0:03

calling all

0:06

FYI I need your undivided attention for

0:10

this matter of utmost

0:13

importance while this week's show May

0:16

manipulate your mind and leave you in a

0:19

trance you can bet your bottom dollar we

0:23

are going to learn lots of useful

0:26

English laugh out loud and be Spellbound

0:31

through and through that is as long as

0:35

you obey and

0:38

[Music]

0:41

consume join me as we take a peek at the

0:45

powerful weapon known as propaganda on

0:48

this week's episode of

0:51

[Music]

0:52

FYI welcome to for your info English you

0:58

got it you got it

1:00

[Applause]

1:02

[Music]

1:05

[Applause]

1:11

[Applause]

1:11

[Music]

1:15

hello hello hello and welcome to another

1:18

edition of FYI I should say another

1:21

exciting edition of

1:23

FYI and today we're going to take a peek

1:27

at propaganda to take a peek at

1:32

as always we're going to kick off taking

1:34

a look at our intro which is chalk full

1:37

of million dooll words I think you say

1:41

palones these are those words that when

1:43

you use them you sound more eloquent and

1:47

even native speakers are guilty of that

1:50

I'm telling you you can get in the habit

1:52

of using the same five

1:55

adjectives nice cool awesome nice cool a

1:59

awesome and repeat but I insist

2:03

adjectives are the key to saying exactly

2:07

what you want to say after all they are

2:10

the words that describe everything I

2:13

know I know I'm a language nerd I'm in

2:15

love with words but I know that's

2:18

something we all share in common our

2:20

love of languages and our

2:24

curiosity the fact that we're always

2:27

hungry for more well this week's topic

2:30

is quite interesting so let's take a

2:32

look at our intro I said calling all

2:35

FYI oh and by the way a special shout

2:38

out to our FYI in Ireland and Argentina

2:43

it's unbelievable but we keep charting

2:46

in those countries so thank you thank

2:48

you thank you for listening for

2:50

spreading the word and make sure of

2:52

course you rate the show give it five

2:54

stars and leave a comment I started out

2:57

by saying I need your undivided Ed

3:00

attention oh man if I can remember how

3:03

many times I heard that at the beginning

3:05

of an assembly in school you know maybe

3:08

the principal said it or one of your

3:09

teachers please I need your undivided

3:12

attention for this matter of utmost

3:16

importantance that means it's really

3:18

important but that's a great word

3:20

there's an example of one of those words

3:23

utmost Maxima then I said while this

3:27

week's show May manipulate your mind

3:29

mind and leave you in a trance so I

3:32

think that's pretty

3:33

self-explanatory but to leave you in a

3:36

trance another way to say that is to

3:38

hypnotize you I know the word sounds

3:41

familiar I just want to make sure you

3:42

know how to pronounce it to

3:45

hypnotize then I said you can bet your

3:48

bottom dollar and that means you can

3:50

rest assured that we are going to learn

3:53

lots of useful English as always laugh

3:56

out loud as always and to be Spellbound

4:01

and a spell is something that is cast on

4:04

you there's a very famous song I Put a

4:07

Spell on You I think in Spanish the

4:11

translation would

4:13

be so I hope you are Spellbound today I

4:17

hope you are Spellbound through and

4:20

through utterly completely

4:26

thoroughly you say and then the next

4:29

line is for our movie Buffs I said that

4:32

is as long as you obey and consume I

4:36

like that structure as long

4:39

as it's a really good structure to know

4:42

I'll go as long as I have money and to

4:46

obey means to follow orders to not step

4:49

out of line and to consume did anybody

4:53

know the movie it came from it came from

4:56

John Carpenter's classic horror film The

4:59

they live and he's walking around the

5:02

streets and he starts to see obey

5:05

consume and all this propaganda in front

5:07

of his face it's a classic scene from a

5:10

cult movie and in the bonus part we'll

5:13

take a look at this topic in movies even

5:17

in literature Orwell comes to mind so

5:21

we'll take a look at the pop culture

5:23

aspect as well plus we'll take a look at

5:26

examples of propaganda in history and

5:29

we'll look at the father of propaganda

5:32

Edward bernes he was the guy who made

5:35

bacon and eggs popular and he also made

5:38

it cool for women to smoke he made them

5:41

feel liberated but we'll talk about that

5:44

in the bonus part where we'll also take

5:46

a look at many different Expressions

5:49

we'll also play a game to see how well

5:52

you know some of your favorite catchy

5:54

slogans all that and much more in the

5:58

bonus episode remember you can have

5:59

access to a bonus episode every week all

6:03

you have to do is join my Curious

