The British historian Norman Davis, in his book A History of Europe, lists five main rules of propaganda:
— Rule of simplification: reduce all facts to a simple opposition of Good and Bad, Friend and Enemy.
— The rule of distortion: to discredit the opponent with slander and parody.
— Rule of confusion: manipulate the accepted values of the audience for the sake of achieving their own goals.
— The rule of unanimity: to present one’s own views as the general opinion of all right-thinking people; win over the doubters with the participation of «stars», public pressure and «psychological infection».
— Rule of instrumentation: to repeat endlessly the same thing, but in different variations and combinations.