Make America Think Again

Introduction: The 2016 election of Donald Trump is an excellent example of the use of specific mass media tactics to propagate a message. In the history of political campaigning, many different techniques have been used, but how Donald Trump used these techniques is an anomaly. There is ample proof that Donald Trump was not oblivious to the techniques he used. How he campaigned was effective, and the journalism world put to shamed when they failed to foresee this turn of events and scrambled to understand what exactly Trump had done. For this reason I seek to defend that, the immense power of propaganda and the malleability of the human mind is exemplified by the propagandic means Donald Trump used to win the 2016 election; therefore the Church must rethink its use of propaganda techniques if she seeks to be a body of honesty and transparency.Hillary Clinton was supposed to win the 2016 presidential election. Predictions from the polls were unanimous. As reports came out telling the world that Clinton was going to win, each news organization, pollster, and public opinion writer failed to see how Trump was using the power of mass media to push his message forward. Every exit poll predicted a landslide victory for the Clinton campaign. However, it became clear when the votes came in late into the night that this was not to be. Why did this happen? What can we glean from the Trump campaign how it persuaded voters and propagated his message?This is in no way a political opinion piece, or an attempt to defend one candidate over another. I am not saying that everyone who voted for Trump was manipulated to vote for him. I am simply looking at the tactics he used to get votes, because they helped him accomplish what he set out to do, so they must be worth investigating. What is Propaganda: At its most basic level, propaganda is the manipulative fabrication of false reality, ultimately aimed at influencing the attitude of persons toward a certain position (Ellul).  ” This manipulative fabrication is a lie that sounds truthful but is really a tactic to get someone to to believe this false reality. “Propaganda is a form of information that panders to our insecurities and anxieties” (Ellul). However, there is another aspect to understanding propaganda in that people accept what they are being told as “simple truth” meaning that they find nothing to challenge or question in what they are being told. Propaganda is often put forth by a political party, leader, or person in charge. Their “followers” are those who accept what they are saying. Propaganda works because it is spread without complaint; it sounds/feels/acts like truth. “Propaganda functions as just one weapon in the arsenal of mass persuasion.” Ultimately, the goal of propaganda is to persuade an audience into believing a certain message about a certain person or idea. Therefore, Trump's tactics match Ellul's definition of propaganda,  because of the way he fabricated reality in a falsely manipulative way to win the 2016 election.  What is the Malleable Human Mind: Propaganda works because humans are malleable. All of us know, that humans change their mind constantly, disavow strongly held beliefs, or believe ideas they ought to or ought not believe. The malleability of the human mind allows propaganda to cause us to live in a mass-mediated reality, where we don't realize that what we’re feeding on, listening to, or agreeing with because it  has actually been manipulated and intentionally fed to us to cause us to do something that may or may not be against our will.  This happened in Trump’s campaign through the way that he made emotional appeals to his specific audience. Because propaganda is easy to believe and our minds are constantly swayed, it is relatively easy to convince people of your ideas when they are pushed forward in a clear, simplistic, and persuasive way. Enter Donald Trump & Propaganda :Trump ran his campaign for the 21st century. He used the propaganda to get votes. He used it to get the attention of American voters. He used it to spread his message to anyone who would listen. Propaganda’s most powerful force is words. Trump knew the power that words have when used in the correct way. He said, “I know words, I have the best words.” The words he spoke, tweeted, or recorded were used to propagate his message. As part of his technique, he used simplistic words throughout his campaign, which is a testament to him knowing his audience which would help him amass votes. It is interesting to note that Trump falls at the very bottom of other candidates regarding his vocabulary. He speaks at a fourth grade level. His slogan is remembered by all, “Make America Great Again.”  Whereas Hillary’s will soon be forgotten.  Trump is known for calling people outrageous names to create attention. His words are emotional, they were created for a response. Trump’s words are rude, crass, and crude, and they came often. Politico.com says it best, “Just as media interest in one Trumpism crested, he'd supply a new Trumpism to replace it.” Therefore, Trump's use of crass language is propaganda because he used an emotional appeal influence his voters meaning that every time he said something people reacted emotionally, whether in love or hate. If Ellul defined propaganda as a manipulative fabrication of a false reality, this is accurate for Trump because he used words that created a reaction in voters that resulted in anger, joy, or confusion. Additionally, his social media use throughout his campaign was unprecedented in multiple ways. At the time of this writing, Trump has 17.2 (he’s gained 1.2 million more followers in the past week!) million followers on Twitter compared to Hillary’s 11.6 million, Facebook likes have about the same ratio divide, and Trump has about one million more Instagram followers than Hillary. Journalists latched onto every word that Trump tweeted, he’s tweeted 34 thousand times, making a news story out of every ridiculous statement he made. Trumps unique use of social media was similar to propaganda because the picture ofchaos he created was not accurate and caused the voters to think that Trump had a clear, informed voice on all the issues or people he was tweeting about.  