Traditional propaganda analysis asks: what is false about this claim? Does the enemy actually plot world domination? Are they actually godless? Are they actually subhuman?
Sam Keen inverts the analysis: never mind whether the accusation is accurate. The accusation reveals what the accuser has disowned in themselves.1
The Nazis accused Jews of plotting world domination. This accusation reveals: the Nazis were planning world domination and projected this ambition onto Jews. The accusation is a confession disguised as accusation.
Americans demonized Soviets as "godless atheists" and fundamentally devious. This accusation reveals: American anxiety about its own functional atheism (nationalism as god-substitute) and its own covert operations.
To read propaganda accurately, invert it. Ask: what does this accusation reveal about the accuser?
Listening to what a nation demonizes in its enemy is a form of self-knowledge. The nation is telling you what it has disowned, what it cannot acknowledge in itself, what it has projected onto the external other.
This is not mere psychology (though the mechanism is psychological). It is operational intelligence. Understanding what a nation has disowned enables you to:
Behavioral-Mechanics ↔ Psychology: Projection is both individual defense mechanism and propaganda tactic. Understanding individual projection enables recognition of collective propaganda.
Behavioral-Mechanics ↔ Hermeneutics: Propaganda is a text that can be read for what it confesses rather than what it claims. Reading as disclosure rather than description is a hermeneutic skill.
When encountering propaganda, invert: What does this accusation reveal about the accuser? What has the accuser disowned that they are attributing to the enemy?
Your nation's accusations against enemies are confessions. The hysteria with which accusations are made is proportional to how much the nation has disowned that capacity.