Lord Haw-Haw: How a Little Liar Sold the Biggest One – The Daily Beast

“While studying at the University of London in the early 1920s, Joyce became virulently anti-Semitic. Some say that when a leftist slashed his face from the edge of his lip to under his ear in a 1924 rumble, Joyce blamed a “Jewish communist” for scarring him permanently, intensifying his hatred. As with so many others, anti-Semitism became Joyce’s portal into a world of prejudices and conspiracies.”

Full text: Lord Haw-Haw: How a Little Liar Sold the Biggest One – The Daily Beast

Fantastic article on William Joyce, the Irish-American ideologue who became a major figure in WWII broadcasting. He was hanged in Britain in 46. Below is one of his broadcasts. He begins with, “To say the British Empire is in danger today would be a very feeble understatement…” Then just for fun there’s a video of the British making fun of Haw-Haw 😀

I think this is particularly interesting in the context of the post-election analysis. Whenever a major event occurs, we try to understand it, to explain it. Normal reaction. In that process we have to be careful not to take everything at face value. Well crafted propaganda is an extraordinarily effective thing. Just consider how many religious people there are in the world. Or how just two months before the election only 27% of Republicans agreed President Obama was born in the United States. If only one-third of a group is willing to acknowledge evidence we have to factor that into how they make their decisions.