this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face
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Far too many people on Lemmy genuinely not understanding the level of propaganda these people are existing in. Breathing it. Eating it. Sleeping in it.
They choose to be. Never been easier to find different sources of information.
which is even more incredibly fucked when you consider the illusory truth effect, or the effect of something seeming more truthful by the mere repeated exposure to it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect)
Not a valid excuse antmore. We all have access to the internet and can look any of this shit up.
Facts don't counteract propaganda, at least not on their own. This is well studied.
Then why haven't you fallen for the propaganda? Obviously there's more at play here. Like a willingness to question things or an unwillingness to reject things just because you don't like it.
These people are not infants.
I did fall for it. I was a vehement conservative/Republican all through high school and the first year or so of college; I bit down hard on the propaganda and bought it fully. What got me out of it was meeting people not like me and learning that they aren't as evil as the conservative media machine says they are. Once I realized that that was a lie, it was just a process of investigating the other lies. In the meantime, friends from the conservative world started to insult and even threaten me for voicing questions, while progressive folks welcomed me to hang out with them and talk about what I was learning.
That process started in about 2006 or so.By the time Trump came down the escalator, I was fully deprogrammed. At this point, I more or less identify as a democratic socialist.
My experience matched pretty well with the research: it's almost exclusively personal relationships that break people out of the bubble.
It's important to remember that none of us are immune to propaganda. Doesn't matter how smart we are, we can still fall for it.
Absolutely true. I like to think of myself as pretty intelligent, at least. Definitely not someone who would fall for something obvious. But propagandists are subtle and good at their craft.
So proving OP's point that you genuinely don't understand how powerful propaganda actually is and the level of it these people are drowning in.
Heavens Gate got a group of people to commit mass suicide. It's clear you have no idea how powerful propaganda can be and what it can make people do.
Sounds like you need to listen to the audio recordings. A large amount were not suicides
Most of them are too distracted by the endless stream of propaganda and brainrot to take the time to look into things. There's also an excessive amount of denial and it takes character to be open to change your beliefs.
That's what's called an opinion. I agree with it. Just doesn't make it true because you want it to be or because it's easier.