Arthur Ponsonby

📙🇬🇧Falsehood in War Time: Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War (1928)

Atrocity Stories; Belgian Baby Without Hands; Louvain Altar-Piece; The Crucified Canadian; The Corpse Factory;

These are notes from an infamous repressed buried book, one of many that followed the first world war and exposed the government sanctioned lies and propaganda used to encourage violence, bloodshed and crimes against humanity.

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Contents

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"The ignorant and innocent masses in each country are unaware at the time that they are being misled, and when it is all over only here and there are the falsehoods discovered and exposed."

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"The public can be worked up emotionally by sham ideals. A sort of collective hysteria spreads and rises until finally it gets the better of sober people and reputable newspapers."

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"A moment's reflection would tell any reasonable person that such obvious bias cannot possibly represent the truth. But the moment's reflection is not allowed; lies are circulated with great rapidity. The unthinking mass accept them and by their excitement sway the rest."

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'With eavesdroppers, letter-openers, decipherers, phone tappers, spies, an intercept dept, forgery dept, criminal investigation dept, propaganda dept, intel dept, censorship dept, a ministry of info, press bureau, etc. various Govs were well equipped to "instruct" their peoples.'

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"It has been rightly said that the injection of the poison of hatred into men's minds by means of falsehood is a greater evil in war-time than the actual loss of life. The defilement of the human soul is worse than the destruction of the human body."

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The myriad of types of lying by government...

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"Other varieties of falsehood more subtle and elusive might be found, but the above pretty well cover the ground."

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"Perhaps nothing did more to impress the public mind-and this is true in all countries-than the assistance given in propaganda by intellectuals and literary notables."

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"The resultant \& significant loss of spiritual influence by the Churches is, in itself, sufficient evidence of the reaction against the betrayal in time of stress of the most elementary precepts of Christianity by those specially entrusted with the moral welfare of the people."

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"The fog arises from fear and is fed by panic. Any attempt to doubt or deny even the most fantastic story has to be condemned at once as unpatriotic, if not traitorous. This allows a free field for the rapid spread of lies."

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"...the most upright men honestly believe that there is no depth of duplicity to which they may not legitimately stoop... If the truth were told from the outset, there would be no reason and no will for war."

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"Make Germany pay" continued after 1918 \& led... to high expectations \& consequent indignation when it was found that the people who raised this slogan knew all the time it was a fantastic impossibility. Many old war lies survived several years, \& some survive even to this day.

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"...there is not a living soul in any country who does not deeply resent having his passions roused, his indignation inflamed, his patriotism exploited, and his highest ideals desecrated by concealment, subterfuge, fraud, falsehood, trickery, and deliberate lying..."

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End of Introduction

"THE accusation against the enemy of sole responsibility for the war is common form in every nation, in every war. So far as we are concerned, the Russians (Crimean War), Afghans, Arabs, Zulus, Boers, were each in turn unprovoked aggressors, to take only some recent instances."

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'HAVING declared the enemy the sole culprit and originator of the war, the next step is to personify the enemy. As a nation consists of millions of people and the absurd analogy of an individual criminal and a nation may become apparent even to moderately intelligent people

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...it is necessary to detach an individual on whom may be concentrated all the vials of the wrath of an innocent people who are only defending themselves from" unprovoked aggression."'

"The Criminal Kaiser"

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'after it had been privately ascertained that the Government of Holland, whither the Kaiser had fled, would not give him up, the "Hang the Kaiser" campaign was launched, and in the General Election of 1918 candidates lost votes who would not commit themselves to this policy.'

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"propaganda had a great influence on feelings. There can be no question 1000s joined up under the impression that the object of the war was to catch this monster, little knowing that war is like chess: you cannot take the King while the game is going on; it is against the rules."

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From The Corpse Factory chapter. Echoed propaganda used to demonize Germany during and after WW2 to this very day.

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"At best, human testimony is unreliable, even in ordinary occurrences of no consequence, but where bias, sentiment, passion, and so-called patriotism disturb the emotions, a personal affirmation becomes of no value whatsoever."

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Evil Germans?

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British Government investigated thousands of reports and found Germans innocent of the atrocity charges.

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"It does not occur to anyone to question a photograph, and faked pictures therefore have special value, as they get a much better start than any mere statement, which may be criticized or denied. Only a long time after, if ever, can their falsity be detected."

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"It comes as a shock therefore to those who patriotically accept their Government's story to find that instances of suppression were abound in the form of passages carefully and intentionally suppressed from published official documents."

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Poison Gas aka Chemical Weapons... "Our arsenal at Edgewood, Maryland, and its tributaries was turning out 810 tons weekly against 385 tons by France, 410 tons Britain, and only 210 Germany. It was almost ready to increase its output..."

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I have missed out many, many pages, including a large number of ridiculous and horrific fake mockingbird media wartime stories. Recommend reading the book for detail.

Chinese Whispers on The Fall Of Antwerp

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Interestingly to note The British Empire gains...

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"Is further proof needed that international war is a monster born of hypocrisy, fed on falsehood, fattened on humbug, kept alive by superstition, directed to the death and torture of millions, succeeding in no high purpose, degrading to humanity, endangering civilization ..."

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Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (16 February 1871 – 23 March 1946), was a British politician, writer, and social activist. He was the third son of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria.

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