6:05

community over on patreon you can go to

6:08

patreon.com Alberto Alonso you can also

6:11

find the links in the show notes but if

6:14

you are a curious cat if you are an

6:16

English Explorer then this is the place

6:19

for you you can also get PDF documents

6:22

with all the vocabulary so you can study

6:25

along and most importantly you can have

6:28

class with me so if you like the way I

6:31

teach here on the show well just imagine

6:33

being in class with me yeah we sing we

6:37

laugh but most importantly we learn so

6:40

if you want to join my Curious Community

6:42

go over to

6:44

patreon.com Alberto Alonso and I'd like

6:47

to send a shout out to each and every

6:49

one of you keep up the great work as

6:52

your teacher I can only say one thing I

6:56

couldn't be prouder so a shout out to to

6:59

all of you especially my super duper

7:02

students Mara Javier Paco Roberto and

7:07

Mila and my Interstellar students Garmin

7:11

Lena Issa bakle David Jose Maria

7:16

Patricio and Edgard every week we look

7:20

forward to our classes together not just

7:23

the students but me as the teacher I

7:26

really enjoy our time together so what

7:28

are you waiting for join our curious

7:31

community over on

7:33

patreon.com Alberto Alonso so let's take

7:36

a peek at propaganda the power of

7:40

persuasion because in essence what

7:43

you're doing is you're persuading people

7:45

to see things your way and we'll take a

7:48

look at all the different techniques and

7:50

kinds a little bit later but first let's

7:52

define it according to Wikipedia

7:55

propaganda is communication that is

7:58

primarily used used to influence or

8:01

persuade there's that word I said to

8:04

influence or persuade an audience to

8:07

further an agenda which may not be

8:10

objective and may be selectively

8:13

presenting facts to encourage a

8:17

particular synthesis or perception so I

8:20

think that's pretty

8:22

self-explanatory I guess the word

8:24

encourage alentar the rest of the words

8:27

are pretty easy agenda synthesis

8:30

perception it goes on to say or using

8:34

loaded language to produce an emotional

8:38

rather than a rational response to the

8:41

information that is being presented and

8:44

loaded language are words such as

8:47

Freedom

8:49

democracy

8:50

dream

8:52

success these words that can often be

8:55

ideas that make us feel a certain way

8:57

about something cuz let's be honest we

9:00

all know the Power of Words as a

9:03

language learner you know that so they

9:05

use words that evoke a certain response

9:08

from people and obviously the response

9:11

they're looking for they the people who

9:13

are propagating the propaganda and can

9:16

you believe it I'm 46 years old and I

9:19

never stopped to think that the word

9:22

propaganda had to do with propagar to

9:25

propagate to spread and we'll take a

9:27

look at the emology in just a moment let

9:30

me just finish up here with the

9:32

definition propaganda can be found in a

9:35

wide variety of different contexts in

9:38

the 20th century the English term

9:41

propaganda was often associated with a

9:45

manipulative approach sure it's coercing

9:48

people to think like you or at least

9:51

think the way you want them to think and

9:53

ignore the facts you want them to ignore

9:56

it goes on to say historically

9:58

propaganda a had been a neutral

10:01

descriptive term of any material that

10:04

promotes certain opinions or ideologies

10:08

I've heard that word pronounced ideology

10:11

and ideology I say ideology because it's

10:14

about ideas a wide range of materials

10:17

and media are used for conveying

10:21

propaganda messages these changed as new

10:25

technologies were invented including

10:28

paintings cartoons I mean think about

10:31

the paintings the king would hire a

10:33

painter and he would make sure that that

10:36

painter made him look favorable made him

10:39

look good even if the King was a fat

10:42

slob cartoons which we're going to take

10:44

a look at in just a moment posters

10:47

pamphlets films radio shows TV shows and

10:52

websites and more recently in the

10:54

digital age there are many new ways of

10:57

disseminating propaganda

10:59

people use Bots and algorithms I'm sorry

11:04

I can't help it but every time I hear

11:06

the word algorithm I think it's the

11:09

algorithm of the night

11:12

oh okay sorry you know I can't go an

11:16

episode without singing and we'll talk a

11:18

little bit about that too the new

11:20

technology with memes and fake news

11:25

misinformation and all that jazz cuz

11:28

let's be honest this is a Hot Topic it's

11:30

never been so pertinent going back to

11:33

the etymology as we said propaganda is a

11:36

modern Latin word I think as Spanish

11:39

speakers you know it comes from propagar

