• UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    One of the ways con artists spot a good mark is finding someone that believes that they can’t be fooled, and often the con involved buttering up the mark into thinking they’re smarter than everyone else (for buying into the con) on top of that.

    A massive part of US-produced propaganda, in its entertainment in particular, is to instill in its consumers the belief that everyone else around them is gullible, stupid, or even less human than themselves (see the “NPC” chud meme going around for the latest version of that), and that makes the other propaganda messages easier for each consumer to absorb because it seems like a thought out, independent, and rational decision rather than one nudged along the entire time. not-immune-to-propaganda