Isn’t propaganda just a form of persuasion? What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?
Edit: Not all propaganda involves lying. For some reason, we seem to be more comfortable with a person lying to us than we are with viewing a propaganda poster that uses verifiable facts.
Edit 2: Another interesting note is that in some countries, propaganda is not viewed negatively like it is in English speaking countries.
That’s not true. Persuasive dialogue allows others to make their own choices. The persuader’s job is to get the person with the decision to choose the desired option. In this sense, persuasion preserves the autonomy of the other and, more importantly, respects them enough to reason with them.
Propaganda largely does not do that.
Fox News is basically a propaganda factory, so it’s my go-to example. Look at how they talk about the border situation: it’s an invasion, a crisis. That’s not bad, per se, but there’s no discussion about how the problem came to be in the first place. It’s here’s an urgent problem that’s a direct threat to you, and here’s the specific thing we should do about it. Propaganda of an urgent nature is an underhanded technique because it precludes other feasible solutions.
Similarly, propaganda that persuades by omitting important facts also doesn’t give the audience a chance to reason through the problem and respect their right to choose among the feasible options if that information were included.
That’s why propaganda is often considered coercive and controlling while persuasion generally is not.