Everything about The Big Lie totally explained
The
Big Lie is a
propaganda technique. It was defined by
Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography
Mein Kampf as a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
Use of the expression by Hitler
It is often erroneously claimed or implied Hitler had advocated the use of the Big Lie as a viable propaganda technique. However, Hitler, when writing of the Big Lie in
Mein Kampf, was in fact criticizing "
the Jews" for their perceived use of the Big Lie. The source of Big Lie technique, from Chapter 10 of
Mein Kampf:
It required the whole bottomless falsehood of the Jews and their [[Marxism |
Use of the expression by Goebbels
Later,
Joseph Goebbels put forth a slightly different theory which has come to be more commonly associated with the expression
big lie.
Goebbels wrote the following paragraph in an article dated
12 January 1941, 16 years after Hitler's first use of the phrase
big lie, entitled "Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik," translated "From
Churchill's Lie Factory." It was published in
Die Zeit ohne Beispiel.
That is of course rather painful for those involved. One shouldn't as a rule reveal one's secrets, since one doesn't know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret doesn't depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
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Used in Hitler's psychological profile
The phrase was also used in a report prepared during the war by the United States
Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler's psychological profile:
His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Big Lie'.
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