Black arts of propaganda

«Not surprisingly, the two countries to master the black arts of propaganda in the twentieth century were the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Their techniques of manipulating the public and promoting their hateful ideologies have trickled down to several generations of autocrats and demagogues around the world. Lenin specialized in promises he would never keep. "He offered simple solutions to complex problems," Sebestyen wrote in his biography of the Bolshevik leader. "He lied unashamedly. He identified a scapegoat he could later label 'enemies of the people.' He justified himself on the basis that winning meant everything: the ends justified the means.
Hitler devoted whole chapters of Mein Kampf to the subject of propaganda, and his pronouncements, along with those of his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, would constitute a kind of playbook for aspiring autocrats: appeal to people's emotions, not their intellects; use "stereotyped formulas," repeated over and over again; continuously assail opponents and label them with distinctive phrases or slogans that will elicit visceral reactions from the audience.»

The death of truth, Michiko Kakutani