Red Square wrote:
Comrade Stierlitz - "everybody is doing it" is how you arrive at moral equivalency and slip into moral relativity, and this is how they win. Compare this to the Democrats accusing the Republicans of the misdeeds they themselves have committed or are about to commit, so that later they can say "everybody is doing it."
There indeed are parallels here, but of another kind. I'd like to quote Comrade M84 from
another thread where I posted this video in the comments, before I decided to make it into a separate post. He's talking about the brainwashed children:
M84 wrote:Given what their American counterparts believe, that they'll swallow the whole package of lies of a guy like Sanders, elect Obama twice, etc., I think both sides are showing that, just because information is THERE, you can't force anyone to use it. You can lead a horse to water and all that... I look at these kids and see a future I fear this country will arrive at sooner rather than later unless we sharply change course before then...
DITTO.
[OFF]
Allow me to clarify. This is propaganda, right? Well, if you switched out the names and the places, you could create propaganda against any leader in history. Furthermore, I was trying to illustrate and agree with you that while these students talked poorly of Obama, their own leader Putin hasn't had such a golden career as they seemingly believe he does.
Here's an example of what I was getting at:
Original statement paraphrased and condensed:
Obama is a criminal because of the deaths of Libyans and Yugoslavians.
Formula:
{ENTITY} is a criminal because of the {PERCEIVED CRIME} against {PERCEIVED VICTIM}.
Formula repurposed for various propagandic purposes:
-Thomas Jefferson is a criminal because of the Declaration of Independence against The British Empire. (Possible British propaganda against the US in the colonial days)
-King George is a criminal because of taxation without representation against the American colonies. (Flipside of the previous statement)
-America is a criminal because of the capitalist system which is against the proletariat. (Possible USSR Propaganda against the US)
-Rome is a criminal because of the conquest of lands and war against the Grecians and the Carthaginians. (Propaganda against Ancient Rome)
-Imperial Japan is a criminal because of the Bombing of Pearl harbor against the US. (Obvious what this propaganda is)
-The US is a criminal because of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima against Imperial Japan. (Flipside of the above)
-The British Empire is a criminal because of the conquest against India, Africa, China, and the Native Americans.
What I was getting at is that you could use the same premise in the video to uphold any viewpoint you want and create any sort of propaganda you want. What I was NOT trying to say is that the video is truth and any sort of modification of names and dates is truth. The video is propaganda and most propaganda involves lying and exaggeration, and this video isn't any different. The Imperial Japan and King George one above are true, albeit exaggerated, and the rest of them are wrong. But they all use the same framework to create a story which can be used to rally public opinion against someone. That's what I was trying to communicate.
And I also agree with you that relativism is, to put it lightly, a horrible idea. As far as I'm concerned, relativism only works in theory and in isolation, if you just look at the names, dates, and events it works just barely with a lot of mental acrobatics, but once you consider the motives, the policies, and etc., it falls apart. For example, one might say that Israel's treatment of Palestine is a lot like Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jewish people, I've seen the argument made before. That may be true on the surface, but once you look at the motives it falls apart. Nazi Germany did it because of a psychopath's obsession with genetic purity. Israel does it because they're getting bombed and harassed all the time. In this example, Nazi Germany is in the wrong while Israel is in the right.
Apologies for any misunderstanding, I really should have explained myself further.
