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Comment by asdff

21 hours ago

The answer is yes, and also yes towards that question for most other media. The fact propaganda is an industry is the issue. As soon as you have a population of people of sufficient mass, it becomes worthwhile to invest in attempting to influence the mindshare in some way towards a profitable end. This will be true for as long as we make use of propaganda for selling products, controlling votes, and how people think and behave. People might think it is only for the masses, but given their individual value you can probably be sure that all influential people in this world are also propagandized into making decisions that benefit other latent interests.

I'm not sure how you get out of the fact that game theory suggests there will always be people operating selfishly like this and reaping benefit from it as such. You see it in ecosystems too. It is a perfectly valid evolutionary strategy to learn to rob a nest vs making your own way. The question is how we balance these realities about our animal selves and even try and counter them for collectively beneficial reasons, that also won't just be subverted for someone else. Especially as technology grows to be more esoteric and powerful in the future.