11:41

to be propagated to spread as we said

11:44

but originally the word derived from a

11:47

Congregation of the Catholic Church

11:50

which was created in

11:52

1622 it was part of the Counter

11:54

Reformation and they called it the

11:57

congreg propaganda F the congregation

12:01

for propagating the faith AKA propaganda

12:06

and their activity or I should say their

12:09

aim was to propagate the Catholic faith

12:13

especially in non-catholic countries and

12:15

just be careful with the pronunciation

12:17

there it's not Catholic it's Catholic

12:20

and it's not Cathedral it's Cathedral

12:23

let's say that sentence it's a Catholic

12:26

Cathedral it's a Catholic Cathedral AAL

12:29

so from around the

12:31

1790s the term began to be used also for

12:34

secular activities and in the mid 19th

12:38

century it started to have a an uglier

12:41

meaning when they started to use it in

12:44

the political sphere and now as we see

12:47

it's used all the time in the political

12:49

sphere in advertising in Wartime in

12:53

peace time I mean we are inundated with

12:56

propaganda every day but where did did

12:58

it all start well let's go

13:03

back primitive forms of propaganda have

13:06

been a human activity as far back as

13:10

reliable recorded evidence exists for

13:13

example the rise of Darius I to the

13:16

Persian Throne well the story behind

13:19

that is viewed by most historians as an

13:22

early example of propaganda another

13:25

striking example is the Roman Civil Wars

13:28

or the Roman Empire in general and by

13:30

the way if you haven't listened to the

13:32

episode on the Roman Empire give it a

13:34

listen it's epic but just think about

13:37

one of the stories from the Roman Empire

13:40

Octavian and Mark Anthony you know Mark

13:48

Anthony sorry sorry I couldn't help it

13:51

well these two characters blamed each

13:53

other for many different things such as

13:57

cruelty cowardice

13:59

debauchery drunkenness so I guess this

14:02

was an early form of slander to slander

14:06

somebody is to say bad things about them

14:09

to dirty or tarnish their name and now

14:12

we can see common media propagating

14:15

propaganda in news reports I mean just

14:18

right there just the fact that you can

14:20

turn on the news and you can instantly

14:23

know which way they lean politically are

14:25

they more left-wing are they more

14:27

right-wing give me two minutes and I'll

14:29

tell you it seems like all journalism is

14:32

biased and remember then they have to

14:34

keep their advertisers happy as well so

14:37

you're not going to talk bad about a new

14:40

medication that's giving people problems

14:43

if the manufacturer of that medication

14:45

sponsors your programs so in this day

14:48

and age I think it's really difficult to

14:51

find unbiased news nobody just gives you

14:55

the facts they give you the facts with

14:57

their own spin on on it and there's a

14:59

great word that has to do with

15:01

propaganda their own take their own spin

15:04

but also you'll see propaganda even in

15:07

books and leaflets we already said

15:10

movies radio TV and those cool posters I

15:14

must say I love those old school

15:17

propaganda posters but I don't like what

15:20

they did I don't like

15:22

indoctrination I don't like when you

15:24

mislead people but back in I don't

15:27

remember which war it was was they were

15:29

actually dropping leaflets pamphlets out

15:33

of planes and that was a way to get the

15:36

enemy to think the way we wanted them to

15:38

think so imagine that instead of

15:40

dropping bombs you're dropping pieces of

15:43

paper with words on them are you still

15:46

not convinced of The Power of Words the

15:49

power of persuasion let's take a look at

15:51

the different kinds of propaganda that

15:54

exist one of them is name calling or

15:57

stereotyping so it's taking everybody

15:59

and putting them into one group saying

16:02

instantly to somebody you're a racist or

16:05

you're a sexist or a homophobe or a

16:08

snowflake nobody wants to be pigeonholed

16:12

nobody wants to be categorized but you

16:15

have to create this us and them

16:17

mentality it's all about dividing and

16:20

conquering see it all goes back to the

16:22

Roman Empire somehow we already said

16:25

this uh this loaded language or also

16:28

it's called generalities or virtue words

16:32

and these are words as I said Freedom

16:34

hope dream politicians use them a lot

16:38

they say a lot but they say nothing it

16:41

also reminds me of perfume commercials

16:44

passion fire hope dream Freedom the new

16:49

fragrance by karolina Herrera then

16:52

you've got testimonials which we see

16:55

every day this is Spokes people just

16:57

think of Michael Jordan back in the day

17:00

