How war propaganda works
How to make a democracy “ready for war” (part 2)
by Robert Seidel*
(8 August 2025) In politics, there is a common tactic for avoiding objective debate: labelling your opponent as “strange” or even “inhuman”. This allows you to impose things on them without having to address the issue itself. However, to justify wars, more devious techniques are implemented. Otherwise, hardly anyone would carry out the barbaric acts of war that are expected from them. Certainly not if you end up getting hurt yourself, or perhaps your wife, son, daughter ...
In the build-up to a war, attitudes and opinions are massively manipulated (see Part 1).1 This is also the case right now. With the help of mass media, “social media” and methods from advertising psychology, an extensive repertoire has been developed to make democracies – virtually unnoticed – mentally “ready for war”. From a psychological point of view, this readiness for war is equivalent to emotional brutalisation.
Emotions and disinformation – “Am I one of the good guys?”
How does PR create a “willingness to go to war”? Here are some fundamental aspects. “Propaganda” – in a positive sense called “public relations” (PR) – abuses people’s socially conditioned dispositions. These include the strong desire to belong, to be part of it, to do the “right” and “good” thing, and to be popular and recognised. This is linked to the fear of no longer belonging or being excluded. These desires and fears are deliberately manipulated from outside.
An example: when a person’s behaviour is judged negatively, those watching often have an unconscious reaction to distance themselves emotionally from the person being criticised or to take care not to display the negatively judged characteristics themselves. This is done to avoid becoming a supposed “victim” and to belong to the majority. This behaviour takes place unconsciously in a fraction of a second. There is hardly any conscious reflection. Nevertheless, some people have the awareness and courage to side with someone who is supposedly “stigmatised”.
Even small visual signals are enough to trigger these unconscious reactions: for example, an appreciative smile or a contemptuous roll of the eyes. This can be displayed by “authorities,” stars, politicians, celebrities or even acquaintances – and suddenly someone is considered to be “good” or “bad”. Attitudes or behaviours are thus evaluated and predetermined. They can also be artificially created and disseminated (advertising psychology).
Manipulation – “spins”
Manipulation has always been used at the linguistic level. In the 1980s, the term “spin doctors” emerged in US politics. It refers to experts in the field of PR in politics and business. The English word “spin” means “to turn”. The aim is to sell a negative fact to the public in a positive light, or vice versa.
It is now common knowledge that negative facts are sold as positive. This can be observed in politics, administration, business and even in clubs and associations. Instead of describing a situation as “inaccurate”, “negative result” or “catastrophic consequences”, it is often referred to as “challenging” or “almost achieved”. This type of description can ultimately create the opposite impression or even lead to a different assessment of a situation. For example, an act of war can either be described as a “war of aggression contrary to international law”, or as a “targeted pre-emptive operation”. Both terms evoke different associations. This reweighting is also referred to as “wording”. If an entire situation, such as the destruction of family-run farms in the EU, is reinterpreted as “ecological environmental policy”, this is referred to as “framing”. Finally, if a larger overall context becomes anchored in the collective consciousness and can be repeatedly recalled, this is referred to as a “narrative” or “story”.
The majority is always right
Another manipulation technique is to give the impression that a majority holds a certain opinion. This can subconsciously bring about a change in a certain attitude – because everyone wants to belong. The constant repetition of a certain position suggests a “majority”. Official statements, mass media, social media or public events create this impression, completely independently of reality.
Attitudes are deliberately disseminated not only through news and reports, but also through novels, magazines, TV series, feature films (e.g. Hollywood, Netflix) or at entertainment events. A message that is continually repeated becomes an inner “certainty” (e.g. “Putin is good/bad” or “short trousers are fashionable/outdated”). Behaviour is also influenced (“confident”/“impossible”). Visual impressions are particularly effective. Images or films have a direct effect on the subconscious.
The pressure to conform (conformity pressure), i.e. the need to share a certain attitude or opinion with the supposed majority, further prevents conscious, critical discussion. In combination with other PR techniques, this can even lead to mass psychological phenomena such as a “spontaneously” induced mass hysteria (Berlin Sport Palast event, February 1944) or “spontaneous” protest marches (destruction of CDU party offices, January 2025).
News – falsifications, lies, manipulation
In the news sector, it is considered classic to distort contexts through omissions and lies or turn them into their opposite. News is the most popular object of manipulation. This makes it even more devastating that almost every media consumer relies on “their” news being “objective” and “true.” This makes it even more important to be sceptical of news and to check it. This is now possible thanks to many smaller media outlets.
