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Those 21 percent are objectively correct:
The story advances no solid facts or verified information.
What it does advance is pre-existing imperialist agendas like remaining in Afghanistan, killing the last of the remaining nuclear deals with Moscow, and manufacturing public support for new Russia sanctions.
And yet a majority of people believed it, and still believe it...
The narrative that Russia paid Taliban fighters to kill occupying forces is now regarded as an established fact in many key circles, despite being backed by literally zero facts.
If people were as objective and adept at critical thinking as we tend to believe we are, the mass media's unconscionable facilitation of a brazen cold war psyop would by itself have killed off all public trust in the institution of mass news reporting.
But people are not as objective and adept at critical thinking as we tend to believe we are.
People have many cognitive biases which distort our ability to objectively process information and understand events, including,
This makes us easily susceptible to mass media propaganda, where our encounters with daily news headlines can shape our perception of what's going on in the world regardless of whether or not those headlines are backed by actual facts.
This latest poll is a perfect example of how the plutocrat-owned media manipulate public opinion in the interest of establishment agendas using brazen propaganda campaigns, but it is just the most recent example.
Over and over and over again we see public perception of what's going on distorted by lies inserted into their minds by the corporate news media, like when half a year after the invasion of Iraq seven in ten Americans believed Saddam Hussein was 'responsible' for the 9/11 attacks.
All it took to trick them into believing this and supporting the invasion was repeatedly mentioning 9/11 and Saddam in the same breath, despite there never being any evidence whatsoever for any such thing.
This kind of manipulation is not rare, it is ubiquitous and ongoing.
Every single day the plutocratic media are putting ideas in people's minds which favor the establishment upon which said plutocrats have,
This is not some delusional conspiracy theory, it's a well-documented fact to which many mainstream journalists have testified.
If the majority is consistently in alignment with the plutocrats whose outsized media influence enables them to dominate the public narrative, then voting necessarily reflects the will of those plutocrats, not the people.
Even if you changed everything else that is wrong with the current system, nothing would change if the plutocratic class retained its ability to manipulate the way people think and vote.
You can fix America's garbage election integrity, end gerrymandering, even get money out of politics, but as long as the plutocratic class is still using its wealth to manipulate public thought in support of its interests, people would keep voting the way they're manipulated to vote.
Manipulation is a key ingredient in any long-term abusive relationship, because people don't tend to stay in abusive situations unless they are manipulated into doing so.
This is true whether you're talking about romantic partnerships, governments, or globe-spanning power structures.
We don't use the power of our numbers to end this,
...because we're being manipulated into staying.
And, just like with any other abusive relationship, there comes a time to leave before it's too late.
That time is now...!
We can begin by expanding awareness of what's really going on, both inwardly in ourselves and outwardly by sharing truthful information with others.
In so doing, we stand a chance at making ourselves impossible to propagandize effectively and using our strength in numbers to force real change.
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