(An earlier version of this column ran nearly a year ago, and in consideration of recent events, I thought it important to stress again the truth and import of the manufactured mayhem you’ve been watching on nightly newscasts over the past few weeks and months. – J.B.)
Winning The Optics War with Agitprop
When President Trump gave “Border Czar” Tom Homan a green light to begin the deportation of the “worst of the worst” among the millions of unvetted “newcomers” who’d pushed across our border at the invitation of Alejandro Mayorkas and Joe Biden, you knew it could get ugly.
It did.
It got ugly because governors, mayors, congressmen, and congresswomen, in “sanctuary” states across the United States remain committed to withholding support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrat officeholders and other officials saw immediately that the necessary actions that would have to be taken by ICE would be the opening they’d been waiting for. Any unfortunate mishap, particularly that of a legal resident mistakenly caught up in the dragnet of illegals, or in a worst-case scenario, killed, could be put to full emotional advantage.
It’s called “Agitprop,” and the Democrat Party has mastered this lowest form of political combat. Its successful implementation is dependent upon the willful participation of a cadre of Democrat true believers (both paid and unpaid), along with a compliant and subservient press.
Agitprop is an Orwellian term that melds “agitation” with “propaganda” to form an idea that people would immediately understand. It is what Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and the rest of the gang who led the Soviet Union until its official dissolution at the end of 1991 officially called it.
Agitprop was such an important tool of the early Communist Party that within three years of the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), government officials had established a dedicated Department of Agitation and Propaganda.
Now that Democrats have lost the presidency, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court, they have little else. Without their hands on any of the public levers of power, Democrats are still able to call upon the most powerful weapons in their depleted arsenal: “friends” in the media who can and will buttress the latest lie the Left attempts to disseminate, and legions of Left-leaning foot soldiers ready and willing to march for the cause of the day.
Creating the optics of oppression is easy, especially when the context is blurred and no questions are asked.
The Grand Central Station Police Riot
My first exposure to Democrat – or to be kind “left-wing” – agitprop here in the good old USA was as a junior journalist covering an event at New York City’s Grand Central Station in the late 1960s. It was called a “Yip-in,” (“Be-ins” were popular at the time), and featured mass disobedience and subsequent “agitation.” Thousands answered the call of organizers and showed up to “be-in” in the main hall of Grand Central at midnight, along with a contingent of New York’s Finest, some on horseback. By 1 am, some 5,000 (maybe more) hippies, reeking of the sweet smell of pot, were peacefully challenging the legitimacy of the law by lighting up and inhaling various forms of marijuana.
The police simply stood by and watched. This was, however, not what agitators (ok, we’ll call them “activists”) among the crowd wanted. They wanted a demonstration of “police brutality,” so before long a small group of young men climbed on the iconic four-sided clock atop the Information Center in the middle of Grand Central’s main concourse and proceeded to pull at its brass hour and minute hands.
That was it.
The Men in Blue rushed to rescue the clock and remove the young men from it. Policemen on horses rode through the main portal to disperse the crowd. Glass doors were shattered; heads were busted. Mayhem ensued.
The mainstream press played its role perfectly. Here’s how Don McNeill of The Village Voice (the left-wing weekly of its day) described the event, originally published March 28, 1968:
“The Grand Central Riot: Yippies Meet the Man
“The cops dropped me in the street and disappeared. My face, and my press card, were covered with blood. I went to the hospital to get five stitches in my forehead. So, I missed the climax of the Yip-In, but I can pass on various accounts of witnesses.
“Inside A Yip-In
“All the brass were watching, and the cops were having a ball. ‘It was the most extraordinary display of unprovoked police brutality (emphasis mine) I’ve seen outside of Mississippi.’ Alan Levine, staff counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said at a press conference on Saturday. ‘The police reacted enthusiastically to the prospect of being unleashed.’ Levine reported seeing several people forced to run a gauntlet of club-wielding cops while trying to flee from what has been characterized as a ‘police riot.’ Spitting invective through clenched teeth, cops hit women and kicked demonstrators who had fallen while trying to escape the flailing nightsticks. It was like a fire in a theater.
The distorted half-truthful coverage of this so-called “police riot” at Grand Central Station is a textbook example of classic – and highly successful – Agitprop. Push law enforcement to the brink. Spit at them, taunt them, trip them, and before long, these days, you’ll get the reaction that hordes of iPhone camera operators will then record for fundraising and further participation purposes. And, of course, to move public opinion.
By demeaning the purpose of ICE (which is to remove bad guys with criminal records and deportation orders) and demonizing the officers involved, you’ve not only raised additional money to fund your agitprop operations, but you’ve also convinced a great number of otherwise indifferent and uninformed people that ICE officers are the bad guys.
Don’t lose hope when you hear how awful it is that ICE agents are “rounding up innocent civilians” and/or “law-abiding citizens.”
They’re not.
But mistakes will be made when there are so many “sanctuary” cities and states from which to extract actual criminals, and when ICE gets no cooperation from local law enforcement.
Next time you see or read a news report that unsettles you, try to look beyond the sensationalism of the coverage in order to grasp the entirety of the event.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, what you’ll find behind the sensationalism will be Agitprop.
What you won’t find is the truth.
Click here to support Bob Smith!
Community Calendar:
Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com