Comment by ben_w
5 hours ago
I've heard many variants; Paris in an earlier war, too.
I try to keep an open mind about propaganda fooling me today; the people who were fooled in the past often were not fools themselves.
5 hours ago
I've heard many variants; Paris in an earlier war, too.
I try to keep an open mind about propaganda fooling me today; the people who were fooled in the past often were not fools themselves.
I think this can't be said enough. Propaganda's greatest weapon is making you think you are immune to it. Maybe some, but so much is propaganda. We all fall for propaganda (and ads), constantly
Being fooled doesn't make you a fool. But being unwilling to change your mind does. Being unable to admit you don't know or don't have enough information to make a strong opinion makes you a fool too.
Propaganda wants to take shortcuts, to simplify things. To trivialize. "It's so easy, you just..." because the fool is the person who already knows, the person who has nothing to learn, the person who thinks they're better than everybody else.
In the past, there were not the avenues of finding alternate sources for news. While those avenues are present today, it also allows for additional sources for propaganda. So are we any better today or not???
Not. A thousand cable channels all licensed by a government, is much the same as five broadcast channels licensed by the same government.
A million YouTubers grinding The Algorithm while secretly sponsored by various world governments, isn't much different to a thousand well-placed gossipers secretly sponsored by various world governments.