The Danger of Propaganda-Driven America Part 2

[Note: This is a follow up to "The Danger of a Propaganda-Driven America" that I wrote in September of 2017] Propaganda works because it flatters core flaws in one's character: envy, anger, resentment, fear. And the truth, which is hard work, just doesn't seem worth the effort anymore when Fox News etc. is willing to serve sweet, intoxicating lies.

Once a group of people become organized around the principles of the propagandist they become helpless before the power of the lies - essentially enslaved to the lies. Having lost the will to submit to the hard work of seeking what is true, the will becomes enslaved to base emotions. It becomes gratifying to participate in the lie. It becomes addicting, thrilling to become angry when even the most obvious lies are called out. Lashing out at truth tellers becomes something of a blood sport. When a group of people get to this point things become dangerous.
The propagandist, if malicious, can instill a nearly irreversible course of political violence if the lie is one of scapegoating (blaming social and personal ills on a person or class of people, or classes of people).

I believe we are at an inflection point in our nation's history where political violence caused by a significantly propagandized portion of the populace (both in amount of people who've fallen prey and the sheer malice of the propaganda) is *inevitable* on our current course. The path we must take to avoid such a disaster is in a non-violent intervention by the non-propagandized through massive protest and civil disobedience (both of which must remain peaceful). It is in this collective action that truth can gain entrance into the collective consciousness and conversation. Only when truth re-enters the conversation as something more valuable than victory, can other virtues such as compassion, justice, courage, etc. begin to flourish in any collective sense. Only when truth re-enters our collective purpose is there even the possibility of the work of seeing each other in our full humanity. However, if even a significant minority of us willfully choose to be lost to the rule of lies, the possibility of belonging one to each other is out of reach. History has shown that under such conditions the direction a society will take, indeed, must take, is the path of tragedy.