One of the theories from the presentations was the one discussing propaganda. From the time you are young in this country you are taught that propaganda was just something hitler did to convince people it was right to kill ten million Jews or that North Koreans used to keep potential defectors in line. I never thought about how propaganda is still something that is actively used today and it's not something that only happens on foreign soil it happens here in the United States and quite frequently actually.
My favorite piece of American propaganda is the pledge of allegiance, as a kid you think nothing of it but as you get older it starts to raise questions as to why we force kids to pledge allegiance to their country as if that will prevent them from growing up to hate it. That is why you are seeing a rise today in the amount of people that not only don't say the pledge of allegiance but criticize the government for the way it handles things. People are starting to remove the propaganda that had been implanted in them since they were children and the country is becoming better for it. Another example of propaganda is by the United States military, we are always told that they are at war on foreign soil to defend our country and to instill democracy but as you grow up and become more educated you realize not only are we the ones who don't need defending but we are the ones that others need to be defended from. In addition to that, why are we trying to force democracy on countries when they never asked for it and on top of that we can't even figure out our own democracy. Shouldn't we be trying to make sure our system is safe and secure before we start spreading it across the globe. These thoughts and criticisms are only possible once we realize our own bias from years of propaganda from our own country and start to reeducate ourselves with our own research
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