with Gatorade or Nike and Michael Jordan

17:04

This is somebody that you look up to a

17:06

well-known credible figure who's using

17:09

the product and of course if young

17:12

people see their Heroes their role

17:15

models using it well it must be good for

17:17

them too then you've got ad nauseum I

17:20

see this one a lot on Instagram

17:23

sometimes I just feel like I'm being

17:25

bombarded by the same ad every single s

17:28

Le day I don't know if that one really

17:30

works I mean if their goal is to annoy

17:33

you and make sure you never buy a

17:35

product from them well then maybe it's

17:37

working but repetition again again this

17:40

way it's always at the top of your mind

17:43

the next one is bandwagon and this

17:45

reminds me of the expression to jump on

17:47

the bandwagon you say in Spanish very

17:50

similar subo and this basically creates

17:53

a sense of isolation so if you're not in

17:57

you're not a part of our group then

17:59

you're not cool You're On The Fringe and

18:02

this plays with the idea of fomo have

18:05

you heard of fomo well what does fomo

18:08

stand for it stands for fear of missing

18:11

out people don't want to feel like

18:13

they're missing out how many times have

18:15

you heard that in

18:19

advertising while supplies last so you

18:22

want to fit in you want to be part of

18:24

the group so you jump on the bandwagon

18:26

another kind is plain folks this is like

18:30

every man the Common Man and what they

18:33

do is this way they try and show you

18:35

we're just like you we're regular people

18:38

it reminds me of the McDonald's

18:40

commercial where you see a guy waking up

18:43

on a farm and you know taking care of

18:45

the potatoes and the chickens and I'm

18:47

not saying that McDonald's doesn't do

18:49

that but they're trying to show you

18:51

we're just an oldfashioned good brand

18:55

good old mom and pop we do things the

18:58

way your grandparents did it we're just

19:00

like you everyday people so they try and

19:03

appeal to every man one that's very very

19:06

big these days is fear-mongering you

19:09

want to control somebody make them

19:10

scared and if you scare somebody enough

19:13

you can get them to take the desired

19:16

action you want them to take when people

19:18

are afraid they don't act rationally and

19:21

there's even a whole genre of this fear

19:24

porn the idea behind it is that people

19:27

almost like to be scared it's almost

19:30

like it turns them on it's related to

19:33

the idea of Doom scrolling to scroll is

19:36

des and to move up and down and doom

19:39

scrolling is reading just negative stuff

19:42

the end of the world the economy's gone

19:45

down the tubes unemployment is at an

19:47

all-time high and you're just bombarding

19:50

your brain with this negative

19:52

information the last one we're going to

19:54

take a look at is transfer and I didn't

19:56

know very much about this one but it's

19:58

similar to Virtue words and generalities

20:01

what you're getting the person to do

20:03

here is irrationally tie their positive

20:06

associations to a completely unrelated

20:09

concept so you connect two things that

20:12

are not really connected if you're a

20:15

real Madrid fan then you support freedom

20:18

and is that really a true statement it

20:21

sounds nice it sounds great especially

20:23

if you put a nice movie trailer voice on

20:26

it if you're a real Al Madrid fan then

20:30

you support Freedom Dare To Dream see it

20:34

means nothing and it relies heavily on

20:37

symbolism as well it makes illogical

20:40

connections you're transferring one idea

20:43

in their mind to another one and they're

20:45

not really connected at all and we're

20:47

going to talk about that in the bonus

20:48

episode when we look at the master of PR

20:52

PR which means public relations Edward

20:55

bernes and he used transfer in his

20:58

famous torches of Freedom Campaign this

21:02

is where he made it socially acceptable

21:05

for women to smoke he even made them

21:07

look empowered but we'll talk about that

21:10

in the bonus episode but one thing I

21:13

realized when I was putting this episode

21:15

together is there is propaganda

21:18

everywhere it's not just something that

21:20

happened in Nazi Germany or during war

21:23

time I think we're being bombarded with

21:26

more propaganda now than ever before and

21:29

it's all in the palm of our hands and

21:31

our smartphones something that really

21:34

blew my mind is with my daughter

21:36

recently we started watching some of the

21:38

old Warner Brothers cartoons the same

21:41

cartoons that I remembered in my head to

21:43

be totally harmless free of propaganda

21:47

or indoctrination well I was sorely

21:50

mistaken and remember the key here is

21:53

this stuff is marketed at kids their

