Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda #15

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

PROPAGANDA TO THE HOME FRONT MUST PREVENT THE RAISING OF FALSE HOPES WHICH CAN BE BLASTED BY FUTURE EVENTS

The Battle of Hopes and Dreams

Goebbels felt that predicting military or political success was “too risky.” See Leonard Doobs, Goebbels Principles of Propaganda.

There was too much danger that there would be a battlefield defeat, or even not as much of a success as expected. Then, later claims would lack credibility, and the loss would cause spirits to be “deflated” more than if nothing had been said at all.

But Goebbels struggled with “false hopes that seemed to spring from the Germans themselves, a form of wishful thinking which occurred spontaneously.” So messaging from the Nazis had to raise morale, but not in a way that could be disproven by actual events.

2023

This is one propaganda principle that is ignored today.

Remember the predictions of a Republican sweep of U.S. Congressional elections in 2022? The commentariat was united in its predi…