Reading age of propaganda has been an eye-opener, thanks to Akshat Sir for the recommendation.
These are the 15 action item I picked from the book as mentioned by the author to avoid falling into propaganda by marketers, politicians and other non-profits.
- Know the ways of persuasion and realize that you may be the victim of propaganda.
- Monitor your emotions.
- Explore the motivation and credibility of the source of the communication.
- Think rationally about any proposal or issues.
- Attempt to understand the full range of options before making a decision.
- Don’t base your evaluation on what someone says, but what person actually does.
- If everyone is “doing it” or you hear the same piece of “news” repeatedly, ask “why?”
- Apply inversion technology on accessing the sides of the decision.
- Teach your children about propaganda.
- Avoid being dependent on a single source of information aka WhatsApp
- Think of news as the news and try to separate it in your own mind from
- entertainment.
- Increase your involvement on important issues, just don’t be a keyboard worrier.
- Write companies asking for proof of advertised claims.
- Support and extend efforts to squelch deceptive advertisement.
- Stay away from brands and politicians peddling religion for their own profit.