Merriam Webster defines propaganda as “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person” and its first use was in 1668. Many things have changed since the word’s debut, especially its form of physical manifestation. From flyers and wartime posters to Marvel movies and the internet, only one thing stays the same… its impact. The negative effect the evolution of propaganda has from its transition from government to private sectors is exhibited in the voting patterns of citizens and elected officials today. The polarization of political parties, media consolidation, and demonization of foreign political ideologies are all evident trophies of propaganda's harmful successes in modern America. 

We see this impact in the ‘bad words’ of modern-day politics. “Your party wants to go Socialist.” This quote from President Donald J. Trump just moments into the first presidential debate against now President Joe Biden showcases the long-lasting effect red scare propaganda has on how we view different political ideologies today. While this fear is primarily older generations (groups of people who lived through the Cold war), we see a resurfacing of the red scare, but this time instead of the Soviet Union it’s China. “The United States is at risk of being gripped by “an anti-Chinese version of the Red Scare” that is driving Chinese talent away and could rupture what little goodwill is left between the two countries. We’ve made this mistake once before, during the Cold War,” said Susan Shirk, the chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California at San Diego, “And I don’t think we should make it again.” Propaganda feeds off the fear of the public and abuses it for its gain. During the Cold War, this fear was targeting communists.“Though the climate of fear and repression began to ease in the late 1950s, the Red Scare has continued to influence political debate in the decades since. It is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties.”(Sullivan 2010) The Supreme court ruling of Dennis vs. the United States (1951) which restricted the free-speech rights of accused communists exhibits this very clearly. We see time and time again that a climate of fear and hatred creates space for harmful leaders (Hitler the most common example), in this era, it was Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. McCarthy utilized intimidation and hearsay to establish himself as a powerful and feared figure in American politics. As the poster boy of the red scare, McCarthy used fear to instigate judicial and legal punishments against any public figure who dared argue with his political views. As tensions rise between the U.S. and China, many fear a door will open for a modern-day McCarthy. “I’m worried that some people are going to say, because of this fear, any policy is justifiable,” said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The climate of fear that is being created needs to help generate the conversation, not end the conversation.” As propaganda elevates hostility against Chinese Americans, we begin to wonder where it is coming from. Last time I checked my town wasn’t covered with posters of Uncle Sam or Rosie the Riveter.

“'The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people's minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize they're being propagandized," This was a statement made by Elmer Davis, The head of the Office of War Information during WW2. And statistically, it checks out, the United States Military saw one of its highest increases in voluntary deployment after the well-known movie Top Gun, and after the release of Captain Marvel, the highest ever recorded spike for female recruitment. Unsurprisingly, both of these motion pictures were ‘collaborated’ on by the United States government. However, using movies as a propaganda outlet is nothing new, and was something heavily pushed by J. Edgar Hoover. One of the most famous instances is when the CIA purchased film rights to the film adaptation of the classic novel Animal Farm and rewrote the entire ending. “so the pigs — who represent communist masters — are overthrown by the other animals on the farm. "This [rescripting] was intended by the CIA to act as some sort of symbol or inspiration for revolution" among people living in Eastern Bloc countries against their communist leaders,” says Tony Shaw, a Cold War Historian. "But it was equally designed for the soft left in Western Europe.” While this form of propaganda has been heavily normalized in American culture (think of half the shows on Tv like NCIS, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds) it does not go unnoticed by other countries. Tanner Mirrelees, an associate professor at Ontario Tech University, encapsulates how many foreigners feel about our glorification of government positions. “No country in the world churns out as many images of itself as the military hero… as the United States does. That is a unique cultural phenomenon.” What is striking about this quote is the use of the term ‘cultural phenomenon’, that propaganda has been so deeply ingrained in everything we do, it has become our culture. As we continually push the idea of the American country as a military hero in entertainment, we see it being used as justification for wars in real life. In almost every single intervention with foreign countries, the United States' reasoning has been ‘they need our help’ or ‘to protect democracy’ we see this very evidently in the Iraq war. Where halfway through America decided to backtrack and change the narrative of why we went to war. Noam Chomsky, a famous linguistics professor at MIT, explained to the frontline magazine “Now if people genuinely believe that Iraq has carried out major terrorist attacks against the United States and is planning to do so again, people will support the war. “It is a truly spectacular achievement of propaganda.” Even with these ‘achievements’, many argue that propaganda is necessary to uphold democracy because it instills common morals and ideas into the public, so they are more likely to reach a middle ground, but the opposite is true.

