this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face
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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.