There is actually an article from a few years ago about the scientific basis for that:
It also explains why lies, for which an individual has no first hand experience, can become so ingrained.
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Ironically that’s very likely an example of the theory itself, as afaik there’s no proof that Goebbels ever actually said that, but people have been repeating it as a quote by him so often it has become a ‘truth’.
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The “big lie” trope was original in Mein Kampf and used to describe Jews who believed that Germany lost the First World War.
Goebbels later used it to describe Churchill and it seems to have been conflated with his quotes about effective propaganda being simple points, repeated ad infinitum.
The modern equivalent is Trump’s use of the phrase, “Fake News”, to describe something that is obviously true, but does not fit the narrative of a demagogue.
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That’s a bit misleading as a summary of Hitler’s ‘Big Lie’, but ok.
Afaik that alleged Goebbels quote most likely comes from a British or at least English speaking source and then was translated to German and now supposedly respectable German media repeat it as an actual quote.
Kind of amazing how often quotes are falsely attributed to people.
My favourite one is the “Football is like chess, just without the dice.” (allegedly said by Lukas Podolski, when it actually was the comedian Böhmermann parodying him - again was falsely attributed for years by journalists)
Sorry for derailing a bit.
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I don’t think that is possible.
Too fast erosion of culture catapulted by large immigration (culture always changes with the time, but what frightens people is almost always speed), is worrying just too many people all over Europe. For a Social Democratic party to discard the worry and fright of the masses as mere “nonsense”, is politically deadly. You have to take into account what people fear, and particularly for a party that wants working class votes (this class is the one most worried about too much immigration and too fast culture change). It is not a British phenonamon this, it is a European one where the perception of too many voters is that the social fabric, the threads, are straining due to too much immigration and too fast culture change as a result.
You also have to take into account that a lot of working class people do not see restricting immigration as “right wing”, and many working class people in Europe are angry and fed up because they see Social Democratic parties as having a responsibility to protect their jobs and their own people, something too many are of the opinion that traditional leftist parties have abandoned by allowing “too much " and too fast immigration (”", because I write about other people’s worries, not my own). This is happening all over Europe. Certainly not particular for the UK. If a Social Democratic party, particularly in power, ignores these worries, they will be punished and this is a trend all over Europe. It is so easy then for Right Wing populists to fish these fed up and worried voters into their sinister nets.
Again, general public worry regarding too high immigration and too fast culture erosion/change is only ignored at a Social Democratic party’s peril (or death).
We see this in Scandinavia, we see this all over Europe. It is the sociopolitical downside of the economic boost of immigration.
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This is completely overplayed by the right. How much is daily life being changed by immigration? All the negative changes being blamed on immigrants are as a result of underinvestiment, thanks to austerity and privatisation.
The only changes I can see which can be attributed to immigrants are positive: better food, for example.
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I saw a study recently that suggested Climate Change is now the biggest cause of human movement, and that’s before things have really started biting.
I find it really cognitively weird that anti-immigration rhetoric always goes hand in hand with climate denial.
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I rarely see quotes on the Internet that are correctly attributed. More often than not, if it said to be from Einstein, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde or Churchill, it’s actually someone else. (I think the phrase Churchillian Drift has been used to describe it.)
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Of course it is overplayed ! That is their strategy. But the sentiment is there and one cannot politically ignore it. You must change it, but that takes time. You must decrease fear of rapid change and for a time, indeed probably be restrictive like Denmark; where the Social Democratic party has succeeded in sidelining the Right Wing extremists to a large degree. The Right Wing in Denmark no longer owns the immigration debate, like they used to do. Of course there are negatives with this approach, but it crucially decreases social tension.
And maybe it is just me, but look at the United States and what high social tension can create..
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I think the thing that bothers me about that false Goebbels quote in particular is how people use it in debates about the present, as if there had been some kind of honesty or a moment of public self awareness by a Nazi like Goebbels, when in reality it was the opposite, using claims of ‘big lies’ to denounce their enemies. Like you already hinted at, bit like today.
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I didn’t say ignore it.
I said not pandering to it.
It’s long past time that someone offered an argument against it. Anti-immigration sentiment is on the rise everywhere simply because cowardly politicians use immigrants as a convenient scapegoat for their own failings.
It’s not necessarily pandering to it. Judging from what I read in the article its suggesting about 15% of asylum applications are made by people who have entered the country student visas. There is nothing in there though about the success rate of those applications which would be relevant to any discussion on whether or not this is an appropriate change. If these are all frivolous applications then that is clearly a significant cost to the taxpayer and impacts negatively on other people who could have benefitted from the use of that resource.
And, as for appealing to voters on their economic message, whenever they have tried doing that since they formed the government, people have just complained about it anyway - often blaming them for things that have been beyond their control. Until they are able to leverage benefits from higher growth, lower interest rates and energy prices/ inflation then it will be difficult for any economic message to break through. And, even then I suspect they wont be credited with anything then either.
A nice article from one of the more tolerable Conservative MPs of recent years:
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Im not a violent man, but I’d happily smash Rachel Reeves hard in the face.
Objectionable bitch
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We are premier league champions 
Told you he’s basically a Tory.
Although, in his defence:
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Yeah cheers @cynicaloldgit i thought id check too as the youtube comments werent really that much of a source.
But deleted , what a fucking world we live , we really are fuckwits if people can create shit so easily just to cause a reaction, i admit i was blinded by the fact of what it was about, so apologies.
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Here we go. The end of civilisation beckons.
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