I’m certain many of you readers experienced the constant tyranny radiated from the two sides in the marriage equality debacle recently. It goes without saying that the gay marriage plebiscite turned Australia upside down through the excessive use of persuasive propaganda on a national scale. Therefore, it is imperative that every person understands the significance of George Orwell’s warning in his novel, Animal Farm, about the unfair manipulation of the masses using propaganda, as the danger still exists today.
George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, presents a clever tale of an animal revolution against their human superiors which results in the more ‘intelligent’ pigs taking advantage of the other farm animals by using manipulative propaganda. I will be your guide today as we unravel how propaganda and persuasive devices have been used to persuade the Australian people during the marriage equality debate through similar tactics deployed by the pigs including fear mongering, appeal to ethos and pathos, appeal to authority and demonising the enemy.
Alas, we have arrived at EXHIBIT ONE a disturbing flyer found in Melbourne. How do you feel when you look at the boy, and the belts, followed by the statistics? We pity the boy and fear for the whips; the statistics only encourage this effect. Is this not a
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This alarming flyer was snapped on Heffernan Lane in Melbourne by Twitter use Dan Leach-McGill. The statistics at the top read: 92% of children raised by gay parents are abused - 51% have depression - 72% are obese. These figures have been traced back to Donald Paul Sullins, a priest at the Catholic University of America whose research has been ‘widely discredited’. Can we believe this blatant propaganda?
Appeal to Authority
This clever use of wording paired with Meghan Trainor’s figure has made this creation a successful appeal to authority. The creator of this propaganda is trying to change voter’s mindsets on the marriage equality