In a general way, a major goal of the propagandist is to seek some kind of authoritative backing for the belief he or she is propagating.

When we look for propaganda, we have the obvious job of asking what messages are being propagated.

The specific media may change, but the principles of human nature have remained fairly constant over the millenia.

The special harm attaching to prior restraint is that the government can keep materials from reaching the public, so there can be no accountability, no judgment by the people that the power to suppress was wrongly exercised.

Aristotle writes that persuasion is based on three things: the ethos, or personal character of the speaker; the pathos, or getting the audience into the right kind of emotional receptivity; and the logos, or the argument itself, carried out by abbreviated syllogisms, or something like deductive syllogisms, and by the use of example.

There is arguably something wrong with a method of persuasion that cannot pass the test of publicity.

Small town people assume you are a friend if you simply remember their names.