Propaganda and the Process of Othering taken from a section in https://www.epw.in/engage/article/anti-conversion-laws
A lot of anxiety is created in people’s minds by othering religious minorities and then posing the supposed threat of the “other” seizing their religious identity.
hate speech in the guise of a judgement comes from a sense of panic, created in the minds of a frightened Hindu majority. There has been a systematic effort by television and news media today, that uses various means of spreading this anxiety. The media is seen to proclaim rather provocatively that “Hindus are in danger”: Hindu khatre mein hai. Prime-time television debates carried these slogans constantly until people from the majority began to believe it.
It is seen that the news and digital media, as well as social media has become a way of spreading polarising propaganda that provokes certain reactions in the people, and leads to them believing any and every insinuation about the minority communities. The narrative is built in a manner that a “threat perception” of the other is created.
Goebbels used a combination of modern media, such as films and radio, and traditional campaigning tools such as posters and newspapers to reach as many people as possible. It was through this technique that he began to build an image of Hitler as a strong, stable leader that Germany needed to become a great power again.
This image of Hitler became known as ‘The Hitler Myth’. Goebbels success eventually led to him being appointed Reich Minister of Propaganda in 1933.
The role of economic instability in the Nazi rise to power
wages fell by 39% from 1929 to 1932. People in full time employment fell from twenty million in 1929, to just over eleven million in 1933. In the same period, over 10,000 businesses closed every year. As a result of this, the amount of people in poverty increased sharply.
The Depression associated economic failure and a decline in living standards with the Weimar democracy. When combined with the resulting political instability, it left people feeling disillusioned with the Weimar Republic’s democracy and looking for change.
This enhanced the attractiveness of the Nazis propaganda messages.