First step: Create the enemy. Sometimes this will be done for you.

Second step: Be sure the enemy you have chosen is nothing like you.
Find obvious differences like race, language, religion, dietary habits, fashion.
Emphasize that their soldiers are not doing a job, they are heartless murderers who enjoy killing!

Third step: Once these differences are established continue to reinforce them with all disseminated information.

Fourth step: Have the media broadcast only the ruling party's information. This can be done through state run media. Remember, in times of conflict all for-profit media repeats the ruling party's information. Therefore all for-profit media becomes state-run.

Fifth step: Show this enemy in actions that seem strange, militant, or different.
Always portray the enemy as non-human, evil, a killing machine.

Sixth step: Eliminate opposition to the ruling party.
Create an "Us versus Them" mentality. Leave no room for opinions in between.
One that does not support all actions of the ruling party should be considered a traitor.

Seventh step: Use nationalistic and/or religious symbols and rhetoric to define all actions.
This can be achieved by slogans such as "freedom loving people versus those who hate freedom."
This can also be achieved by the use of flags.

Eighth step: Align all actions with the dominant deity.
It is very effective to use terms like, "It is god's will" or "god bless our nation."

Ninth step: Design propaganda to show that your soldiers have feelings, hopes, families, and loved ones. Make it clear that your soldiers are doing a duty; they do not want or like to kill.

Tenth step: Create and atmosphere of fear, and instability and then offer the ruling party as the only solution to comfort the public's fears. Remember the fear of the unknown is always the strongest fear.

12/5/2007 11:35:12 AM

12/5/2007 11:38:58 AM

doesn't make it less true

12/5/2007 11:40:37 AM

Well it sure didn't take TSB long to take a huge nosedive.

12/5/2007 12:04:46 PM

This is neither intelligent, original, or threadworthy.

[Edited on December 5, 2007 at 4:12 PM. Reason : Should that be 'nor' or would that be a double negative?]

12/5/2007 4:11:37 PM

wait i thought the soap box was supposed to be better?

12/5/2007 4:16:54 PM

^^
neither - nor

either - or

12/5/2007 4:18:49 PM

That's what I thought. Good call.

12/5/2007 4:25:10 PM

11th step: Compare Dubya to Hitler.

12th step: ...

13 step: Profit!

Oh, and technically, I don't think you should use "neither" in that case, since there are more than two things being mentioned.

12/5/2007 6:38:23 PM

^4 you thought wrong

soap box has always been dumb

12/6/2007 11:01:23 AM

Those steps pretty much won us the Civil War and two World Wars

12/6/2007 1:51:55 PM

I have mixed feelings about our involvement in WW1, but I do not think Hitler needed any help in WW2.

WW1's fault was not solely on Germany. That whole region was a powder keg w/ Russia and France with itchy trigger fingers for war w/ the German/Austria-Hungry alliance. Germany just made the critical error of taking a shortcut through Belgium which was a protectorate of the UK. With UK involved our economic interests were on the side of the triple entente'. Then germany got completly fucked over in the treaty of vienna.

WW2 was a completely different story and Hitler did not any help from the US propraganda machine to be seen as a enemy

[Edited on December 6, 2007 at 2:06 PM. Reason : q]

12/6/2007 2:05:37 PM

Quote :

"WW2 was a completely different story and Hitler did not any help from the US propraganda machine to be seen as a enemy "

Hitler? Maybe not. All the poor wermacht bastards we were actually killing? Absolutely, just as in any war.

Because as Snewf's inane little OP says, the groundpounders are just doing their job. It's hard to want to kill them for that. So, you make a few posters about how they're the devil, and off you go.

12/6/2007 2:09:35 PM

^ I don't know. Hitler had just about the entire country convinced that they were the master race or whatnot. Sure, a lot of them probably were just there doing their jobs, but an even bigger number of them needed to be taken down a peg or two.

12/6/2007 2:15:30 PM

Quote :

"Sure, a lot of them probably were just there doing their jobs, but an even bigger number of them needed to be taken down a peg or two."

I doubt it highly. A lot of people joined the army because it was a job and there was a depression on. Others joined it out of the same sort of patriotism that makes red-blooded american boys sign up. Others joined because after a while it became dangerous not to join. Compared to these groups, the number who signed up because of any 'master race' ideology were pretty small.

12/6/2007 2:17:22 PM

Quote :

"WW1's fault was not solely on Germany. That whole region was a powder keg w/ Russia and France with itchy trigger fingers for war w/ the German/Austria-Hungry alliance. Germany just made the critical error of taking a shortcut through Belgium which was a protectorate of the UK. With UK involved our economic interests were on the side of the triple entente'. Then germany got completly fucked over in the treaty of vienna."

Which Treaty of Vienna would that be? The first one, in 1606, the last one, in 1870, or one of the ones in between? Which Treaty of Vienna fucked over Germany after WWI ended in the 1900s?

12/6/2007 5:35:57 PM

Quote :

"All the poor wermacht bastards we were actually killing? Absolutely, just as in any war."

I saw a WWII era poll a while back that asked American soldiers if they wanted to kill a german - less than 10% said yes. When they asked if they wanted to kill a jap the responses were close to 50% positive.

12/6/2007 5:39:05 PM