Random question

[jack_ryder]

Occurred to me this morning:

How come there's lots of ethical and moral questions about using results from Nazi science, but none that I know of about using Nazi propaganda techniques (e.g. the Big Lie)?

Answers on the back of a postcard to the usual address.

Comments

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

I think the difference is between "technology that gets used for immoral purposes," where there's no in-principle problem with the technology, and "technology that was developed using immoral methods."

So there's a serious question about the ethics of using, say, Nazi-derived medical technology, because of the way it was obtained, where there's not about using Nazi propaganda techniques, which is just a technology.

I'm not making any judgement about the distinction, that's just where I think it lies.

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

Good distinction.

But I would have thought there would some critique of the propaganda methods (but then too much of our current culture is probably dependent on them.)

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Well, there is some critique of government propaganda methods. It's not particularly mainstream, but there's an undercurrent in, say, a major paper like the SMH, of analysis of government propaganda techniques. I don't read Crikey, but I imagine that does rather a better job.

Godwin's law is the problem - nobody takes a comparison to the Nazi's seriously.