You know the meme. “You are not immune to propaganda.” Nobody is immune to propaganda. Propaganda is designed to use the brain’s own style of functioning to bypass our conscious objections. So what is to be done? We know that people form identities in response to outside rival identities. We know that people develop their identity by saying: I’m not like those people I don’t like.
So what is the best defense? Create our own propaganda. Indoctrinate ourselves.
Build an identity that reacts against the ideologies we find abominable. As the identity forms, the propaganda aligning with those ideologies will find no purchase in our newly inoculated brains. The trick here is to use our own propaganda on foundational ideas: such as universal human rights, the scientific process, etcetera. Rather than ingroup affiliation or privilege.
This is no easy task. But the alternative is to actively attempt to interdict every piece of propaganda individually. And that is an exhausting proposition. And the modern fascist tactic relies upon the idea that massive memetic disinformation campaigns can exhaust the opposition’s will power and mental resistance. We need more energy efficient defenses. The answer is to build our own propaganda.
Propaganda isn’t going away. You may as well control it.
Professor Harbinger's School for Villains 