My theory is that the more involved the audience is in the medium, the more effective the message.
Hasbara is above all meant to explain reality. Some forms are more emotionally involving than others. But the point is never to lie, nor to brainwash. When a pro-Israel rally is held, the centerpiece is the speeches, meant to get points across to the audience. Seeing the horrors of October 7 on video is more gripping than reading about it.
This is where the anti-Israel people have a huge messaging advantage over Zionists.
When they encourage/pressure people to chant their message, that is higher up the hierarchy of communication than I even imagined. The audience becomes part of giving the message, rather than just consuming it.
This goes beyond communication - it is brainwashing. Every study of brainwashing mentions the importance of repetition in making people believe something, even if it is obviously false. Making the targets themselves perform the repetition makes them even more emotionally tied to the message - they will never, ever want to believe that something so important to them that they themselves said it over and over again could be false.
The repetition also is the key factor in the illusory truth effect - the more people hear lies, the more they believe them.
The advantage of anti-Israel propaganda is that they lie. And they have a methodology to not only lie but to brainwash people to believe the lies.
That's something the pro-Israel side cannot do.
