sources from which some Gen. Z people get their “new” information from. This breeds even more distrust in the government and official sources. This type of ‘’hidden’’ information, and information that “the government doesn’t want you to know'' is hugely popular on the Web.
This also deters young people from doing actual research and getting legitimately educated, since they see no need to do so, a condition which would have catastrophic consequences in the long run. Modern propagandists have created, or stumbled upon, the perfect conditions, circumstances, and climate to create a vicious and unforgiving circle of anti-government propaganda.
A very important contributing factor to the unbelievably bleak times that we are witnessing now is the extreme cynicism and scepticism towards the mainstream media or information received through conventional means of communication developed by an incomplete awareness of the existence and of the harmful effects of propaganda (or more important, the fear or paranoia of falling for it) but with no knowledge on it, or how to properly counter it. Awareness of the existence alone of propaganda and disinformation breeds fear and paranoia, that in turn creates a perpetual peril of counter-propaganda efforts which is excessive cynicism. This cynicism and distrust of conventional means of information breeds self-righteous ignorance, where people assume that they are safe and even immune from propaganda purely because of their reliance on alternative media. This, unsurprisingly, has led to critical thinking skills plummeting while creating an extreme overreliance on non-mainstream media.
While the mainstream media is not exactly a haven of accurate information, they are bound, at least to a certain extent (and to different extents depending on the platform) to be accountable, accuracy-wise. Most of the time, they cannot afford to be wildly inaccurate in order to promote one narrative. This is not the case with many alternative media outlets where they have to worry much less about credibility or losing their place in the eyes of the wider public, and naturally, from their perspective, this quasi addiction to just one form of information acquisition has been a welcome change. (Of course, this is not to imply that all alternative media sites are propaganda vehicles.). To illustrate this in a different way, most propaganda in mainstream media is created through the interpretation of facts while propaganda in alternative sources is a mix of misrepresentation and fabrication.
When the IPA was having massive campaigns to combat the effectiveness of propaganda, the most serious criticism levelled at them was that their efforts may breed more of a destructive scepticism than intelligent reflective-ness. But, the IPA countered by arguing that they are providing education, and thus, the necessary tools for people to think critically, and that such would not entail excessive scepticism and cynicism. In fact, the proper awareness of propaganda would counter that as well.
In a way, the IPA was right, how to counter propaganda essentially boils down to giving the people most affected by it, in this case the young people of Gen. Z, a sound education. Not only education on propaganda, but also sound and solid historical education as well. This of course has to start at the school level. But, since the school curriculum cannot possibly cover enough historical education, there must be online resources available freely to the public on history and current affairs that people can turn to instead of dangerous alternative media sites. This strong institutional education and the existence and proliferation of the above mentioned free educational resources will be a crucial and necessary step in the right direction towards repairing the broken trust between many young Gen. Z people and history.
The best analogy about the importance of education to fight propaganda efforts that I can find comes from the Canadian political commentator J.J. McCullough. He describes the mind as a room guarded just by a loose door that can be pushed and opened easily without much force, signifying how information – however dangerous or misleading they may be – can easily penetrate our minds. Having a good education is like having big and sturdy rocks kept against the door making it hard or impossible to push open. What propagandists now have to do, McCullough describes, is pushing on an open door.
If things continue down this road and if education keeps falling down the list of priorities and if modern iterations of propaganda are not properly analysed and young people are not taught about it, Gen. Z and the coming generations are not going to be remembered as the generations who were immune to propaganda, but who were the easiest to fall into its grip and with a painful and self-satisfied grin on their faces.
(The author is a researcher studying and talking about propaganda and its history, evolution, and utilisation. He currently works at the Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy [BALPP])
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.