“Regrettably, our nation is now consumed by increasing political polarization; there is no longer middle ground to honestly debate issues and put forward solutions.” (U.S Representative LoBiondo Frank of New Jersey). A study done by Oxford University had found that over time Americans have become less and less educated on the fundamentals of politics but more polarized on issues, “Philip Converse provided an early empirical foundation for a premise that is now widely accepted, at least among political scientists: a large majority of Americans do not have consistent and reliable ideological beliefs. Converse found that only one in six could ‘assign the term ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ correctly to the parties and say something sensible about what the term meant.”(Benkler 2019) In a new age of technology, radicalization has become a by-product of misinformation. As harmful as government propaganda is, we have found the real culprit of polarization to be commercial propaganda.

In 1983, 90% of American media was owned by 50 companies. In 2011, that same 90% was controlled by 6 companies. This phenomenon is called media consolidation. What happens is these large companies value profit, as a result, they only air news that evokes a lot of emotion because it will increase their views. “Much work has focused on documenting the outrageous, in-your-face coverage of polarizing issues on cable networks, frequently omitting the nature of coverage of these topics in more traditional sources. Dramatic episodes of polarizing coverage on Fox News or other outlets get undue prominence in commentary, while the bulk of the mundane coverage frequently gets ignored” (Stecula 2018) This is what results in partisan sorting. While many Americans' views are centrist, the few topics that have been polarized by the media result in the voting for ‘radicalized ’ and less centrist representatives. This has always been the case in American politics but over time with media exposure, it has become more extreme. This process, according to Fiorina, is entirely elite-driven and does not mean that “Americans, in general, have become more extreme. Instead, most Americans are still centrists, it’s just that there are no parties that adequately represent them.” (Fiorina 2016). As the divide between American citizens and government officials grows, democracy becomes less effective and voting patterns no longer express the wants of the public. Which leads many to question, how can we close the divide?

The answer is not simple, while many have begun to lobby for government intervention to prevent further media consolidation in hopes of slowing down polarization, it seems unlikely that at this point any action will be taken. Rather it seems to educate the public on the harms of propaganda and its modern-day forms, would be the most beneficial (for now). “a common reality that allows us to have a healthy debate and then try to find common ground and move solutions forward.” (Obama 2016) This is the goal American politics should have moving forward, to rebuild the democracy that has been lost.

Works Cited

Benkler, Yochai, et al. “Polarization in American Politics.” Oxford Scholarship Online, Oxford     University Press, oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190923624.001.0001/oso-9780190923624-chapter-10.

Eschner, Kat. “The Weird Story of the FBI and 'It's a Wonderful Life'.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 20 Dec. 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/weird-story-fbi-and-its-wonderful-life-180967587/.

History.com Editors. “Red Scare.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 1 June 2010, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare.

“How Hollywood Became the Unofficial Propaganda Arm of the U.S. Military | CBC Radio.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 Aug. 2020, www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unofficial-propaganda-arm-of-the-u-s-military-1.5560575.

Lutz, Ashley. “These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 14 June 2012, www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6.

Merkley, Eric, and Dominik Andrzej Stecula. “MASS MEDIA AND POLITICAL POLARIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES.” THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, 2018, doi:10.31219/osf.io/674xm. 

Swanson, Ana. “A New Red Scare Is Reshaping Washington.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 July 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/politics/china-red-scare-washington.html.

Vidal, David. Propaganda Is Everywhere, web.stanford.edu/class/e297a/War%20Reporting%20on%20the%20U.S.%20War%20in%20Iraq.htm.