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> The aim of propaganda is to change minds via the use of emotion, misinformation, disinformation, truths, half-truths, and cleverly selected facts; not to enlighten (although one can technically propagandize true information, using emotion to sell truth, this generally isn’t what we are talking about when we use the term “propaganda”). My understanding is that experts consider the aim of propaganda to be confusing and paralyzing the enemy, preventing effective communication, debate and decision-making. For example, after 2016, the widespread, hyper-inflammatory trolling and attacks prevented the discussion of politics. Many forums I know, including HN to an extent, simply banned it. To this day, many issues are very difficult to discuss (e.g., Trump, racism, etc.); you can't share information, discuss things, because the discussions seem to blow up (and even mentioning that those issues exist might provoke something here - please don't). That's effective propaganda. It's not clear to me that the author has real knowledge of propaganda beyond their own observations and theories. There is a lot of better research and knowledge out there. |