Leap 2 — Analyzing Harmful Propaganda (Shannon Lee)
Harmful propaganda is so common today in our society with the growth of technology and how quickly news is spread. When choosing a piece of harmful propaganda to analyze, I came across one on the Mind Over Matter website that really stuck out to me. The propaganda I chose to analyze is a meme that was created about the Parkland shooting and Nikolas Cruz, who was responsible for murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others during a school shooting. The propaganda meme created about this event was very harmful and insensitive considering the reality of the situation that occurred in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
To describe the harmful meme, it was a picture of the book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw, with a photo of Nikolas Cruz, who was the shooter in the Parkland Shooting. This propaganda meme seemed to be created in a joking manner, which is very insensitive knowing the severity and horror of the events that took place at the high school. When coming across this image, the comments under the post were even more concerning than the original post made. People were commenting that Nikolas Cruz was the real victim of the Parkland Shooting, although he mass murdered both students and faculty. Nikolas Cruz was known to be bullied in previous years before he was expelled from school, but there were other claims that he was a bully to other classmates and a threat to teachers and staff at the school, according to local10.com. The creation of this propaganda has skewed the reality of the situation for people who have viewed this meme, and caused people to believe that he is more of a victim than the students and faculty that he brutally murdered in 2018.
This type of harmful propaganda that was created influences people in a very specific way. It is an example of propaganda that emotionally appeals to the audience in a way to make you feel sympathetic towards Cruz. This is proven by the fact that the comments under this post are doing exactly that, being sympathetic towards Cruz and calling him a victim. One comment that really stuck out to me was, “I do agree with this propaganda because I truly do believe that everyone was at fault,” which was posted on the Mind Over Matter website about this propaganda meme. Another comment that was posted on the Mind Over Matter website was, “We can’t ignore these bullied people, or else people can lose their life.” These comments are honestly scary, because these people truly believe that the fact that Cruz was bullied means that it was justified that he murdered people in a school. Obviously, bullying is never okay in any circumstance, but it is also not justifiable to harm or cause violence upon innocent people, especially students and faculty during a school day. The narrative that Cruz is also a victim only reinforces the idea that this type of violence is okay for certain reasons, which is harmful and not true at all.
The creation of harmful propaganda, such as this meme, shows how easily influenced people are by posts they see online. The Parkland shooting is one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history, and the person responsible for so many innocent people losing their lives is being viewed as just as much of a victim as the real victims are. The propaganda that emotionally appeals to the audience is harmful in the sense that it warps the reality of the events that took place and paints the murderer as the one who is suffering the most. School shootings are very common in the United States, which is already a huge problem that needs to be addressed and dealt with, but siding with someone who attacked a school full of innocent people downgrades the issue at hand, which is extremely problematic. The creation of this propaganda meme was insensitive, harmful, and very damaging to the real story and the real victims of the Parkland shooting. This is a perfect example of how harmful propaganda can influence people to think a certain way, even if it is completely wrong and skewed from the reality of this horrific and traumatizing event.
Sources:
- Bert Fri, et al. “School Shootings.” Mind Over Media, propaganda.mediaeducationlab.com/rate/school-shootings.
- Teen Gunman Kills 17, Injures 17 at Parkland, Florida High School. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/parkland-marjory-stoneman-douglas-school-shooting.
- “Nikolas Cruz Faked Extent of Mental Illness and ‘Was Playing Games’ with Expert.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 4 Oct. 2022, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/nikolas-cruz-mental-illness-parkland-trial-b2195457.html.
- Vazquez, Christina, et al. “Teacher Describes Parkland School Shooter as Attention-Seeking Bully; Defense Seeks to ‘Prohibit’ Death Penalty.” WPLG, WPLG Local 10, 2 Sept. 2022, www.local10.com/news/local/2022/09/01/watch-live-parkland-school-shooters-death-penalty-phase-continues/.
