In addition to dehumanization of a group selected to be "the enemy,"by alluding to them as some sort of animal, or" rag-head," etc., here are some other methods of keeping "the silence of the lambs" that I found in this rather-insightful contribution, at he Thom Hartmann Report website, and I quote:
Techniques - fragmentation and propaganda - make serious violations of moral norms by the ruling elites morally and cognitively invisible to the population. With many examples, professor Mausfeld gives insight in the actual management of our democracy and how people are kept in apathy and in the illusion of being informed.
"You already know enough. So do I. We don't lack knowledge. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions."
Sven Lindquist (1992). Exterminate All the Brutes.
For Paul Lazarsfeld, the mass media is the "most respectable and efficient of social narcotics." When citizens feel informed by the mass media, they are so overpowered by their feeling of being informed that "the addict is kept from recognizing his own malady," Lazarsfeld diagnoses.
Controlling opinions is more important than purely emotional control because opinions are usually more stable than emotions. Therefore a special importance comes to techniques that can control opinions. No special knowledge of psychology is needed for these simple techniques. They are the standard methods of the mass media:
1. Declare facts to be opinions. Dealing with facts as though they are mere opinions is one of the most frightening aspects of totalitarian thought systems, Hannah Arendt explained.
2. Fragment the presentation of connected facts so the context is lost.
3. De-contextualize facts so they are removed from their real contexts and seem as isolated cases.
4. Re-contextualize facts, embed them in a new context with "positive" accompaniments so they lose their original context and the possible potential of moral indignation...
How can negative political facts be made cognitively and morally invisible?
Instead of asking about the alleged or actual motives leading governments to commit these crimes, I would like to direct attention to the population or ourselves and ask about the reasons we did not react with a proper moral outrage or indignation...
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2016/ ... NBYdq.dpuf