Propaganda 101 (Series Intro): 7 Tactics Authoritarians Don’t Want You Naming
The first step in understanding propaganda: name the tricks, break their power.
People, please pay attention.
Propaganda isn’t a relic of history—it’s the bloodstream of 2025 America. It doesn’t look like old black-and-white newsreels of goose-stepping soldiers and grainy speeches. It looks like a Facebook post your uncle shares. A soundbite on Fox. A meme that slides past your feed before you realize what it planted in your head.
And the worst part? It works because you don’t recognize it. It works because the internet has turned into a content flood where lies, contradictions, and distractions blur into one endless scroll. That fog is not an accident. It’s the plan.
Authoritarians don’t innovate; they recycle. And while everyone’s busy fighting yesterday’s slogans, they’ve evolved new tricks that most people don’t even have names for yet. Here are 7 propaganda tactics you’re living through right now. Learn them. Name them. Because if you can spot the trick, it loses power.
1. Preemptive Disarmament
Definition: Seed a false frame so people distrust someone before they even act. That way, when reality shows up, the audience already rejects it.
2025 Example: Trump’s allies keep pushing the line that Black leaders in government are “incompetent” or “just DEI hires.” So when one stands their ground—like the federal governor he tried to fire this week—the right has already primed their base to dismiss her as unqualified. The narrative is set before the truth even matters.
2. Inflammatory Contradictions
Definition: Say one thing today and the opposite tomorrow. The chaos isn’t a mistake—it’s the point.
2025 Example: This week Trump swore he’s “not a dictator and doesn’t want to be.” Less than 24 hours later, he told a crowd, “I’m president and I can do whatever I want.” It’s whiplash by design—critics waste energy parsing the contradiction instead of building resistance.
3. Accusation Inversion (Projection)
Definition: Accuse your opponent of the sins you’re guilty of, so when you’re exposed, it just feels like “both sides.”
2025 Example: Years ago MAGA seeded false rumors about Biden’s diary and “hair sniffing.” It stuck in the public’s mind, so when Trump’s Epstein ties resurface in 2025, his base waves it off as just another partisan smear. Projection pre-poisons the well.
4. Firehose of Falsehoods
Definition: Don’t just lie—flood the zone with shit (Bannon’s own words). Overwhelm is the weapon.
2025 Example: Trump’s campaign drops a swarm of conspiracies before breakfast—about immigrants, about the Fed, about his enemies—so fact-checkers can only swat at one or two. By the time corrections land, the next five lies are already circulating.
5. Emotional Decoys
Definition: Manufacture small culture war tantrums to distract from authoritarian moves.
2025 Example: Conservatives frothed about Cracker Barrel’s rebrand, branding it “woke” and un-American. Meanwhile, Trump literally put Marines with rifles on U.S. streets. The public argues over pancakes while militarization goes unchecked.
6. Strategic Humor & Mockery
Definition: Smuggle cruelty inside a “joke.” If people call it out, you say they’re humorless. If they laugh, the cruelty sticks.
2025 Example: Trump “jokes” about deporting citizens or executing generals. His supporters laugh it off, but the suggestion seeps in until it no longer feels outrageous.
7. Normalization Through Repetition
Definition: Make the shocking thing so constant that it stops being shocking. Outrage has an expiration date.
Better Example for 2025: Every new Trump indictment, every abuse of power, every open threat should be headline-ending material. Instead, after 91 charges, a Supreme Court defiance, and weekly authoritarian orders, the country scrolls past like it’s normal weather. What would have once been unimaginable is now just “Tuesday.”
Closing Remarks
None of this is random. None of this is sloppy. These are deliberate weapons, tested and perfected to keep you exhausted, distracted, and doubtful of your own eyes.
The playbook only works when people can’t see the plays. That’s why I’m breaking down each one of these seven tactics in the weeks ahead—where they come from, how they’re being used today, and how we fight back before “normal” is just another word for authoritarian.
Don’t scroll past this. Don’t get numb.
The first step out of the fog is knowing you’re in it.
So helpful. Thank you.