The US Government’s Not-So-Secret Propaganda Department 

A soviet era joke: " A CIA agent and a KGB agent talk to each other. The CIA agent says: "The USSR truly has the best propaganda" The KGB agent responds: "What are you talking about, the US has the most incredible propaganda." To which the CIA agent responds: "What do you mean? The US doesn't have any propaganda." "

Happened to me. Played war all my childhood. Call of duty, G.I Joe, and War movies galore. As long as I could remember I thought the military was the coolest shit ever, and more importantly that real men are warriors. Turned 18 and joined the Marine Corps infantry. Wasn’t till after I was already in when I realized that I had been a damn fool

Two films the US army refused to help with was Full Metal Jacket and Platoon.

Those AI generated images can be some real nightmare fuel if you pause on some of em. yikes.

The thing is, the military doesn't just refuse to fund anti war media. In the case of Apocalypse Now, then took steps to prevent the movie from being made. When Coppola refused to make changes to his script, they pulled out and pulled some string to make production harder than it needed to be. Not only was the US army unwilling to cooperate, but they leveraged their weight to prevent other countries' militaries from helping too.

As a rule every Hollywood block buster is propaganda.

This is why I love South Korean films, those film makers doesn't hestiate on potraying its military on a negative light, for example on Korean war film "Taeguki" it doesn't just potray NK negatively but it also potrays South Korean military and police officials killing innocent civilians and unarmed POWs. Also South Korean drama "D.P" potrays hazing and assault within its own military based on real life events. This is probably the case because South Koreans had long history of oppression and censorship during the military dictatorship era, and people won democracy through mass protests which putted significant pressure on the government to submit. Obviously Americans never went through any of that which makes them more oblivious to propaganda in general

11:40 "Guys, we don't have propaganda anymore" *creates the largest propaganda machine the world has ever seen

Well that explains why every COD player is suicidally over confident about their ability to survive a combat scenario.

I went to Iraq, and when I played call of duty it felt so gross. It triggered me, and made me angry. That was not what went down, or how it was like. Later on when I was in exposure therapy, my therapist gave me playing call of duty as homework. Had to learn to tolerate the anxiety it gave me because it was connected to my war trauma. I did its job in that regard, but that was not its purpose at all.

Honestly the only impression i've gotten from those movies is that American military arrives only right at the end when most of the characters are already dead or wounded or that the military consistently manages to displace and loose expensive hardware to terrorists or other wanna-be doomsday cultists.

It’s started. Ai generates the imagery for video essays now, not just shorts and reals…

6:14 I'll present this fact whenever I run into the "cod isn't propaganda" argument. Too bad many don't see through it. Whenever you present this fact, people just go quiet. Thank you for this video. Sometimes it feels like im going a little insane with how many people are either willing or not, pretending to not notice what is happening.

This video reminds me about how many years ago I actually found a video game made by the US Military and was advertised as such. It was just sitting in GameStop. Pre-owned, no case, dirt cheap. "America's Army True Soldier" was it's title. It was a decent enough game on the Xbox 360 (Played a bit like the Ghost Recon Series). But I remembered as a kid being surprised to see a game made by the Army. And it definitely showed in some aspects. Like how in the PvP of the game you're never fighting US Troops, they always show you as the Troops and the enemy as generic bad guy. Even if you're playing split screen against someone, that's what it's like

Michael bay's transformers has to be the most blatant us military recruitment ad it made me want to enlist even though I'm not American 😂

Fun fact; This same concept happens on a more domestic level. Law and Order! A load of people have watched Dick's Wolf brain-child for decades, and most (if not all) the spin-offs. But it all started with "Dragnet, either the original 1952 show based off radio stories or the the 1967 revival series of the same name. The LAPD was involved heavily with the show, both to not only provide props to make them look more real as well as consulting on police work. The problem is part of the working contract was the LAPD would see/read any scripts and shoots done and determine if it was "appropriate" for the public. They could re-write/re-shoot anything they felt "necessary", and more oft than not it was done to make the officers and detectives played on-screen to look more heroic and justified in whatever they did. And that's been happening ever since, with practically every police/crime drama. Law and Order in particular had such a contract with the NYPD, so they was able to control what was and wasn't "public friendly" to police. It was subtle propaganda to encourage people to not question the police, and they were the "good guys" who had the public's interest at heart. It's fair if you don't believe me, but there have been a good share of books, articles, research (including other YT vids) documenting this.

