Propaganda in the Age of Memes: What Jacques Ellul Saw Coming (and Why It Still Hits Hard in 2025)
Published: May 21, 2025 | Author: RB Maxwell | Category: Nonfiction Book Reviews, Surveillance, Propaganda
Welcome to the first official entry in my book blog series—where history, politics, philosophy, and media collide in ways that are (I promise) more entertaining than your average textbook or cable news segment. If you missed the intro post, catch it here.
Let’s kick things off with a banger: Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. Written and published in French in 1962, translated into English in 1965, it reads today like it was ghostwritten by your TikTok algorithm—minus the filters and thirst traps.
If The Floridian Candidate made you question who’s really pulling the strings in American politics, Ellul shows you the machinery behind the curtain.
What’s This Book About (and Why Should You Care)?
Ellul wasn’t your average Cold War scholar. He didn’t just warn about propaganda from cartoonish dictators or government overlords—he predicted how all of us would be tangled in its web, willingly scrolling, sharing, voting, and consuming under its influence, even though the internet wouldn’t exist for another forty years.
He breaks it down like this:
Propaganda isn’t just lies—it’s a technique. It uses sociology and psychology to condition you subtly and consistently, turning you into not just a believer, but a doer.
Two flavors of manipulation: “Agitation propaganda” riles you up (hello, cable news), while “integration propaganda” smooths things out so you don’t ask too many questions.
It thrives in modern life. If you’re urban, educated, slightly overwhelmed, and glued to your phone, congrats—you’re ideal prey.
It’s inescapable. Even when you know you’re being played, your brain leans on propaganda like a mental crutch—it makes the chaos feel coherent.
It rewires your thinking. Propaganda doesn’t just shape your opinions—it shapes your identity. It’s why people fight over masks, elections, or gender like it’s a holy war.
Ellul’s takeaway? It’s not just “them” using propaganda—it’s the system itself. You’re in it. So am I.
And that, my friends, is exactly the rabbit hole I push readers down in The Floridian Candidate. Fiction, yes. But grounded in very real games of influence.
Why Ellul’s Warnings Matter Now More Than Ever
Back in ’62, Ellul was worried about TV and newspapers. Fast-forward to 2025, and we’ve got a 24/7 propaganda buffet: curated feeds, algorithmic rabbit holes, deepfakes, influencers, and targeted AI ads that know what you want before you do.
A few reasons why Ellul hits especially hard today:
Your feed is weaponized. Ellul’s “total propaganda” theory? That’s your For You page—personalized, persuasive, and nearly impossible to escape.
Polarization is the new pastime. Social media rewards outrage, not nuance. Ellul called this: beliefs crystallize and become unshakable. (Just ask anyone who got in a Facebook fight over Bud Light.)
We crave simplicity. The more overwhelmed we get, the more we grab onto tidy narratives. Propaganda offers villains, slogans, and certainty—all great for engagement, terrible for critical thought.
Drama is addictive. Ever feel weirdly alive during a political scandal? That’s propaganda keeping you emotionally invested, even if it’s frying your nervous system.
Truth is negotiable. With AI, bots, and influencers for hire, the line between real and fake is blurrier than ever. And as Ellul warned: when you lose the ability to think independently, you don’t even realize it’s happening.
This isn’t fearmongering. It’s just the reality of living in an age where every post, every headline, every comment section is fighting for your brain space.
If you liked The Floridian Candidate, this is its nonfiction counterpart. Both ask the same question: How do you know what you know—and who benefits from it?
More Books to Keep Your BS Detector Sharp
Looking for more red pills? These books pair perfectly with Ellul’s:
Byron Tau, Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State
A chilling exposé revealing how your phone, home devices, and even car tires feed a hidden U.S. surveillance network, trading cheap tech for unprecedented government access to your life.Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
TV made us dumb. Social media made us dumber. Postman saw it coming—this is your warning label for infotainment culture.Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
Media doesn’t just report—it filters. This is your backstage pass to how corporate and political interests shape “the news.”Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
The medium is the message. If you don’t know what that means, this book will blow your mind (and change how you see every screen).Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Your data is the product. Welcome to a world where your behavior is monetized, predicted, and manipulated.Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism
This one hits hard: from politics to Instagram, Lasch traces how we went from community to me-obsessed chaos.
You can find links to these (and more brain fuel) at RBMaxwellBooks.com.
Final Thought
If The Willing Fool Series is fiction that stings, Propaganda is the nonfiction that explains why. Ellul doesn’t give easy answers—but he gives you the tools to stop sleepwalking through the information war.
And in today’s world? That’s not optional. That’s survival.
-RB
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Keywords: Jacques Ellul, Propaganda book review, media manipulation, psychological influence, social media effects, technological society, modern propaganda, books on influence.