The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

PROPAGANDA

Propaganda (fully the Congregation of the Propaganda, College of the Propaganda) was originally an association established in Rome in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV for the purpose of diffusing a knowledge of Roman Catholicism throughout the world.
In modern times, the term 'propaganda' refers to the systematic dissemination of selected or incorrect information for the purpose of propagating a particular idea or doctrine. In this sense, propaganda was popularised by the Nazis during the Second World War and quickly adopted by western corporations to oppose the threat to their continued exploitation of the masses presented by Socialist thinking and particularly Communist revolutions that took place during the early 20th century. A popular example of disinformation propaganda spread by the west was of communist Russia's intention to invade the west. In reality, Russia had no such intentions, rather the west, notably Britain and America were keen to invade Russia - Britain had already sent an army to fight the revolutionaries in Russia some years earlier. During the 1990's propaganda was used to persuade public opinion in Britain and America of the justification for removing Iraq's socialist government, claiming it's leader - Sadaam Hussein - to be a brutal and repressive dictator. In reality, Iraq had a better human rights record than many of the other Arab countries which were friendly to western corporations, and under Hussein Iraqi women enjoyed freedoms and equality unheard of in Muslim-led Arab countries.
Industries also use propaganda. The pharmaceutical corporations have successfully used disinformation and misleading 'science' to persuade a gullible public away from natural health and into a dependence upon expensive drugs. So effective is propaganda, that in the 1980's people world wide were persuaded to take drugs already banned for their lethal toxicity to counteract a supposed virus which had never been proved to exist, which in turn people were persuaded did exist, even though it had never been proven and its effects were obviously caused by other factors, mostly excessive use of commercial pharmaceutical drugs and narcotics.
Research Propaganda