I played war as a kid, watched war movies, games and so on. Then I studied history, anthropology, sociology and so on. I also heard the graphic stories of my grandpa and grandma about the war. And as the time came, in which I had to decide what if I want to go to the military, I had no wish for it. Being a man, does not mean to kill another human being. I have no wish to die for corporate interests, and I got bullied enough in school. I don't need that in the military. The civil services are chaotic enough, I don't want this with guns. My grandparents would rotate in their graves, if I would go to the military after everything they have been through and told me about it. Yes, you can be proud if you want, yes you can learn a lot. But nobody of us will be a hero, we will not achieve anything worthwhile. It is not like in the stories. You will die a pointless, embarrassing and horrific death. It will be honorless, because the cause was corporate greed, and you will have achieved nothing in the long run. US and NATO wars are like that. Russian wars as well, and Chines will be too. You will be scared, you will cry and beg not got go. You will regret it, and your loved ones, will hate you for leaving them. If you are lucky, you die quick. And we can call us lucky if we are just come out of it extremely traumatized and fucked up. Many won't get out of it at all, or will be mutilated. I will never understand military families. Grandparents or parents, who expect their children to go to the military, have clearly not their best interest in mind and should not be responsible to care of a human being. Powerful strangers with money will always find a way for you to kill and die in the mud. As long as they won't send their own children to fight and die, or go themselves, you have no business on a strange man's battlefield. As long as your family is not in direct danger (for example, Ukraine), you stay at home and take care of them. You have no business in Asia or the Middle East. If they want oil, chips, money or whatever, they should get it themselves. Fuck the nation. Save your loved ones. PS: I'm from Germany. Without the first world war, my family would be enormous. Without the second world war, I would have not existed, but this war reduced my family to a shadow of its former size. It was pointless, it hurt, and it achieved nothing, except tears. This is how you think, when you were a child, as you had to comfort your over 80-year-old grandmother, when she cried about the loss of her loved ones in the war. She was 17 when she had to escape Prussia and take care about wounded soldiers and her remaining family.

I’ve noticed that when most Americans say “freedom” they mean classical liberalism. In that respect many countries around the world do hate freedom

One of the big wins of U.S. propaganda happened on Reagan's period: starting to call themselves "America" while before, they common description was "The United States". If you see discourses of Nixon, Johnson or Carter, that was the word. But after Reagan, "Merica" is the word, notwithstanding America is a whole continent.

My Grandfather, who was an Army Technician back in Vietnam, explained to me and Father how the Military, Hollywood and the Comic Book Industry are interconnected. For Jerry Siegel, Stan Lee and Dr. Seuss served in the Army back in World War II and played very instrumental roles in shaping our culture and values. Even toylines like G.I. Joe, depicted the U.S. Military in a positive light, as the Joes were clearly paragons of justice, that fought Cobra's tyranny. So even though the media that all of us consume, is entertaining and even uplifting. We all knew it was just pure Idealism. Nothing at all like horrifying, painful and tragic reality.

most TV cops shows are also "advised" by police departments

Sometimes if you're lucky you can see the real thing every time you turn on the 6 o'clock news

"The media is the most powerful tool in the world"-Malcolm X

Great vid per usual, but I wasn’t really a fan of the amount of AI art 😅

As Eric Cartman once said "That movie has warped my fragile little mind." It's more likely that kids don't care if Call of Duty is revisionist history. It's a fairly common practice these days.

I just want to point out how much of a good thing it is that we CAN easily find a list of every movie the DOD "assisted" and exactly what they had changed thanks to simple FOIA requests! That's something not many governments allow regarding their propoganda.

For anybody that hasn't seen it, the 4th PSYOP Group released a video titled "Ghosts in the Machine" here on RU-vid. I seriously recommend it as a watch, if only to see what truly effective propaganda looks and feels like- you know it's designed to appeal to us as an audience, but it looks "cool" anyway. Really gives you a hint at how much these propaganda organizations understand their tasking.

the AI art kinda takes away from the messaging, but this was a good listen. super informative in a non biased way

As an English speaker you run into this problem far too often due to US dominance, and extend of it sometimes goes to absurdity. And this makes the irony to stand out even more when US complains about propaganda when others do it. Yes, they are not any better, but if you are telling people you are the "good guy" why do you need the same thing "bad guys" do?

