How propaganda "hacked" American minds; can it be reverse-engineered?

Author (and physical therapist) Michelle Stiles wrote a book a few years ago that seemed worthy of review now, more than ever. "One Idea To Rule Them All: Reverse Engineering American Propaganda" isn't strictly a political book, per se, but it does offer a lot of clues leading us to realizing why we're in the political state we're in currently.

Oner particular excerpt caught my at the start of chapter ten ("Planet Vulnerable") under the first subhead "Tyranny in a Democracy."

"How does one convert a democracy, or rather a republic, into atyranny? Most people would say that it can’t be done.The peo-ple are supposed to rule through their elected representatives.They work for us, right? America was set up as the ultimatebulwark against tyranny.

The founders created multiple checks and balances so thatno one branch of government could become too strong. Theyalso created two chambers of the legislature to ensure that therights of states would not be overshadowed by simple majorityrule or federal overreach.

Sure, some citizens have vague feelings that the govern-ment has become less responsive or sense that there are morebad apples in government than ever before, but the alarmswitch that should trigger the potent potential of a growingtyranny never gets activated.

After all, we, the people, are still in charge. We have elec-tions, a free press, the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution in place to protect us. For most people, the solidframework of freedom still stands. The answer is to get theright people into office, and then the ship will correct itself.It’s nothing to worry about. Seeing tyranny and propaganda at work in a democracy can be hard."

This book came out in November of 2022, in case you thought this was a new release based on current headlines. Nope.

Michelle and I discussed a range of manipulative and propagandized elements to our American history, form politics to race to war and even the automobile.

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Speaking of propaganda, North Fulton / Roswell residents weren't buying it when ⁠Rep. Rich McCormick (R) held a town hall meeting last night,⁠ but Elon Musk's X platform seems to have their filters set to suppress anything anti-DOGE, as evidenced by Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter ⁠Greg Bluestein's curiously "unavailable" tweet videos⁠ from that blustery gathering. Then there’s Forsyth County, Ga., resident (and Georgia Tech grad) Ken Kirkland going toe-to-toe with Elon and getting Musk’s nonsense “Community Notes’ed” when Musk, himself, tried to paint Kirkland a “liar.”

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Also, delicious to see how Fox News' host Jesse Watters suddenly finds the DOGE "chainsaw" effect too sloppy once he learned a friend of his lost his federal job. F.A. F.O.