Propaganda- What Is It?

Here's something we all learned in history class, propaganda! We consume propaganda all the time without even realizing it, I wish that were an exaggeration. Propaganda, for those who are not aware, is the spreading of information to influence an audience in an attempt to further an agenda. A lot of the times, this information is false. In the twentieth century, the term really took on a negative connotation and is often associated with manipulation. Before then, it was a neutral term used to describe any kind of spreading of information.
I believe one of the biggest uses of propaganda in the United States was during World War Two and the Cold War. Often times in wartime propaganda is used to dehumanize the enemy. In World War Two, propaganda was used to gain support for the United States entering the war. In context, the United States entering the war most likely would not have been in the favor of the public because of the stock market crash and economic depression that the country had been dealing with for a little over a decade. In hindsight, entering the war is what pulled us out of the depression, but no one could have predicted that then. Propaganda, like the famous Rosie the Riveter poster, was spread to gain unconditional support for the soldiers and for the war. So many women joined the workforce and so many provisions were made in every day life to find and give supplies to our men overseas. What the public didn't know was the actual brutal conditions the war was putting our men through. Those at home never even figured that there were any sort of struggle to win and definitely did not know about the conditions of life that Germany imposed on the countries that were seized. During the Cold War, propaganda was used to shape the public's opinion on communism. It was so drastic that communists were feared! People were blacklisted, especially in Hollywood, if they were even suspected to be a communist. The US policy of containment made it so the spreading of communism in Europe would slow. This brought up feelings of resentment towards Eastern European countries by many Americans as well as Western European countries. Propaganda would show America in terrible ruins and label it as the fault of communism. They would even go as far as showing Soviets as terrible monsters and people to be feared. To test this theory, I even asked my mom what country she was scared of when she was growing up. Her answer? Russia. She didn't even know why, she said she heard such terrible things about them and what life was like there and it was just instilled into her brain from such a young age.
This reminds me of the relationship the United States has with North Korea. Even I am terrified of North Korea knowing full well that most of the things we hear about the country is propaganda to get us to support the United States. I truly believe that no matter how old we get, or how much the generations differ from one another, everyone is affected by propaganda. Our safety entirely lies in the hands of those in power, and to think that someone in power across the world could do something that could change our way of life forever is terrifying. As long as the public lives in fear, then the public can be influenced and controlled. Propaganda, especially today, makes us live in fear.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda#Wartime