A Story of Soft Lies, Sweet Nothings, and a Nation Addicted to Illusion
By A.L. Childers, author of
The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America
If you wander the quiet streets of America long after midnight—
past the glowing billboards, past the silent schools, past the living rooms where blue TV light flickers upon dreaming faces—
you might hear it.
A whisper.
A lullaby.
A promise.
It is not sung by mothers or lovers.
It is hummed by the nation itself.
A soft, sugary voice saying,
“You are the greatest country in the world.”
“You are free.”
“Your history is noble.”
“Your suffering is individual, not systemic.”
“Your enemies are chosen for you.”
It is a love song we were raised on—
the only one we were ever taught to hear.
But like all love songs shaped by power,
this one was not written from the heart.
It was manufactured.
⭐ ACT I: The Courtship — When America Fell in Love With Propaganda
The United States did not stumble into propaganda accidentally.
We hired the man who invented it.
Enter Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, and the father of modern public relations.
Bernays taught corporations—and later, the U.S. government—how to manipulate human desire, shape public belief, and engineer consent.
His books Propaganda (1928) and Crystallizing Public Opinion became the blueprint for every emotional manipulation that followed.
He famously wrote:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”
America didn’t just adopt propaganda.
America fell in love with it.
Put a ring on it.
Built a house with it.
Raised children in it.
⭐ ACT II: How Propaganda Became a Household Romance
Propaganda is effective because it uses the language of intimacy:
✔ Trust me.
✔ I’m protecting you.
✔ I would never lie to you.
✔ Look how much better you are with me.
Propaganda doesn’t shout.
It whispers.
It flatters.
It reassures.
It tells you what you want to believe.
This is why corporations and government agencies use the same emotional techniques as toxic lovers:
- love-bombing (patriotism campaigns)
- gaslighting (“That didn’t happen; this did.”)
- future faking (“We’re fighting this war for a better tomorrow.”)
- jealousy (“Other countries want to take what you have.”)
- dependency (“Only we can protect you.”)
Propaganda’s ultimate goal is not obedience.
Not fear.
Not submission.
Its goal is affection.
Because affection is far more binding.
People obey dictators out of fear.
People obey democracies out of love.
⭐ ACT III: Receipts — When Propaganda Was Caught in the Act
🧾 1. Operation Mockingbird (CIA, 1950s–1970s)
Declassified documents reveal the CIA infiltrated major U.S. newsrooms, controlling journalists and dictating narratives.
(Source: Church Committee Report, 1976)
🧾 2. The Committee on Public Information (WWI)
The U.S. government created a propaganda office to convince Americans to support the war.
They used posters, films, celebrities, schools, and churches.
(Source: National Archives)
🧾 3. The Gulf of Tonkin Lie (1964)
The Johnson administration fabricated an attack to justify entering the Vietnam War.
(Source: NSA Declassified Documents, 2005)
🧾 4. Tobacco Industry Propaganda (1930s–1990s)
Corporations used doctors, ads, and “research councils” to hide cancer links.
(Source: Master Settlement Agreement Documents)
🧾 5. The Pentagon Papers (1971)
Revealed decades of government deception in military decisions.
(Source: U.S. National Archives)
🧾 6. The American Textbook Industry
Texas & Florida control curriculum content nationwide, shaping patriotic, corporate-friendly “truth.”
(Source: New York Times Textbook Investigation, 2019)
These aren’t theories.
These are receipts.
⭐ ACT IV: Why Propaganda Works in America Better Than Anywhere Else
Because America turned it into an art form.
We wrapped it in:
- Hollywood stories
- patriotic holidays
- corporate slogans
- school textbooks
- trauma bonding (war + fear)
- the myth of individualism
- the illusion of freedom
To question propaganda is to question America.
And that is the greatest taboo.
You see, propaganda works best when people believe:
“We are the good ones.”
It is the warm hand guiding your shoulder,
the voice calling itself your protector,
the lover who promises safety in exchange for loyalty.
⭐ ACT V: How Advertising Sealed the Marriage
By the 1950s, propaganda and advertising merged into one monstrous, profitable organism.
Corporations learned to manipulate:
✔ desire
✔ insecurity
✔ patriotism
✔ gender roles
✔ racial stereotypes
✔ political identity
Advertising didn’t just sell products.
It sold ideology.
This is why I wrote:
📘 The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America
Because our entire national identity—
from flawless Founding Fathers
to sanitized wars
to corporate-made heroes—
was crafted with the same formula used to sell cigarettes and dish soap.
Advertising didn’t just influence America.
It invented it.
⭐ ACT VI: The Breakup Letter America Is Afraid to Write
Propaganda thrives because we don’t want to admit we were seduced.
Nobody wants to say:
“I believed the lie.”
“I trusted the mask.”
“I loved the illusion.”
But breaking free from propaganda is not betrayal.
It is birth.
It is awakening.
It is reclaiming your voice.
It is finally seeing the world without the filters someone else installed.
Propaganda may be America’s love language—
but truth is yours.
And truth is the only way out.
Discover how propaganda became America’s love language through advertising, government messaging, education, and emotional manipulation. A Dickens-style deep dive by A.L. Childers, author of The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America, complete with references and hard historical receipts.
#TheLiesWeLoved
#AmericanPropaganda
#HistoryExposed
#WakeUpAmerica
#MediaManipulation
#BreakTheNarrative
#ALChilders
#TruthInPlainSight
#OperationMockingbird
#EdwardBernays
⭐ ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.L. Childers is a journalist, historian, and investigator of America’s hidden narratives. Her work exposes the machinery behind national identity, corporate propaganda, medical misinformation, and the quiet psychological conditioning shaping modern life. She is the author of The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America, a groundbreaking exploration of how corporations and government agencies manufacture belief at a national scale.
⭐ DISCLAIMER
This blog is for educational and investigative purposes. All historical examples are sourced from declassified government records, academic research, peer-reviewed publications, and verified journalistic investigations. Readers are encouraged to explore all referenced materials directly.
