Propaganda that displays impotent rage at an enemy is worse than no propaganda at all.
by Bill Levinson
The Islamic world has finally struck back at Ann Barnhardt with this YouTube video. IslamoBeavis stands in the background while his partner IslamoButthead displays the bottom of his foot with “USA” and a four-letter expletive written on it. These two mighty Islamic warriors then go on to draw heavy eyebrows, a beard, and devil’s horns on a picture of Ann Barnhardt. This underscores the fact that, when Islam is confronted with truth and factual arguments, it can do no more than scream like a petulant child who can’t get his way.
There is sometimes a place for propaganda that mocks the enemy but one must always think about how the enemy can turn our propaganda against us. As an example, the Nazis published leaflets for Germans that showed what would happen to blonde German women if Negro soldiers got their hands on them. Russian soldiers were actually a far greater danger in this respect but the bottom line is that these leaflets enraged African-American troops to whom they were shown. World War I leaflets that portrayed ordinary German soldiers as monsters were similarly counterproductive in persuading rank and file Germans that they were on the wrong side, as were German cartoons that portrayed Entente soldiers as cowardly and ineffective. In the latter case, the cartoons could have only served to anger Entente soldiers while Germans who found themselves fighting very courageous French, British, or Russian soldiers felt as though their own government had sold them a bill of goods.
Der Fuhrer’s Face (1943) in which Donald Duck is an unwilling Nazi is an example of well-designed propaganda. Although “Der Fuhrer’s Face” was for the entertainment of Americans, it could not have been used by the Nazis had it fallen into their hands. Note how it portrays the ordinary German as a pseudo-slave who must dine on stale bread and “aroma of bacon,” and then work on a highly inefficient assembly line in which he must “Heil” every picture of Hitler that comes along. Note also ridicule of Air Marshal Goering’s proclamation, “They will never bomb this place.” German cities were in fact being bombed by 1943.
“Der Fuhrer’s Face” was therefore emphatically not usable by the enemy to enrage his own rank and file or show that the Allies were really losing the war. In contrast, the impotent schoolyard insult to Ann Barnhardt proves that the Islamic world cannot hold its own in any kind of stand-up battle of ideas; the propaganda is usable by our side to demonstrate the weakness of Islam.
“Blitz Wolf” by Tex Avery similarly directs ridicule at Adolf Hitler but not the ordinary German. Note incidentally the off-color humor; Vitamin B1 was the era’s counterpart to Viagra, and the followup to “You’re digging a ditch” is probably “You son of a bitch” in the rendition of You’re In the Army Now. The propaganda/entertainment concludes with a call to action: buying defense bonds will help blow Hitler to Hell.
In contrast, this one of You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap was probably not good propaganda. Americans might have found it entertaining but the exaggerated ethnic features of the Japanese would probably have served only to anger ordinary Japanese whom we wanted to “cease resistance.” The effectiveness of Japanese-made products at Pearl Harbor would have meanwhile provided the obvious answer to the depiction of the shoddily-constructed Japanese battleship falling apart.
Militant Islamic videos in which they proclaim their intention to conquer the world, and in which their followers scream “Allah Akbar” also are bad propaganda because our side can turn it against them. As an example, we could envision splicing these videos with footage of Nazi rallies to show an obvious similarity; we may even have a go at it with Windows Movie Maker. The behavior of the Muslims in the videos also works against them for propaganda purposes.
The bottom line is that effective psychological warfare is necessary to destroy militant Islam before the need for physical warfare becomes necessary, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FQQRKgBGic&feature=player_embedded is an example of how NOT to wage psychological warfare.
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