Trump is an entertainer. His phrases are blunt and crude but they are amusing. Part of his appeal on social media is that his followers wait with anticipation to read the next thing he writes because it often deviates from the norm of common political manners. However, politicians are not to be entertainers. They are not supposed to provide fodder for their constituents to laugh at. They are supposed to be answering questions about how a country is to be run, formulate plans to be more productive, or put a plan into place that will provide more jobs. But, the entertainer is what Trump has made himself out to be. His strong leanings towards entertainment through his campaign tactics can be viewed as propaganda because people love him and in turn believe in the entertainment he provides, which again creates a false reality for the voter who does not know that this kind entertainment is manipulative.  Even if it was for entertainment’s sake, Trump was had the advantage in terms of publicity. Most of Trump’s tweets are extremely blunt and rude. There is a clear explanation as to why he did this; not only does it fit his communication style and what people expect of him, he knew that his crass, blunt words would bring greater attention to himself and would translate into more votes. Through social media, journalists attached to his every word. Politico Magazine says, that no matter how “foul or funny” these tweets were, they would be picked up by the press. It’s as though the content didn’t matter anymore. It was the constant presence of political issues being forced into the minds of the American public. But this is all part of his plan to propagate the American human mind with his message. Even though these claims or words are outrageous, they get attention. They make people curious. They get people talking. And this is exactly what Trump wanted.Malleable Human Mind & Trump: Who then did this message of propaganda appeal? Or more specifically, why did this message appeal to them? Every propagated message must have a listener. These listeners must have a malleable enough mind in order to believe this message. This is not to say that everyone who voted for Trump that falls into one of these categories was manipulated, malleable, or fed propaganda and believed it, but it is a closer look into the people to whom Trump appealed more than anyone else. He spoke on topic relevant to them that showed how they were to vote come election day. Trump knew that he could find a support base in specific groups of people living in America and therefore collect their votes. The most specific group of people to whom Trump appealed are those who live in rural communities. They saw Clinton as someone who would take away their second amendment rights and enforce looser immigration restrictions, thus taking away jobs. Trump promised to protect second amendment rights and “build a wall.” Although Hillary was made out to be someone who truly cared for minorities, she did not take into consideration the minorities to whom Trump appealed. Trump seized the opportunity and became their advocate, meaning that he was the one whose ideals aligned the most with those living in rural areas and he stood up for what they cared most about. He garnered their votes easily. This “minority” people group saw through what political journalists were telling them about Trump. If this is the case, it is clear that the vast amount of people living in rural areas found an advocate in Donald Trump. Political journalists failed to see the advocacy that Trump was handing to those in a rural context. Trump didn’t make any specific promises to those living in rural areas but his stance on issues that are important to them were enough to make an impact. Enter the Church, Propaganda, and the Mass Media: Donald Trump is an example to all of how the use of media and technology can influence the mind to accept new beliefs. What is even more important is that the church, holy and connected to Christ, their Head, dare not participate in the manipulation of the emotions or mind. The Holy Spirit acts as the great Convictor and Convincer, and when we as church leaders attempt to replicate this role through media or propaganda tactics, we place ourselves in a position only our Lord can fill. When the church deviates from her role as the bearer of Jesus Christ to the world, we must understand that pervading sin and selfishness will contribute to manipulation and exploitation. Propaganda and the Malleable Human Mind in the Church:  Trump understood his power and the power of propaganda; so too, the Church must be aware of the power it has to manipulate people through the means of propaganda tactics. As one who has worked for the church, grown up in the church, and been in many church contexts, I believe there is an overwhelming ignorance as to how propaganda is affecting the church at large. It is safe to assume that most would never think propaganda exists in the church, because well, it is the church and we’re supposed to know God, right? If propaganda is one’s mind being biased towards a particular point a view and seeing a false view of reality, then just like Trump, the words the church uses to communicate can be propagandic in nature. Most often, the church often does this out of malice or even wrong intent. It is simply a pervading ignorance of how the church communicates that propagates itself in wrong language, emotionalism, and entertainment. For example, Pew Research says that Evangelicals in the United States account for 25% of the population and of that 25%, 80% voted for Trump. Why? There are many reasons for this but one of them is that the words of many evangelical leaders, to some extent, played a huge role in convincing Evangelicals who they should vote for. James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Wayne Grudem (retracting and reinstating), and Joel Rosenburg (along with others) gave their affirmation of Trump as their candidate. There is often an underlying