Writing at Investor's Business Daily, Monica Showalter discusses 6 patterns of propaganda communist dictator Vladimir I. Lenin used to justify broken promises, consolidate power, and "transform society fundamentally."
Using Showalter's headings and some of my own, those patterns are as follows:
1. Ends Justify the Means: "In setting off civil war, Lenin put Russia on a war footing that justified any atrocity, broken promise or use of propaganda that served to establish communism."
2. Perception of Power: "As early as 1903, at a party congress, Lenin won a membership issue by a single vote. But from then on he called his faction 'the Bolsheviks,' or majoritarians, and his opponents 'Mensheviks,' or minoritarians. It didn't matter that the Bolsheviks never were a true majority among Russia's revolutionaries; what mattered was the perception of power."
3. Media Monopoly: "Lenin simply closed other papers, leaving only the Bolshevik publications. The resultant monopoly intensified the impact of his Bolshevik message, according to historian Robert Service."
4. Demonization: "In denouncing opponents, Lenin was obsessive, virulent and personal, calling them 'bloodsuckers,' 'insects,' 'spiders,' 'leeches' and 'vampires.' . . . But Lenin rarely made such statements in public. . . . In public, Lenin wanted to be pictured as a jolly apostle of Marxism."
5. State Terror on the Innocent and the Guilty: "'We must execute not only the guilty. Execution of the innocent will impress the masses even more,' wrote Lenin's commissar for justice."
6. Blame Your Predecessor: "As happened anytime socialism ever had been tried, it was a failure. Lenin's much-desired civil war cost 13 million lives and his ruinous economic policies triggered the famine of 1921-1922. YouTube has many videos of Lenin speaking, with the salient feature being his propensity to blame his predecessor, the Czar, for the economic havoc."
Related
Ho Chi Minh, Obama’s Freedom Fighter
Extremist Obama Again Omits "Creator"
CNN Doubles Down on Hillary Clinton Propaganda Flick
The Big Lie Lives. But Why?