21:56

target audience is kids cartoons and in

21:59

this cartoon which I'm going to play for

22:01

you as we say goodbye here it's called a

22:04

hitch in time it came out in 1955 and

22:07

it's a classic Looney Tunes cartoon and

22:10

it is literally an ad for the Air Force

22:14

and you see planes and missiles they're

22:17

playing the American music with the

22:20

Bandstand and the waving flags and I

22:23

can't believe I didn't realize it as a

22:24

child but now when I see it I think oh

22:28

oh my God they were trying to recruit us

22:30

to the Air Force from a young age and

22:33

this Looney Tunes cartoon is about John

22:36

mcrogers he's a guy who dreams about his

22:39

future after he has just spent four

22:42

years in the US Air Force and he's got

22:45

an angel and a devil so to speak on each

22:49

shoulder and one of those is Grogan and

22:52

Grogan is trying to convince him to stay

22:55

in the Air Force to reinlist and the

22:58

other character is on his other shoulder

23:01

and he's trying to tell him all the

23:04

advantages he would have if he returned

23:06

to civilian life I don't think I have to

23:09

tell you who won the debate John

23:11

mcrogers

23:13

reenlists so the cartoon literally tells

23:16

kids young kids go to the Air Force and

23:19

then when your tour of Duty is up

23:22

reinlist and go for another four years I

23:25

don't know I feel like again these are

23:28

directed at kids they're aimed at kids

23:31

and it absolutely blew my mind and I

23:34

guess that's the interesting part I was

23:37

being propagandized as a child and I

23:39

didn't even realize it but I guess

23:41

that's how it works you're not supposed

23:43

to realize it but we're learning a

23:45

little bit about it here on FYI let's

23:49

listen to this Looney Tunes cartoon from

23:53

1955 if you want to watch it it's called

23:55

a hitch in time patrons I'll share it

23:58

with you on

24:00

[Music]

24:07

patreon this is John MC Roger Airman

24:10

First Class that Blissful smile on Jon's

24:13

face is because JN has reached the end

24:15

of his first hitch and Jon is getting up

24:18

he is now contemplating the advantages

24:20

that all civilians take for granted like

24:23

a solid gold

24:26

jalacingo

24:30

a good

24:33

job and a beautiful

24:35

[Music]

24:41

wife and to PCH to send home to me wife

24:44

poor wife no cares have I to grieve me

24:48

no pretty little [ __ ] to deceive me uh

24:52

here it comes the message as we go

24:56

rolling hi Mac rolling

25:01

home name is Grogan technical Gremlin

25:04

voice

25:05

class yeah yeah I know and you're here

25:08

to show me why I should reinlist about

25:11

all the multitudinous advantages AC

25:13

cruin to the reinlist look Buster I

25:16

don't know what all the trick sarcasm is

25:18

about but I'm getting out of this man's

25:21

Air Force capital O capital u capital T

25:26

out hey you get out too wait that's

25:30

different let's pick up our discharge

25:32

papers together uh uh

25:35

buddy are you kidding why the minute

25:38

they start talking to you you'll go all

25:40

soft and sign up again but I shut sit

25:44

down honest I've been dreaming about

25:47

getting out ever since I got in all

25:49

these guys are the same pushovers wild

25:52

blue yonder

25:54

pushovers now then the voice thing

25:57

they're going to try to do they're going

25:59

to try to tell you how much better off

26:00

you'll be staying in the Air Force okay

26:03

just for the record let's take a look

26:06

that's you and that's your reenlistment

26:07

paycheck Amon voice class 4 years

26:10

service 137 bucks. 59 a month and this

26:14

is what the average veteran of your age

26:16

is oing in civilian life 253 bucks

26:21

47 that's

26:25

$15.88 more than you make Max why that's

26:28

an outrage that's that's of course to be

26:31

perfectly Fair the civilian does have to

26:34

make a soen minor deductions from his

26:37

paycheck that you don't uh like food

26:40

lodging clothes higher income taxes

26:44

medical and dental bills and life

26:45

insurance uh minor deductions like that

26:52

there well uh it's only 197 bucks a

26:56

month

26:58

only another thing I uh forgot to

27:01

mention was that a Airman can increase

27:03

the size of his check by senority

27:06

advancement in rank allowances overseas

27:09

Duty and flying Duty and as much as six

27:12

times your monthly base pay for your

27:15

first

27:16

reinvestment but the civilian still

27:18

makes more money sure sure in anyway the

27:22

money isn't the important thing is it

27:24

Grogan it's the job that counts brother

27:27

you are so right there and folks that

27:30

brings us to the end of this episode I

27:33

sure hope you'll join us in this week's

27:35

bonus episode of

27:43

[Applause]

27:44

[Music]

27:56

FYI