German news experts and insiders Volker Bräutigam and Friedhelm Klinkhammer have made it their mission for decades to track the manipulations of the German news flagship “Tagesschau”, among other things. They have filled books with the manipulations in the programmes, but they have not been able to penetrate public consciousness.
Albrecht Müller, a political veteran of the SPD, has made it his mission to expose inconsistencies and false statements in the political arena and in the media by founding the “Nachdenkseiten” (www.nachdenkseiten.de). He and his team are not running out of work either – on the contrary.
Emilie Böhm (“War reporting: The simulation of balance”, 23 June 2025) analysed how manipulative “objective” reporting can be, using the ARD’s “Tagesschau” news programme of 14 June 2025 as an example. After the mutual missile attacks between Israel and Iran, the report gave a voice to those affected on both sides – seemingly in a balanced manner. However, the camera work and presentation then very subtly manipulate the viewer’s opinion. Böhm’s analysis is a textbook example of manipulation.
The “opinion range”
With the help of psychological manipulation, omission, spin or lies, the media creates an “opinion” on a complex issue. Taken together, this creates an “opinion and mood range” on which the individual “consumer” then “correctly classifies” each piece of news of one’s own accord. The overall result is a “narrative”. Critical debate no longer takes place. Nowadays, for example, a single positive statement about Russian President Vladimir Putin in any text or programme will cause all other statements in that article to be discredited, no matter how true and correct they may be.
Now the censorship scissors have been installed in the minds of citizens themselves. With the increased use of AI, much more sophisticated ways of manipulating “information” to fit any larger “narrative” are opening.
Unfortunately, with the current huge increase in military budgets, it is to be expected that the population will be confronted even more massively with actual “fake news” (cognitive warfare) from official sources and the mainstream media in the coming weeks.
Broadening the spectrum of opinion
The prerequisite for maintaining a uniform spectrum of opinion is control over the mainstream, i.e. over the opinion-forming media. This is precisely why larger “dissenting” media are combated by all means (including illegal ones) (see Part 1).1 This is because positions that are frequently expressed and deviate from the mainstream would broaden the spectrum of opinion and lead to a more open and objective debate. This is actively prevented. The narrow “corridor of opinion” is to be maintained. Nevertheless, there is a colourful range of diverse, state-independent media of various sizes and orientations.Freedom of expression – a cornerstone of any free democracy – is now considered a disruptive factor in many “Western” countries. This makes state-independent media even more important!
| * Robert Seidel works as an independent author for the Swiss magazine «Swiss Standpoint». |
(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)
1 https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/news-detailansicht-en-gesellschaft/how-war-propaganda-works.html
Propaganda (selection)
Edward L. Bernays. Propaganda. (First published 1928, available in book shops).
Jörg Becker / Mira Beham. Operation Balkan. Werbung für Krieg und Tod. 2006
Emilie Böhm. Kriegsberichterstattung: Die Simulation von Ausgewogenheit. https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/kriegsberichterstattung-die-simulation-von-ausgewogenheit/, 23 June 2025
Volker Bräutigam and Friedhelm Klinkhammer Maren Müller. Zwischen Feindbild und Wetterbericht. Tagesschau & Co. – Auftrag und Realität. 2019.
Renate Dillmann. Medien. Macht. Meinung. Auf dem Weg in die Kriegstüchtigkeit. 2025.
Andreas Elter. Die Kriegsverkäufer. 2005.
Hannes Hofbauer. Feindbild Russland. 2016
Uwe Krüger. Mainstream. Warum wir den Medien nicht mehr trauen. 2016.
Ders. Meinungsmacht. 2013
Johannes Menath. Moderne Propaganda. 80 Methoden der Meinungslenkung. 2022
Albrecht Müller. Glaube wenig. Hinterfrage alles. Denke selbst. Wie man Manipulation durchschaut. 2022
Romain Rolland. Clerambault. The Story of an Independent Spirit During the War. Paris 1920
Jonas Tögel. Kognitive Kriegsführung. 2023
ders. Alles «Desinformation»? Wie der Staat in die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit eingreift. In «Berliner Zeitung», 22 February 2025
Jens Wernicke (Ed.). Lügen die Medien? Propaganda, Rudeljournalismus und der Kampf um die öffentliche Meinung. Westend. 2017