Propaganda’s Most Effective Trick: Silence

This one works on EVERYBODY

When people think of the word “propaganda” they usually think it’s something they’re not affected by.

They may think of the anti-sematic propaganda of the Nazis in WW2 and consider it to be so obvious and so in-your-face that they would never be taken in by it.

They underestimate the power of propaganda because they are unaware of propaganda’s most effective trick: Silence.

“I won’t permit this theme to be discussed by our writers because I am convinced that so delicate a problem had best be put on ice and killed by silence” — Joseph Goebbels Diaries 1942–1943

If you read the diary of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi’s chief propaganda minister, you’ll find out that he uses the power of silence over and over again to great effect.

That is, to simply decide to completely ignore information that runs counter to the official narrative of the propaganda.

As an example, during WW2, the Americans had begun making a distinction between Nazis and regular Germans in their messaging. Goebbels was deeply concerned by this American tactic — he thought it could drive a wedge between the Nazis and the regular German public.

In his personal diary, this is what Goebbels said on the matter:

“ If I were on the enemy side, I should from the very first day on have adopted a slogan of fighting against Nazism, but not against the Germany people. That’s how Chamberlain began on the first day of war, but, thank God, the English didn’t follow through. I gave orders that the German press is not to publish or discuss turns of speech such as are being used increasingly in the American press. One should simply not talk about these things. Even if you talk about them you nevertheless spread them.” — (The Diary of Joseph Goebbells 1942–1943)

He wisely noted that trying to argue back against this line of thought, that there was divide between regular Germans and the Nazis, would do nothing other than draw further attention to this line of thought. To argue against it would, no matter how convincing his counter-arguments, put the idea in the heads of the German people.

He knew that it was far more effective to simply use silence.

On another occasion, Churchill showed his good character by taking personal responsibility for the losses on the battlefield in North Africa. Goebbels wanted to make sure the German public did not start to grow fond of Churchill’s character.

In his diary, he wrote this on the matter:

“The fact that he defends his co-workers awakens sympathy for him. I shall not have this section of his speech released for the German press and radio” — (The Diary of Joseph Goebbels 1942–1943)

In Nazi Germany, listening to foreign radio broadcasts was punishable by the death penalty, so he could be sure that if he didn’t give the German public a piece of information, they would never receive it through other means.

And of course, Goebbels used silence to a devastating effect when he reported absolutely nothing to the German public about the holocaust.

Yet this propaganda technique of silence is still incredibly effective today. It is likely being practised by the mainstream media news sources in your country right now.

What does the mainstream media not say about the Ukraine war? What do they not say about about Big Pharma? What do they not say about particular politicians or individuals?

When the propaganda technique of silence is used, the majority have their thoughts on a particular issue manipulated without ever realising.

When silence is used the intelligentsia may notice, but the common man, the majority, will not.

The public receives it’s information from a variety of mainstream news sources. Yet the mainstream news may decide not to include certain pieces of information in their news. The public consumes the information given to them and then creates their own conclusions on the issue based on the limited information they have been given.

Take the Ukraine war, for example. You may feel as though your opinions about this war formed naturally inside your own head. Yet what if your opinions on the war were formed based on the limited, hand-picked information given to you by the mainstream media?

(I am not for a minute saying that Putin’s war in Ukraine is justified. It’s just an example).

Silence is such a devastating propaganda technique because it’s incredibly difficult to notice what you’re not being shown and what you don’t know. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Let’s take a more down-to-earth example. Imagine there was a dispute going on between a husband and wife. The wife tells you the story:

I can’t believe what my husband did! First, he called me stupid, then he grabbed me by the arms and held me to the floor! Then he locked me out of the house!

Upon hearing this story, an opinion would quickly form in your mind: Wow, her husband is a horrible, abusive monster…

You believe that you have formed your own opinion on the situation, yet the information you were not given is manipulating you into coming to a particular conclusion.

Imagine we then went and spoke to the husband about what happened. He says:

I was cooking lunch for a kids and my wife said I was a “complete idiot” because I accidently left my socks on the sofa. She snapped, and started having another one of her rage outbursts. She started hitting me, over and over again, in the stomach, in the face. Eventually I’d had enough, so I grabbed her by the arms to restrain her, then pulled her down to the floor. She simply wouldn’t stop moving and struggling, at one stage she even bit my arm! So I dragged her out of the house and locked her outside until she calmed down.

Suddenly, armed with the information we were not previously given, we likely come to a completely different conclusion. In this case, the wife had used the propaganda technique of silence to manipulate how we felt about the situation.

Mainstream media does this all the time. You think that you are not being propagandised because you have the wrong idea about what propaganda actually is. Modern propaganda is subtle and not immediately obvious.

If you consume mainstream news, your opinions on certain topics are being steered in a particular direction when they select which information to discuss and which information not to discuss.

Contrast the images you saw during the Iraq war with the images you’ve seen of the Ukraine war. With the Ukraine war, we’re constantly seeing images of the devastation caused by Russian missiles to Ukrainian civilians. Yet during the Iraq war we were rarely shown the devastation caused by American missiles to Iraqi civilians.

As a result, there’s a good chance you feel more sympathy for Ukrainian civilians now than you did for Iraqi civilians in 2003. Through the mere selection of information displayed to you, you had your opinions and emotions manipulated by mainstream media.

The human mind needs to see something to believe it.

When we are not shown something, our emotional brain believes that the event never actually took place.

Think you’re not being propagandised? Think you’re immune to propaganda? You’re underestimating how subtle it can be.

You are likely being affected by the propaganda technique of silence at this very moment.

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