Everybody makes the mistake of assuming propaganda doesn’t apply to them.

Let me rephrase. People who know propaganda exists make that mistake. Obviously a large portion of the world doesn’t even know propaganda is a thing. They take everything at face value.

But there’s an increasing number who get it. Who understand that powerful forces with vested interests are propagandizing populations today with much more sophisticated tools than what was available in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here’s the problem: even those people make the mistake of assuming that because they’re aware of propaganda, they’re immune to it.

They’re not.

Propaganda applies to everyone. Everybody has been propagandized to some extent.

Why? Because of a basic feature of human nature.

If you don’t understand human nature, you are by default propagandized.

Here’s the simple part: People are shaped by their earliest experiences. Everything between 0 and 5 years old makes up 95% of your ego identity. The rest of your life is essentially shaped by those experiences.

Very little you do beyond age five will change the biggest impacts on your personality and identity.

And yet you don’t remember anything from that time.

You’re flying blind.

The only window you have is emotions. Emotions show you the experiences you don’t remember. But emotions aren’t obvious. They’re vague. Just feelings. They’re a compass pointing in a general direction, never pinpointing the exact location.

If you don’t understand this feature of human nature, you’re prone to propaganda.

Because the powerful forces with vested interests have learned to exploit exactly that.

The most intelligent people. The most well-educated. PhDs. Self-taught. Completely ignorant. When it comes to this level of human nature, everybody plays on a level playing field.

You cannot educate your way out of this.

The most intelligent people you’ve looked up to your entire life are just as prone to sophisticated propaganda as anyone else.

No one is free from this exploit.

So why am I saying this?

Because we need to be very careful when we point out that other people have been propagandized.

We ourselves are just as likely to have been propagandized.

It’s projection.

Before you assume somebody else has been propagandized, assume that you yourself have possibly been propagandized into believing the very position you’re now using to criticize others.

Both sides might be equally manipulated.

The only way out is to assume you yourself are prone to propaganda.

That’s it.

Don’t assume your position is more valid. Don’t assume the other person has been manipulated and you haven’t.

It comes down to this: we cannot remember the experiences that shaped our identity. And yet our identity governs most of our lives.

That’s the dilemma.