Never imagined my first ever blog post would be even tangentially political — and it’s not really — just happened across a textbook example of media propaganda on CNN and the Soviet-raised boy in me couldn’t pass it up and wanted to share. If you’re wondering — this is how it works:

Check out this headline:

“Trump blasts ‘breeding’ in sanctuary cities. That’s a racist term.”

It’s currently on the CNN front page on my mobile as well.

Holy moly — pretty heavy stuff — borderline eugenics-level rhetoric. The monster!

Article basically goes on to say that ‘breeding’ is a term reserved not for humans but for animals, nativist rhetoric speaks to immigrants ‘breeding’, term used toward Jews before the Holocaust, etc. etc.

Lists various hypotheses of what he could have meant, each increasingly damning. Ex:

“Taken literally, the most likely explanation is that he’s talking about sanctuary cities as places where undocumented immigrants breed.”

Wowzers!

Actual Trump Tweet:

“There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!”

Only an illiterate idiot (possible — but not front-page-multiple-levels-of-editorial likely) or someone trying deliberately to mislead (more likely) doesn’t understand that the word ‘breeding’ is referring to ‘crime’ — i.e. crime infested & crime breeding.

Hilarious actual quotes from article:

“What exactly does he mean by “breeding concept?”

— lol good question, what could he actually mean by this idiotically meaningless phrase yanked out of context?

Also lol:

“A simple Google search doesn’t uncover any specific mention of a “breeding concept” with regard to sanctuary cities in the conservative media, so it’s a little unclear what he’s referring to.”

Hmm.. should we maybe re-read the message? Nay, this is propaganda paydirt! Plow on!

Anyway, agree or disagree with the sentiment of the tweet, there’s obviously no racism and it’s obviously misconstrued. However, everyone involved in the manufacture of this shit knows that:

A. 80% of people won’t go past the headline

B. 19% of the remaining 20 will read passively nodding their head in outrage

C. For the final 1% — the vague notion “Trump = racist” is already planted in the subconscious regardless of how hard the brain tries to backpedal

That’s why the news is absolute bullshit and should be consumed only toward understanding how the engines of manipulation work — not for any actual information. Yes, that includes everyone’s favorite pet ‘independent’ and ‘unbiased’ sources as well : ))

To clarify (what should hopefully be obvious), this is not a pro- or anti- Trump post. Just an autopsy (or vivisection since it’s still up there as of this writing) of propaganda.

Should also add that I’m not imagining myself having Sherlocked upon some grand conspiracy — this is just a very unambiguous tactical propaganda example that I happened to randomly encounter. Strategic manipulation is far more prevalent, potent and pernicious (awesome alliteration, asshole!), but is a bit harder to pin down and I don’t follow this trash nearly enough to be able to detect trends.

Link to article in question:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/politics/donald-trump-immigrants-california/index.html

Image of Trump Tweet, in case it gets deleted: