The Use of Propaganda to Promote Genocide

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Human rights violations, unfortunately, have been common in all parts of the world for thousands of years. Not all abuses lead to world attention or mass causalities, but large-scale tragedies that do gain notice often involve the use of propaganda. Propaganda has often been used to promote an individual leader, political party or government’s agenda, which will often tyrannize specific groups. The definition of propaganda according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and for this paper is, “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” One of the major questions many have when investigating the causes of genocide and why average citizens often accept and at time tolerate mass violence and permit their friends and neighbors rights to be taken away. To understand this issue we must look to past examples of propaganda that demoralized and demonized entire communities that eventually lead to genocide. During the Nazi rule in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s there have been clear cases where misinformation has been used in order promote violence and repress the rights of citizens. More often than not, similar manipulation and deception techniques have been used during these periods to oppress the basic rights of groups and individuals. Germany and Rwanda both exercised comparable methods such as emotional manipulation, media and demonization of minority/weaker groups in order to harm/eliminate large sectors of the population. Overall, propaganda is often a tool used to commit massive manipulation and rationalization for large-scale human rights violations.

Propaganda is a powerful tool to utilize when trying to divide or manipulate a society ...

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