gwern comments on How would you take over Rome? - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Yvain 14 March 2012 04:24PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (200)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: gwern 22 March 2012 07:43:23PM 5 points [-]

I wonder if anyone has ever studied Third World propaganda campaigns over time to demonstrate an 'evolution' which recapitulates Western evolution in propaganda?

(I mention this because I saw recently the old example of Liberia's Charles Taylor who was elected when he 'campaigned on the slogan "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him."'. Of course, his landslide was probably due to "the belief that he would resume the war if he lost." which is why one would want multiple countries. Do they all show this sort of phenomenon where laughably crude propaganda and campaigning works initially and is slowly replaced by subtler psy-ops, or is there no evolution because crude propaganda works best on those of low IQ, say?)

Comment author: khafra 27 March 2012 05:06:02PM 1 point [-]

I would imagine that any researcher who confirmed such an effect would refrain from publishing, and instead become the supreme dictator of some third world country.

Comment author: [deleted] 03 May 2012 10:57:54PM 0 points [-]

Dictator? You mean campaign manager.