Contra on Nostr: Propaganda has always needed one thing to work, which is that you can't check it. A ...

Propaganda has always needed one thing to work, which is that you can't check it. A broadcast tells you the economy is strong and the streets are safe, and for most of the last century the only thing pushing back was your own memory and whatever your neighbors happened to say.

That's changed. You're the test now. You buy the groceries every week and you remember what rent was five years ago. The message says one thing and the receipt says another, and the receipt doesn't care what the anchor said.

My guess is it comes down to evidence. People have a lot more of it, their own and everybody else's. Somebody announces that everything is fine and a hundred people in the replies just paid double for the same cart of food. That used to take years to find out.

Your bullshit detector is a lot better than anyone told you it was. When something feels off it usually is, and you can say so with plenty of noise. Plenty of people are waiting for someone to go first.