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Donna Woolfolk Cross's Argument Against Propaganda

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Donna Woolfolk Cross posits that being informed about the many forms of propaganda is important for everyone living in a democratic society. She backs up her argument by pointing out the common misconceptions about propaganda, such as the reality that even though most people are against propaganda, they are likely not to understand some of the more common applications of propaganda. Cross suggests that, because of this misunderstanding, many of those who are against propaganda may be fooled by it frequently. This nation-wide manipulation occurs every day, and if a democratic system is to ever represent the whole of a population, instead of just a fraction’s manipulations, then it is essential that individuals learn how to detect and deal with propaganda. Cross offers up several points of advice for people in regards to handling propaganda. She goes about labeling each different type of propaganda, because without first knowing what propaganda is, it would be impossible to fight it. Within each of these explanations she provides several relatable examples that help connect the reader to her main points. She …show more content…

Among these are the tendency to pull tired metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech out of a hat, resulting in a Tetris level of participation. Then there is the common substitution of long, bloated words that carry the shallow appearance of intelligent thought in the place of shorter, meaningful words that get the point across, but may appear dull if the point is dull. Finally, there is the unfortunate padding of sentences with useless operators that cloud the original meaning with vague and passive phrases. Not only are these bad habits stunting creativity in writing, they are manipulating the

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