Over the course of a person's life, propaganda will be a major factor in that person's everyday decisions. Propaganda is used to persuade people to support or adopt a certain opinion or attitude. In "Doubts About Doublespeak", William Lutz explains that "Doublespeak", or propaganda, "is a language which pretends to communicate but doesn't. It is a language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem attractive, or at least tolerable" (185). For example, when watching television people see companies using commercials to advertise against their competitors. In addition, reading the newspaper may result in a person only looking at one side of an argument, the opinion of the writer. Propaganda is often used to distort and use half-truths to bias our opinions. Without extensive research and knowledge an everyday person can be manipulated, molded and tricked into thinking things that may not be true because of propaganda. .
One propagandistic fallacy is the use of glittering generalities. A good example of glittering generalities and many other propagandistic fallacies occur in President Bush's "State of the Union Address", delivered to Congress on January 28, 2003. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis explains that glittering generalities "is a device to make us accept and approve without examining the evidence" (158). Bush uses these glittering generalities without hesitation. For example, he claims that we will win the war in Iraq "by the strength of great alliances and by the might of the United States of America." But, what exactly is the "might" of the United States of America? The "might" of people who fire bombs and guns? Bush also says, "sometimes peace must be defended" (16). It would be nice to have a bodyguard for America, but unfortunately what he is trying to say is that we need to go to war. Bush also claims that we have worked harder to "track and disrupt the terrorists" (12).
