Trump / Putin - Is This Propaganda Or Just Delusional Thinking?

This image from Reuters shows Trump and Putin with the slogan "Let's make the world great again - together!" It was posted by a pro-Serbian movement in Montenegro. I am frankly stupified that anyone could believe this. To me this is so perverse that it could have come out of George Orwell's 1984. It is bending the truth into something which is just grotesque.

 

Perverse is the word. I don't think 'truth' really comes into it. Just Serbian fascist propaganda.

 

Propganda is essentially a method of manipulating others into making sense of a delusion, so probably a bit of both

 

Seems to me it's metaphorical propaganda. Webster defines metaphor as "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor
It's obviously trying to convey the message that Trump and Putin are in cahoots to impose some kind of common world order. Somebody has photo shopped pictures of Trump and Putin, put them together, stuck it on another photo of a billboard and added the slogan. It seems very much like other examples of propaganda, like the one of Putin in an Uncle Sam costume saying "I Want Ukraine". Is that delusional or just metaphorical?
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVyNsMsRYDhIAuHdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyaTF1bG4yBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQTAyNzFfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=propaganda&fr=yfp-t-s
Depending on the politics of whoever put it together, they might think that was a bad thing or a good thing. Serbs tend to be pro-Putin, so I'd guess they'd think it'sa good thing, but if I saw the sign here I'd say anti-Trump/Putin. Sometimes metaphorical propaganda can convey a truth in a way that brings it home more effectively to the observer than a purely factual statement. I'd say the Bible is a good example of that. Sometimes, of course, it can do the same for a falsehood. As for the billboard in question, it's an exaggeration, but I don't see anything particularly delusional about it, unless we're making the argument that all political opinion is delusional, which is arguable.

 

My speculation would be that Trump's anti-immigrant position is music to the ears of Serb nationalists. In a way, he's proposed what they tried to carry out -ethnic cleansing, albeit packaged in a different way. Made somehow acceptable to large sections of US voters. They can look at Trump's success and give themselves a pat on the back..'We were right, and this only goes to show....even the Americans are coming round to our way of thinking' Something like that.

One thing I wonder about the caption - when will the world be great enough for these people? After the next war? When we have petty nationalist governments throughout the developed world? How do we decide when it's great enough and we can't make it any greater? What on earth does 'great' mean in such a context?

I think a case can indeed be made that all political thinking is delusional in some way. Maybe though that's a topic for a different thread as it's a complex thing. And of course it doesn't stop me having my own political views. I think that a large part of the problem is that politicians offer things to the voter that they know full well are never going to be delivered, then usually find someone else to blame for their failures. It's easier for them to deal in vague generalizations like 'making America great again', or the UK equivalent 'taking back control'. Making the world 'great again' is so amorphous as to be utterly meaningless. This lot probably mean making Serbia great again. In conjunction with their old allies the Russians, and their new pin up boy, DT.
Worth remembering that 'the enemy' the way the Serbs see it are mainly Muslims.

 

^Apologies to any well intentioned Serbian people. I know it's wrong to generalize an entire nation. Just commenting on the facts of recent history.

 

I have an adverse reaction to that bill board.....and cannot help how some people's image affects me.

 

This is why we shall never see an undoctored photo of Trump and Putin standing with in same room together.

 

Bargain basement Retail politics.

 

It's just propaganda. And why have liberals turned into war-mongerers all of a sudden? It's like liberals wanted a war with Russia. I thought liberals were anti-war?

 

Speaking out against bullies trying to control everything is asking for war? Since when?
The other choice...let them just walk all over us....
no, thanks.

 

All this "liberal" vs. "con" stuff is ridiculous. Russia is laughing at you and how easily they can make America fight itself. The facts are all there but people just blame the other side.

 

It could have come out of Phillip Roth's: The Attack on America written in 2004 during the Gulf War.

an example of metaphorical propaganda, or what used to be called " truthiness"

 

The current ongoing investigation into possible collusion by the trump campaign with pro-Vladimir Putin forces should soon settle the matter.








Hotwater

 

?