Nearly 30 years ago, Rwanda's Hutu population initiated perhaps the most successful genocide campaign in recent history, systematically murdering more than 800,000 members of the Tutsi population over a three-month period.
The period before the genocide began was marked by heightened political tensions. Hutus and their supporters would take to radio broadcasts to brand Tutsis "cockroaches," which normalized animosity toward them. It was successful propaganda that altered the lives of millions.
This isn't the first time that people have used propaganda for nefarious reasons – far from it. People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor fitboy15 asked the online community,
"What piece of propaganda did the most damage?"
"That Oxycontin..."
"That OxyContin had a low rate of dependency."
No-Discussion6480
If Dopesick didn't send you down a rabbit hole learning about the Sackler family, then you did something wrong.
"Kids lost..."
"In the 90s, child abduction fear porn was all the rage on the nightly news. And they were always the 1 in a million, crazy stories with horrific deaths and would play weekly. Chris Hanson's "To Catch a Predator" didn't help."
"However, these kidnappings were extremely rare in reality. Kids lost almost all unsupervised play time, which as it turns out is very helpful for learning how to socialize."
[deleted]
Not to mention most kidnappings were done by close relatives of the child rather than complete strangers.
"When Coca Cola..."
"When Coca Cola paid off doctors to say that fat was what caused fatness rather than sugar. This has destroyed the health of generations. It was the total converse of the truth, pushed to all American children (and many internationally) about their health."
andycambridge
There's a looming crisis in Mexico just because of this. The commoner is so brainwashed about sugar that the drink is almost consumed ritualistically/ceremoniously.
This dude!
“Dr.” Andrew Wakefield and his false study."
Xboarder84
People talk a lot about the harms Wakefield did by spreading distrust in vaccines, and that's huge and unforgivable, but the harms he caused to the autistic community are huge and unforgivable too. So much unnecessary hatred.
"When big tobacco companies..."
"When big tobacco industries made doctors endorse cigarettes."
Sandracotta
Made? They gave them kickbacks and direct payments.
Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok's 1968 letter..."
"Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok's 1968 letter in New England Journal of Medicine talking of Chinese restaurant syndrome caused by MSG without any scientific evidence."
doesntcareatall
Indeed, this added a lot of content to preexisting stigma towards East Asians. However blinded experiments could not prove his claims.
"It might not be the worst..."
"It might not be the worst, but when the woman spilled hot coffee on herself from McDonald's. She ended up with 3rd degree burns because the coffee temperature wasn't regulated correctly and McDonald's paid people to make fun of her, and people still do to this day."
mksports
Her burns were so severe that her labia were fused together. She suffered horrifying, debilitating and expensive burns and she was mocked and painted as irresponsible. All she wanted from McDonalds was the cost of her medical expenses, too.
One of the biggest lies ever told. Grain is more important than vegetables? Yeah, right.
"The War..."
"The War on Drugs."
[deleted]
"Perhaps..."
"Perhaps not the most damaging, but certainly a vile example… when Pope Benedict XVI told the people of sub-Saharan Africa that condoms would actually make the HIV/AIDS crisis worse."
PosterNutbag
It was largely rooted in a belief that birth control goes against the word of god. "Go forth and multiply" taken to the extreme.
Yeah... if you walked away from these not feeling at least a bit ambivalent about the human race, then I don't know what to tell you.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
@jmrphy/X
@CatholicCharm/X
@SWENGDAD/X
@nhoodpublicist/X
@jmrphy/X
@0xPuff/X