What changed with the rise of ‘democracies’ was that the ruling elite had to become more concerned with guiding public opinion.

When i was in elementary school, middle school, etc., i loved games like Call of Duty and whether due to their messaging or not, i certainly had a very positive perception of U.S. military, intelligence, and foreign policy. Honestly just becoming more educated and reading caused all that naïve sentiment to wear off. Even carefully reading my pro-capitalist, "West"-centric freshman history book presented enough information to prompt me to think more critically about U.S. military activity (mainly just basic information about the Vietnan war and Cambodia). Having teachers that ground conflicts in their historical and ideological contexts is also important, and i've been lucky to have a few such teachers. Even learning about the French revolution and its subsequent reign of terror can be formative to analyzing how movements, conflicts, and political actions are ethically complex and full of contradictions. Learning about Marx's and Engels' political philosophy and then analyzing the actual movements they inspired, the actual orders they gave rise to, is also instrumental in developing a nuanced view of military activity. In recent more recent times, there are so many militray, intelligence, and political activities of the U.S. to deconstruct that should cast serious doubt on the narrative of the U.S. as a source promoting democracy, liberal values, and freedom. To name a few, the Iraq war situation, the Afghanistan occupation and the subsequent disaster of the Taliban's swift takeover and return to sharia law, the U.S. FBI and justice dept's 'activities' in Brazil (which still wasn't enough to end Lula's party), and the U.S. involvement with Ukraine and Israel give us a lot to be cynical about. We also need to take seriously the United States war complex's notorious knack for radicalizing other military groups. There is plenty to unpack about our relationship with Pakistan and the rise of the Taliban, Nigeria and the rise of Boko haram, and very recently how the Saudi Arabian border guard's atrocious behavior can be attributed to Trump-era training with the U.S. military. There's so much more and The War on Peace by Ronan Farrow helped me contextualize a lot of how the U.S. military-intelligence has operated and created many of tomorrow's preimenent enemies of the U.S. A critical study of our history of clandestine operations in South America alone should be enough to make one seriously doubt the U.S. narrative that we are allies and defenders of democracy and freedom. More often we are opportunists of securing oil and business for American companies abroad, and more short term objectives

No way you didn't mention that the US Army actually had their own video game for years "America's Army". It romanticized basic training, was an excellent game, and actually inspired me to join as a kid (17).

I gotta say that the Ronald Reagan in CoD Black Ops: Cold War was pretty on-brand and on-message! Bear in mind that "Independence Day" also did not have the backing of the US military, despite it's understandably pro-military stance. The US military balked at mention of aliens at Area 51 and insisted the script be altered. Otherwise, they were cool with it!

Dude this level of storytelling, research, and visual aesthetics is crazy for a channel this small. Congrats on the work you’ve done so far and looking forward to seeing your growth

I knew the US Military could influence your script based on what equipment the studio can use, but I didn't know they could edit the script and the final cut.

Back during the cold war an American spy and a Soviet spy found themselves seated next to one another at a bar in a neutral country, as such the two struck up a conversation. They talked about the politics of the region, global politics in vague terms, even their home lives in very guarded ways, altogether the conversation was pleasant and unassuming. After a while the American, feeling his drinks a little finally says to the Soviet; "you know, I don't mean anything by this but I have got to confess: you Soviets produce some of the best propaganda I have ever seen." He gushed "I mean it's amazing the quality, how clearly you provide the message while never stating it directly. Masterfully crafted propaganda I got to hand it to you guys!" The Soviet spy just chuckled, nodded his head in a mock tip of his hat and graciously thanked the American. "I thank you friend," the Soviet said "however I cannot take too much credit for it. After all as excellent our propaganda is nothing we could ever create will ever come close to the propaganda your country produces." At this the Americans face deflated into a confused, scrutinizing glare. The American glanced around the bar before leaning in towards the Soviet saying without a hint of irony "but America doesn't do propaganda."

this channel is a gold mine, so glad i found it

A lot of the times, I listen to youtube videos and podcasts while I'm at work. Your videos, however, are way too good-looking to just listen to. There's this historic yet brilliant allure to them. Kind of like stepping into an antique shop and feeling the air change. Or getting lost in a very good book that's right up your alley. Or finding THAT piece of art at the museum you just can't stop looking at. Keep them coming, man. This shit is special.

