To think that in the future lockdown will be studied as an example of effective propaganda?

[Jericoo]

I remember studying different examples of propaganda when I was at school, mostly in the context of wartime efforts. In the context of lockdown, all it took was a 3-word slogan and people abandoned all of their civil liberties! Astonishing.

"Yellownotblue* and there are still more than twice as many people dying from flu and pneumonia than covid.
Of course it's state propoganda, designed to make people comply with draconian restrictions by scaring them.

Otherwise our news would include information that keeps it in perspective, such as the average age of death of covid victim, accurate rates of new hospitalisation, average length of hospital stay, accurate figures on reduction in treatment for other diseases, cand a regular comparison with the same for flu and pneumonia.

I agree that all the social isolations and restrictions are building up a perfect storm for a massively dangerous flu/pneumonia outbreak due to lack of community exposure/immunity. And flu/pneumonia kills far more than covid.

We never go into lockdown for flu and pneumonia.

Our current figure of 60,000 deaths due to Covid would be much much higher without the measures we have had in place. Covid has a higher mortality rate than flu.

Having said that, our 60,000 Covid deaths are a disgrace because with proper test and trace and isolation measures in place back in February, and without an utterly moronic and cavalier PM, most of them could have been avoided.

@Mimishimi

It's propaganda. It's a tool of the same sort who brought us the 3rd Reich - powerful businessmen and corporate interests. The key is in the phrase..

"we're all in this together".

Hi. Jew here. You can fuck right off comparing the UK to Nazi Germany, thanks. Moron.

It's propaganda. It's a tool of the same sort who brought us the 3rd Reich - powerful businessmen and corporate interests. The key is in the phrase..

"we're all in this together".

errr… how do you think the Allies managed to defeat the Third Reich? Nothing at all to do with people observing the blackout and obeying government rules about saving petrol and not clogging up the roads unnecessarily?

We live near the factory that produced the Spitfires. The survival of the factory totally depended on local people not lighting the place up like a Christmas tree and showing the Luftwaffe where to go. There were rules, wardens to enforce them, and penalties for people who failed to observe them. What do you think the alternative should have been?

@VinylDetective

I sometimes wish I was young enough to see how history reads the years since 2016. It seems to me that the world went completely bonkers then and has stayed that way.

Do you remember when they switched on the large hadron collider in 2008 there were all those theories about it causing a black hole? I’m not convinced it didn’t fuck up something in the space time continuum at some point since they’ve been bashing all those particles together

I would have thought how people ended up with a person of no morals, no grasp of detail and a bunch of incompetents forming a Conservative government would be the first point of study in the future.

In the context of lockdown, all it took was a 3-word slogan and people abandoned all of their civil liberties! It took a little more than that. For example, the very rapid rise in cases, the high deaths rates in certain groups, coupled with the information that those groups would be unlikely to receive treatment.

Also interesting how easily it breaks down if the ruling classes are too blatant in demonstrating that they don't believe any of it.

@Mimishimi

It's propaganda. It's a tool of the same sort who brought us the 3rd Reich - powerful businessmen and corporate interests. The key is in the phrase..

"we're all in this together".

@Mimishimi, in accordance with Godwin’s law you have officially lost the thread and it should now be closed to further posts.

What an utterly, utterly stupid and offensive thing to post.

@IncandescentSilver

"Yellownotblue* and there are still more than twice as many people dying from flu and pneumonia than covid. Of course it's state propoganda, designed to make people comply with draconian restrictions by scaring them.

Otherwise our news would include information that keeps it in perspective, such as the average age of death of covid victim, accurate rates of new hospitalisation, average length of hospital stay, accurate figures on reduction in treatment for other diseases, cand a regular comparison with the same for flu and pneumonia.

I agree that all the social isolations and restrictions are building up a perfect storm for a massively dangerous flu/pneumonia outbreak due to lack of community exposure/immunity. And flu/pneumonia kills far more than covid.

Maybe you need to diversify your sources of information, because I see all of these covered in the news I read and watch.

@IncandescentSilver how can you look yourself in the mirror after spreading the lie that flu and pneumonia kill more people that covid? This is utter nonsense. Do you really believe this, or are you just shit stirring? A quick Google will confirm you are wrong eg www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-54463511

Anyway pneumonia is very rarely infectious, and can be developed as a result of covid.

designed to make people comply with draconian restrictions by scaring them.

