Interesting explanation. Democracy can't really work unless people have a trusted source of truth and those seem hard to come by these days with the struggles of for-profit news orgs (mostly owned by the same few giant media conglomerates). Would make sense that an effective angle of propaganda is to exacerbate that in any way possible.

[–] r0ertel@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Long ago, I read an article of how propoganda was used heavily in WW2 by Germany against its citizens to help unify the country behind an authoritarian regieme and how the rise of a national trusted news source, decouoled from government and private interests was created to reduce polarization.

Found it: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/what-germany-can-teach-america-about-polarization/619582/

Archived, non paywall version: https://web.archive.org/web/20210810211957/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/what-germany-can-teach-america-about-polarization/619582/