Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
As you might know, the Soviet propaganda used to be one of the most powerful and influential in the world.
This statement defeats itself! You yourself are living proof that it didn't work! Not to mention the other people who literally destroyed and sold out everything that the USSR stood for; good and bad. People who used glasnost and perestroika as an opportunity to vent the fact that they were sick and tired of socialism and didn't believe in the Soviet ideals. This propaganda didn't work millions of people who left the country between the revolution and the end of the USSR, and it wasn't enough to keep the country alive. I'd say this propaganda wasn't efficient at all.

Seems to me it worked only on kids, a few optimists who choose to see the good sides, or visitors and others who only experienced the good sides but not the bad.

Or maybe it worked up to a certain point in time, when people got fixated with comparing their lifestyle to that of people in US soaps or Hollywood productions.

Efficient propaganda is propaganda that the majority believe in! The Nazis were really good at propaganda particularly if you consider the outrageousness of the things they made the majority of the people go along with. It might not work today, but in the 1940s it was genius. Lots of people in Scandinavia more or less believed it, despite not even living in Germany.
Most Germans didn't vote for the Nazis when they first came to power, but after only a few years in power the Nazis had most of the population behind them and got away with creating a one party state.

The USA manages to convince the majority that it's right to go to war on foreign continents again and again and again even though plenty are struggling or living in poverty... Think about how wrong this is, on a number of levels. Yet they have the majority of the population behind them, That's efficient propaganda. Not to mention whipping up hatred against anyone with an ideology or belief that contradicts theirs. If you mention the word Communism to an American, most would react with strong dislike or content despite in most cases not even knowing what it actually is.

Right now it seems they have done a pretty good job convincing many decent people that Snowden is a bad guy while downplaying the importance of his actual revelations which are absolutely earth shattering but ignored in mainstream media. I'd say this is extremely efficient propaganda.Right now it seems they have done a pretty good job convincing many decent people that Snowden is a bad guy while downplaying the importance of his actual revelations which are absolutely earth shattering but ignored in mainstream media. I'd say this is extremely efficient propaganda.

Some Islamic fundamentalists are really good at propaganda too: Israel is the root of all evil, closely followed by it's puppet, the USA. Millions upon millions genuinely believe that Israel is masterminding just about every misfortunte that befalls other countries despite its tiny size and small population compared for example with the moslems themselves.

I think all the examples I mentioned beats Soviet propaganda. Soviet propaganda probably had some good moments, like during the war and at times when the USSR made impressive achievements. But in the end, the propaganda didn't hold up!