[user104658]

Originally Posted by Alf

Next you should read up on and study the principles of Joseph Goebbels propaganda. You'll realise that a lot of that is going on in 2021.

Specifically control through fear / generating "fear of the other" to distract from totalitarian goals? I don't necessarily disagree but these principles hardly originate with Goebbels, they're as old as civilisation itself.

What I would say though, is that current conspiracy peddling is a symptom of that. 2021 (mainly US-based) conspiracies (US election fraud, COVID is a hoax, Climate change isn't real, 5G is Chinese spies etc.) are tools designed to promote and further division and tribalism, dressed up as truth, and sold to gullible people with poor critical reasoning skills.