How Transparent Can Propaganda Get and Succeed?

Satan is often referred to as the “father of lies,” and perhaps that is why so much of leftist discourse and behavior seems demonic. Leftism is built on a foundation of lies and hatred. 

No, I am not talking about the form of liberalism that argues for a more generous social insurance state. No doubt some leftist will accuse me of calling Hubert Humphrey or Mickey Kaus “demonic,” so I have to say that. 

I am referring to the leftism that first arose at the time of the French Revolution, based on the idea that there is no such thing as human nature (or God) and that everything, including base reality, is a social construct. Modern revolutionary politics is rooted in this idea, and it always winds up in violence while aiming at totalitarianism. 

Leftism is necessarily totalitarian BECAUSE reality is a “social construct.” If something is a social construct and you want to change it, you must control everybody in society, preferably through controlling what they see and hear, and if necessary, through actual violence. 

This is why so much of the time, the media is an echo chamber, and why we see so many hoaxes, curated clips, headlines skewed a certain way, and general information operations. It’s all about framing what you see and how you think about it, and if one does it in an environment where you either can control the amplification of an idea or be confident of your compatriots, you can be quite brazen about it. 

For reference a Democratic pol in Florida (Mark Davis) bought this domain, using his real name and address and such, redirected the domain to the DHS website, then “discovered” that the domain linked to the DHS web site. TMZ could have easily found this out themselves, but they… https://t.co/5Axgly5n2c

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) January 15, 2026

For reference a Democratic pol in Florida (Mark Davis) bought this domain, using his real name and address and such, redirected the domain to the DHS website, then “discovered” that the domain linked to the DHS web site. TMZ could have easily found this out themselves, but they instead chose to credibility wash this dumbass stunt instead of asking Davis why he bought the “Nazis. us” domain

This is just one example of the phenomenon, where a Democratic congressional candidate gets a two-fer  out of committing a hoax. He is showing his compatriots how clever he is, calling ICE out as Nazis, and also, he gets media outlets to reinforce the idea that ICE is filled with Nazis by repeating it without context. 

pic.twitter.com/W2KSgbC9Es

— JWF (@JammieWF) January 15, 2026

What Mark Davis is doing is saying something that is literally true but functionally deceptive; Nazis.us DOES point to the Department of Homeland Security, but only because he bought the domain name and made it do so. He pretends to be shocked to get attention, making this a hoax, while knowing that high-information voters on both sides know otherwise. He isn’t going for the votes of conservative high-information voters, so no big deal if they know, and he gets kudos from those who know on his side. 

And low information voters? They get misled, as is the idea. They may not exactly believe that Homeland Security did this, but the association is planted more deeply, especially because they suspect that actual Nazis want to be associated with DHS. 

It’s about reframing reality. It’s the same idea behind the constant reframing of gender. Keep changing the definitions, reframing things, calling boys “girls” or vice-versa, and you begin to unhinge people from baseline reality. 

It’s amazing how much leftist discourse is just them pretending not to understand things, thus making discourse impossible.

— Millennial Woes (@MillennialWoes) February 22, 2025

When leftists speak in public, they do this reframing constantly, or often pretend that things everybody knows to be true are not obviously so. They cannot concede basic facts that are inconvenient, so they don’t. They trot out experts to explain that simple things are complicated, that true things are false, that big things are small, that black is white, that harmful is “life-saving,” and so on. 

Crazy!@HawleyMO: “Can men get pregnant?”

“Doctor” Verma: “I’m not sure what the goal of the question is.”

Anyone who can’t answer this question should never be allowed to practice medicine.pic.twitter.com/7GVBLObk2v

— Media Research Center (@theMRC) January 14, 2026

It’s all pretending, of course, but with a purpose: to create a “reality” out of whole cloth. Communism is prosperity for all. Democratic Socialism is not socialism. It goes on. 

Biden: I will only nominate a justice to the SCOTUS who is black and female.

Everyone: Uh, any other qualifications?

Biden: jfwbbHahfhshajws

Senator: Can you provide a definition of a woman?

KBJ: I can’t. I’m not a biologist.

pic.twitter.com/hKv3QDqwiI

— PNW Conservative (@PNWConservative) January 14, 2026

I keep on bringing up the French Revolution because it is the Platonic Ideal of this strategy. The revolutionaries changed everything, including the measure of time, the calendar, the week, and even the year to create an entirely new reality. 1792 became “Year 1.” There was to be no continuity between “before” and “after.” Literally everything is redefined to reinforce the movement’s political power. 

 Of course, you can only do this sort of thing successfully if you control enough levers of power in society. But what if you control the public schools, academia, much of the media, and the cultural means of production?

You might not convince everyone, but you probably can convince enough people to get more power. 

If you look at the Renee Good shooting, you see how powerful this effect can be. Few people see more than a few seconds of what happened, and almost nobody has the context to understand it. Or the shooting that happened a few days later, a mile from me, where a crowd literally attacked agents, stole their weapons, and rampaged. The media treated as if it was just a normal arrest where ICE shot a man for almost no reason.

Not in the headline.

Not in the subhead.

Not in the first paragraph.

Not in the second paragraph.

But at the end of the third paragraph, @nytimes finally mentions that the illegal immigrant in this story (and two others) assaulted the federal agent who pulled the trigger. pic.twitter.com/IaRyAlCYiC

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) January 15, 2026

You may, after all the framing is done, get a mention that something bad happened to the agents, but as an afterthought, not the central fact and cause of the event. 

This sort of tactic can work, until it doesn’t. It worked to get leftists in power many times, but it doesn’t work when the reality of leftist rule is laid bare after all the bad consequences follow. You can frame living in America as a hellscape and move many people to rise up in revolutionary action, but when the totalitarians destroy everything in their attempt to remake it, eventually, people find out that reality is a thing, and the reality that totalitarians create is evil. 

That happens with every leftist revolution. The French Revolution led to an Empire, then a restoration, the Soviet Union eventually fell, Venezuela is a pit, Cuba is on the edge, and the New York housing market will fail. 

But enormous damage is done. Gender ideology will leave thousands of children scarred, COVID policy ruined the education of a generation, and CHAZ/CHOP created a lawless hellscape. 

There are plenty of people who admire that these activists are at least TRYING to make the world a better place. That is an astoundingly stupid idea. If your “trying” always makes things worse, and your means of “trying” is disconnecting people from the complexities of the real world, you are at least FUNCTIONALLY evil. 

Or just plain evil. 

Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!