Extra-Special Bonus QOTD, Plus ca Change Dept. 0
John Viner, as narrator of The First World War: The War to End All Wars, at about the 16 minute mark of episode one (the paragraphing is my own, as closed captions are not, well, paragraphed):
. . . there was an ugly side to the popular zeal, a cruel xenophobia.
Hatred for Kaiser Bill the Bully was translated into outrage, as anyone with a foreign sounding name ran the gauntlet of looting mobs. The foreigner was the enemy. The role of propaganda as a weapon took on a focus and importance as never before. The development of the mass daily newspaper gave the propagandists a perfect vehicle to peddle their simplified, sensationalized, jingoistic, and rarely truthful message.
The image of the enemy as a monster was readily absorbed by a war thirsty public, while the idea of war as heroic and glorious was nurtured by economic (sic) use of the truth when it came to harsh realities.
And that was before “social” media, where lies are protected “free speech” and truth is libel.