But why? Why do you think the government wants to restrict your freedoms? Do you think the government wants to crash the economy? That it wants millions more people on benefits? That it wants to bankrupt the NHS? That it is actively seeking ways to be unpopular?

Or do you believe this is all part of a plan to introduce a police state - when all evidence points to the fact that law enforcement is severely under resourced, and even serious crimes are overwhelmingly not brought to prosecution?

@nosswith

I would have thought how people ended up with a person of no morals, no grasp of detail and a bunch of incompetents forming a Conservative government would be the first point of study in the future.

Ah yes. I saw a meme around the time of trumps election win saying this is the point in the history books the timeline graphs start to look like spaghetti.

It’s interesting that this is what has sparked peoples objections to propaganda not the previous decades encouraging us to be good little worker bees and enjoy our shiny trinkets whilst demonising those who don’t fit the brief nightly on channel 5 or various papers.

It’s naive to think that anyone isn’t living under the influence of some sort of propaganda.

@underneaththeash Yeah ppl not following the rules is deffo the reason

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/28/england-coronavirus-covid-test-and-trace-teenagers

There wasn't enough scientific knowledge about Covid-19 in March to use words like propaganda. Propaganda suggests a sinister motive and I think that the March goal of protecting the NHS was a reasonable reason to exercise caution. The science seemed to flip flop daily - for example kids were super spreaders one day and didn't transmit at all the next and it is reasonable that the scientists and policy makers needed time to make plans.

Johnson probably imagined that 2020 would be a piece of piss after his 80 seat majority. He signed the Withdrawl Agreement and probably thought that he just had to bide his time until a major party by Big Ben with his Brexiteers at the stroke of midnight. He'd seal his place in history as a patriot like his hero Churchill before he left office for someone else to deal with the fallout and make his money in the private sector again.

Brexit is a different kettle of fish and the blatant propaganda and lack of consequence for the people promoting lies will be studied in the future.

I agreed with the first lockdown restrictions and I also think that another national lockdown is badly needed, but yanbu to think this, it was an excellent example of propaganda. I was shocked by how quickly everyone asked ‘am I allowed’ / ‘should I call the police on my neighbours’ about everything. And how quickly everyone fogot that and said ‘it’s over’and ran back to restaurants and pubs when it was blindingly obviously we were heading for a nasty second wave (as I’ve been saying on here for months).

The whole series of events will be studied for a long time for many reasons.

It's an exercise in branding with meaningless titles like fire break and circuit breaker.

I've recently re-read 1984 and Animal Farm and thought about the quote: 'ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS' in relation to Cummings.

The thing with propaganda, is that it is usually influenced by a charismatic and convincing leader.

I'd argue that part of the propaganda failure of 2020 is due to a lack of confidence in the PM and Govt.

He'd seal his place in history as a patriot like his hero Churchill before he left office for someone else to deal with the fallout and make his money in the private sector again.

I'm scared this could still happen. On here and IRL some people still believe him to be a roguish hero. I see it with Trump too and, after Brexit when so many were convinced we'd remain, many were shocked.

For the record, I detest Johnson and can never forgive him for this mess.
But worst of all, his worst propaganda of all: "All of you will lose somebody you love."

@middleager
Johnson didn't say that. He said 'many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.'

Yes I can’t forgive him for that either. Or anything else.

After he had let Cheltenham and the like go ahead, and joked about shaking Covid patients’ hands.

He said he shook people's hands in a hospital where he thought there were covid patients. If you actually watch it, he was obviously trying to make the point that we could carry on with things like that as long as we practised proper hand hygiene.

[quote Plbrookes]@middleager
Johnson didn't say that. He said 'many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.'[/quote]
Apologies. I got it wrong.

It still scared the shit out of my aunt, who was convinced she would die imminently.

So what should he have said? 'Nothing to worry about'.

No other PM was treating the issue like a semi joke.

I’m sorry your aunt was disproportionately scared middleager, but the fact remains that it’s one of the few things Johnson has ever said which was both appropriately well-judged and 100% accurate.