How America’s Foundation was Built on Propaganda

Tai Leclaire, member of the Mohawk and Mi’kmaq tribes takes you through a brief history of America through the lens of propaganda aimed at Native Americans. He mentions in the video that most people aren’t taught about the things in the video, which is likely true.

Living as long as I have in Nebraska, I encounter people all the time who were never taught that the phrase “merciless Indian savages” is in the Declaration of Independence, who Techumseh was, or how calling the more than 1500 battles between Native Americans and the U.S. military simply the Indian Wars. It minimizes and sanitizes the ethnic cleansing that went on.

On the flip side, I did learn about all the things in this video when I was in school in New York. The insidious thing for me was that it was flipped to teach about Manifest Destiny and how it was our right as Americans to commit atrocities because “the people needed to be tamed” (direct quote from my eighth grade history teacher).

Which is worse, to never be taught this history or to be taught a white-washed and sanitized version? For example, I was taught about the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and that the U.S. Constitution was based off of their Great Law of Peace, but that we made it better because, somehow, Native Americans couldn’t have come up with the better version. It was basically trying to teach me that “some Indians are smart, but the white man had to help them because we were smarter.” No, it never made sense to me then and it doesn’t make sense to me now.

I encourage everyone to watch not only this video, but all the videos in the series.

This 15-minute documentary is part of A People’s History of Native America, a series produced by PBS. Each video is 10-15 minutes long and shows an aspect of history many Americans were never taught.

Even if you think you know the story, there’s still more to learn. They’re done in bit-sized chunks although, if you’re like me, you’ll watch them all at once.

If you want to learn more about Native American history, PBS has just started airing season two of “Native America.”

Führer und Verfuhrer, 2023 (Goebbels and the Führer, 2024)

Let’s get this out of the way first. There are subtitles. The docudrama does not have any English parts. If you’re okay with that, you will be rewarded with a behind the scenes look at the pure evil that tried to take over the world in the early 20th century.

This isn’t a true documentary, but it is an earnest effort to portray the last seven years of Goebbels at Hitler’s side. It’s a look at how Goebbels created his anti-Semitic films and media clips to convince the people that mass murdering the Jews was okay. It also looks at what was going on behind the scenes after the defeat at Stalingrad and the murder of Goebbels’ family and his suicide.

The film is bleak and, even though I knew of the events in the film, it was still a struggle to get through. Part of it was the bleakness and already knowing the outcome. I studied Nazism for about seven years in the mid- to late-1990s, but this was a movie about a preening peacock of a propaganda minister. There was another part that bothered me. Goebbels wore on me. His demeanor and character were so utterly disgraceful and relentless, that it took me three tries to get all the way through it. I suppose living in America in 2026, adds to it as I get sick of deciphering propaganda every day.

Still, this is a worthwhile film to watch to learn and understand the machinations behind the Nazi regime and how things played out. At the premiere of the film, Joachim A Lang, director and screenwriter, explained why the film is important.

“The question of how this could happen is not part of our past but our present. We are living in a time where far-right populists are on the rise and anti-Semitic crimes and the Third Reich are trivialized.”

The film intersperses actual footage and speeches from the time with the documentary style reenactments of a movie. Sometimes, I found it quite astounding to see the behind the scenes of moments before something was filmed. It is, however, well-done and the juxtaposition feels seamless while also being unnerving.

There is a scene where Joseph and Magda Goebbels are fighting in their marriage. Hitler, meanwhile is publicly issuing orders about how people are supposed to live. After Hitler learns of Joseph’s affair, he brings Joseph into his office and made it clear the woman had to go and forced Joseph’s loyalty to him. When Joseph agreed, Magda was brought in. She wanted a divorce. Hitler basically said, “Nah. You’re my propaganda minister and you will present as a happy family. Here’s a contract to sign.” He also warned Joseph what happened to traitors, who were anyone that displeased Hitler.

The petty bullshit between Joseph and Magda is quite something to see. Magda was a zionist and to get back at her, Joseph arranged for her stepfather to be sent to Buchenwald, where he died. Magda got the message, loud and clear, then professed her loyalty to the Führer.

All of the top people, including Goebbels, are just a pile of sycophants kissing Hitler’s ass so they can obtain more power. It’s sad, repulsive, and fascinating to watch at the same time.

Hitler constantly nagged Geobbels to keep the people on his side. On September 1, 1938, Geobbels tells the upper echelon of Nazis that the press isn’t there to report the news, but to support the war. He said the news are part of waging war and not to provide information. From then on, passing on information to the enemy was punishable by death and the person’s name would be published in the newspapers.

Goebbels and his men continually took factual information, increased attack or death numbers tenfold and then repeated it over and over and over. He said the simpler and more primitive these announcements were, the better. The goal was to make every German think all Poles were more animal than man.

At a dinner with Hitler, Goebbels’ credibility was questioned, especially about how the German people still weren’t enthusiastic toward the war. Hitler got pissed that films were only patriotic, not National Socialist, especially toward the Jews. Goebbels wrote in his diary he didn’t think the criticism was fair, yet, as a kiss-ass, he obeyed.

Goebbels and Hitler spoke about how things were possible because of their tight grip on the press. Even the smallest bit of press freedom was considered the deadliest threat to the State. At an international press conference, Otto Deitrich, the head Nazi press chief, announced that the entire Soviet front was destroyed. It was a lie. Goebbels was livid.

He talked to Hitler and said that all propaganda must have an element of reality in it and that this outright lie was a terrible mistake. Hitler agreed. He said it all must be blamed on the Jews and to make it appear as if the Russians were fighting for the Jews. Goebbels went one step further and introduced a badge, the now-infamous yellow star, which Jews were required to wear. Jews were now enemies of the state.

Goebbels ratcheted up his propaganda to include what appeared to be real tanks and bridges being blown up, but were just models on movie sets. Goebbels and his men frequently made fun of ordinary people, mentioning how easily they were manipulated and how he could get them to do anything.

When the film gets to the speeches of Himmler, it is interspersed with real and quite graphic footage. It’s hard to watch, but this is where the rhetoric and the fascism takes you. Every single time. It begins with rhetoric and ends with the “out group” dead.

You can call these people demons and monsters, but they were also extremely charming and proved any idiot can take power if they’re charismatic enough.

The film ends with Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor, speaking, followed by a quote from Primo Levi, author and Holocaust Survivor:

I survived. I can speak for those who cannot speak. I speak not only for the six million Jews, but for all the people who were killed back then. People have to respect people. We’re all the same. We all come to this world the same. That’s why it is not understandable that so many people were prepared to kill other people, instead of recognizing them as human beings. Be human! That’s the most important thing.

“It happened…and it can therefore happen again. Therein lies the core of what we have to say.”
-Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor

You can watch Goebbels and the Führer on Amazon, and YouTube.

The Silent Child

The Silent Child is another film, albeit a short 20-minute one, and not a documentary. Still, it’s been sitting with me for a while and I wanted to share it.

Please turn on captions, as they are essential for the sign-language used throughout this film.

Libby is a 6-year-old girl. She has spent her life in silence. When a new social worker arrives on the scene, Libby is given the gift of communication through sign language and begins to blossom.

While I am not deaf, many scenes depicting Libby’s exclusion and isolation strongly hit home with me. It’s a really good film and I don’t think I can bear to watch it again.

I don’t want to spoil it for you so just go watch it. It won the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards.

Also, you’re going to cry watching this.

You can visit the website for the film and watch it on YouTube, Amazon, and Roku.

This month was a little different as these films were not strictly documentaries, but I thought they were interesting enough to pass along. Enjoy.