During WWII before my Grandfather was deployed to fight in Italy via Army-Air. Before that he was stationed in a Florida air base. When I was a child I had heard stories that Grandpa was in the background on a landing field in war movie. Turns out, it’s true. Can’t make him out in the grouping of soldiers rushing by the main characters. The movie was called “Air Force”, an Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner, found it on Amazon Prime last year…full propaganda film of group of airman on their way to fight in the Pacific.

I knew it was rewritten history/ propaganda even as a kid. I figured it was more fun and interesting to have those stories than real ones.

5:53 anybody else remember the US Army funded BOTW server? It was the only stable server in the game

The "Star Gate" series is by far my favorite piece of media that was actively influenced by the DOD

Incredibly informative and well made. I cannot believe I've been so blind, it was right in front of me for years

finding out that COD was just as intrinsically involved in recruiting my little brothers to the military from the time they were in elementary school as i always suspected does not make me feel like "i told you so" it makes me feel horribly depressed and dysphoric about the world. i was supposed to protect them. how was i supposed to know the danger was inside the house

You deserve a lot more views on your videos. I was thoroughly entertain and terrified at the same time.

"The Military Entertainment Complex" Touche!

ima be honest. the AI imagery is distracting from the message. im just tryna listen to a video essay and I keep seeing people with potatoes for heads.

are you using AI images?

I worked in dog sled racing and its bad. It makes me think back about all this children's media about sled dogs. And all of the horse racing movies aimed at family audiences. Animal racing is cruel but its pretty hard to get people to see it that way, even with so many horses dying on camera at races. Media is so powerful a tool its pretty scary.

I didn't realise as a kid that call of duty was propaganda but I always wondered and was annoyed why I could never play anything but American.

your voice is incredibly good to listen to! the way you subtly accentuate certain words makes me feel like a curious child who's getting an explanation on a topic he was curious about, while keeping it all professional :) keep it up!

this was one of the best youtube videos i’ve ever seen. so beautifully done in every way. i can’t believe i get to see your content for free.

Hey man, I just stumbled across your channel and really enjoy the content, I know you’re going to go places with this channel :)

pov: 12:09 when Ai can't make hands.

The use of AI/maybe not fully AI Asian art illustrations is certainly unusual

I spent more time looking at the odd landscape of AI art than anything else. Almost like it was taking place in an alternative reality.

Only americans don't see how Capt. America and Iron Man are propaganda. The first iron man movie already had the dude as a weapons dealer. How is that supposed to go under anyone's radar? (Pun intended)

Please dude, just pay for your artist. This is so gross.

I really love your thoughtful essays and ideas, so I hope this critique doesn't come off as gross or shallow, but I am somewhat troubled and distracted by the use of AI art in these videos idk.

When you Find the mot underrated channel on RU-vid.

These AI images are seriously cursed

This isn’t just in movies, it’s in TV, it’s in ads, commercials, news, education, HR depts, social media platforms and comment sections. Basically we are constantly manípulated and contrølled by our own gøvernment.

I like that you include your own subtitles. Auto captioning can be flakey sometimes. Thank you for that extra bit of effort

I love the harmony right at the end with the harp. It's almost like you were putting us to sleep but then calling us awake at the same time to the fact that we've always been under the guise of this kind of propaganda. I was curious of what your angle was on this particular video and I have to agree that until you pointed it out a lot of the films that I liked when I was growing up when I was a kid was a lot of pro military stuff.

I think we also do have to consider how Hollywood usually is open to the world so sometimes it could be more for other countries to make assumptions about America while they are hoping it’s citizens aren’t too dumb (but a lot points to this early if ever the case, at least in the past 15-20 years or more)

This channel is so underrated. Excellent work and presentation, sir. You earned another sub.

The US military is a voluntary force, so they rely on recruiting. IMO there is a difference between pretty innocuous recruiting and propaganda meant to push a national message. The US does both but I do think the distinction is important.

It’s kinda funny bc Oppenheimer is so massive yet it portrays the us gov accurately

When I watched the 2017 Wonder Woman film one moment stuck out to me. As WW is pursuing her enemies, she encounters a battle on the western front during WWI. She helps save some people, and then dramatically stands above them on the second floor of a bombed out building. That bombed out building was a church. At the time I thought it was some director or writer having a little fun. Switching out the imagery of the Christian God with that of a female goddess. Now, I'm not so sure what the intention was.