attitude in Christian culture where people are more comfortable letting their leaders ask the hard questions for them. It is an issue of trust. On a smaller scale, if the local church trusts its pastor and the pastor makes his opinion known, a large amount of people will take what he says into consideration. This is vitally important because it exemplifies the influence of opinion, ignorance, and apathy in the church culture at large. This then leaves the church vulnerable to propaganda; we could easily be told something from a pastor, leader, or teacher and believe it, because we have never been taught to think for ourselves. Propaganda thrives because the mind is malleable and we live in ignorance and laziness. The church has somehow succumbed to overwhelming ignorance and passivity in understanding and believing what is being communicated.Just as with Trump, the words of the church are often its propaganda. Too many of its messages manipulate us into believing something about Christ that is not actually true. The pervading desire to only preach or proclaim the “good parts” of the Bible is a propaganda that manipulates the reality of the Christian life and the malleable human mind. This is NOT the complete and holy message of Christ, but it is easy to believe because it feels good to the soul and sounds good to the ear. The church has succumbed to the idea that more is always better. While not wrong to desire a larger congregation, as malleable people, if our one, true, holy desire is not for Jesus Christ alone, we will fall prey to propaganda. If all we seek is more people, more money, more events, or more programs, we will communicate in such a way that is to our own selfish end. This is where Ellul’s definition, “a manipulation of a false reality” comes into play. The church will begin to communicate like it is not the church, but rather like a business, like a politician. It will say what is needs to say to create a manipulative false reality in the life of the churchgoer. This false reality is how one views the church, not from Christ or as Christ’s bride, but simply as an extra activity to add to the Christian life. We are insecure about our faith and we doubt our relationship with Christ, propaganda in church preys on this, comforting us with pithy sayings, telling us that “God is good” or that “He will never give you more than you can handle.” While these sayings are true, this is not the whole story. This is fake reality and we are manipulated to believe it because the church wants to make us feel good.  The root of this manipulation is emotionalism. The desire to create a moment of feeling that is not actually there. Emotion in church is propagated in such a way that it falsely communicates a feeling that you should feel this about God or you should do something for God because you feel this way. This is wrong! Emotional coercion should never be the reason someone serves Christ.  Are You Not Entertained? Part of the way the church often propagates it’s message is through humanity’s incessant desire to be entertained. The church’s job is not to entertain. Just like it is not the politicians job to entertain, so too, must the church not fall prey to the idea that in order to attract people to it’s services or programs it must entertain. However, the church today often does not understand this. The human mind is influenced by the entertainment. We see examples of this clearly in the church service. The church has become entertainment because people wanted to be entertained. This is exemplified through stage lights, fog machines, loud bands, flashy videos, and exciting messages. This often can be called propaganda because this communicates something other than the truth of what the church is. It manipulates reality through because the church was not meant to be a form of entertainment. And because the human mind is malleable we are indeed entertained, we cannot help not be. This experience of church is not church. Parishioners often want the experience, but they don't want Jesus Christ. As the church continues to use words, entertainment, and other forms of manipulation as propaganda, it communicates to the world a false view of what the church really is and turn who Christ really is. The holiness of the church is forgotten and it is replaced with a show. Church Do This (Words for the True Church):Dear Church, Please realize that the outcome of this is the mentality that the church is all about me. The church has become a haven for the selfish. When the church strategically places itself within culture where it believes it to be best or when the Christian becomes a consumer, simply  “right”, the pastor preaches the “right” sermon, or the congregation that is friendly enough. When the church offers programs, events, and displays as a way to attract people as a means to their selfish ends, no longer is the church the church, its message has become propaganda. These things fabricate and manipulate a picture of something that the church is not, a place to get our fill of each other, to entertain, or to create a false sense of joy .In this age of ever-present manipulation, be always on guard (1 Cor. 16:13). Do not give in to the persuasive words that pervade our malleable human minds. Do not be swayed by easy, exciting, or convincing messages. Bride of Christ, please do not lower your standards, simply to get the masses into your church building. This will not work. A flashy website, emotional appeals, or making truth look easier or more simplistic will never fill the longing in each man’s soul for Jesus Christ. Church, I call you to take to heart the example of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. I call you to know that his tactics are not just found out in the world, but are found in the church as well. I call the church to live out her calling in a manner that is worthy and pleasing to whom she gets life and meaning. Know that our minds are shaped much too often by the messages that we hear and latch on to. Know that instead our minds must be shaped by Jesus Christ. Creative Element: p.c. and much thanks to Casey VanderStel