This video makes me want to watch a brutally honest to life war anime. The art style of everything from the modern to world war eras looks great. Aside from that the video itself and information is phenomenal. Awesome to watch!

Going from military industrial complex to military entertainment complex shook me to my core. I almost joined the marines after I graduated high school, but I opted out when I realized I don’t want to be treated like a cog in a machine or to be yelled at constantly. This video really opened my eyes to how deep it went. Cheers.

creepy AI bits aside, I feel kinda hyped to see a realistic US military-themed anime all of a sudden...

This channel is great, keep going with stuff like this

I just saw an ad for a video game, portraying the battle of Ia Drang, and thought to myself how nothing is sacred, including the memories of men who died or left part of themselves in places like that, only to have corporate ghouls and blind consumerism not give a shit and keep chasing that almighty dollar.

I'm surprised you didn't mention America's Army: Proving Grounds. Developed and published directly by the US Army in 2015, its sole purpose was recruitment. The game gave players a realistic portrayal of Army roles and training to try and attract potential recruits. Though I recall the Army's actual recruitment gaming program that launched it was later defunded, the game itself is still around on PC and PS4. It strived to sell players on the ideals of military service through its gameplay. While some saw it as an effective virtual marketing tool, others viewed it as overly promotional. In any case, Proving Grounds was a bold experiment by the Army to try reaching younger audiences on their own gaming turf. It will be interesting to see if other branches attempt similar recruitment-focused titles going forward, or continue sticking to more traditional advertising avenues. America's Army provided a unique window into how the military has utilized video games as a recruitment mechanism.

Use of "AI" = as discredited as DOD propaganda.

Why is this all AI generated?

whys there so much AI

The DOD will not give any money or equipment to any movies that they decide would show the military in a bad light. The producers of Down Periscope were denied any help because of the “Mutiny”. The movie went on to generate a huge wave of recruiting for the navy.

I appreciate the note about about WW2. I have never loved war and never will, but fighting a brutal fascist authoritarian government is as noble a justification for going to war as I can think

The movie "Three Kings" was made without support from the US military, they had to use scrap vehicles.

I don't like the AI art

You're right, Call of Duty isn't a clandestine Psy-Op. However, it is a Psy-Op.

Imagine, this creator is also paid by the government

Ex military spouse and sibling to a sailor here: the military uses COD as a recruitment tool. If you're good enough, they might approach you with a job offer to become a drone pilot; drones are literally driven with a much more complex Xbox controller... Happened to a few people I know, some of whom were already enlisted. There's nothing subtle about it. That sentence was just ridiculously optimistic and you should probably assume the worst intent with this subject. There is nothing benevolent about the US Gov't

This became quickly one of my favorite YT channels. 🖤

2 ad breaks in a 5min span is wild. if it’s YT doing that w/out creators knowledge that’s even wilder

If this is the case, how the hell did the og cod mw2 get away with shepards betrayal? I understand shadows are like a mercenary group (kinda) but arent there records of us military leaders and presidents doing the same thing?

I love the history about this, the Anime themes, which I truly love, & nice jazz music. Very well said. However at the end of the day; Propaganda is nothing but an illusion & false hope and War is nothing but reality of brutality with no righteous point of view. War is hell.

Your voice is soothing and your message is a noble one. Salute brother.

I can't help but look at these AI images and realise how terrible they are

As an artist I'm actually irritated by the extensive use of AI art here

well presented and honest thank you.

Thanks for posting this

This is another fascinating video with information I didn't have knowledge of prior to viewing. I know your video is meant to be isolated to talking specifically about military propaganda, but there is so much propaganda present in our day to day media that covers a variety of different topics/beliefs/ideologies. After watching several of your videos (and loving them) - I feel that you would get something out of the book "Rape of the Mind" by Joost Merloo. Keep up the great work. Appreciate your content.

Really hated the use of AI artworks in this video but good essay i guess.

All I can think about is Top Gun Maverick. How everyone praised how such a cool movie it was while All Quiet on the Western Front (a very anti-war movie) got caught in its shadow

Thank you very much. Your videos are well made, well researched, and very well written.

These videos are so important, ty

Great video, as always :D