The Cure for Propaganda

“We can’t know everything… everything isn’t so clear-cut…”

“There’s no smoke without fire…”

“Everyone lies, and I don’t believe anyone…”

“I know these people, they couldn’t have done it…”

“Up there, too, there aren’t fools…”

All these statements seem measured and fair. But in practice, they often turn into refusal to try to understand what’s going on, dependence on “superiors,” turning independent subjects into helpless children who have no opinion of their own—or who blindly believe whatever they’re fed by mass media and social networks.

This book explores propaganda from a psychological perspective. It doesn’t set out to convince the reader of any viewpoint whatsoever. My goal as an author is to explain what propaganda is, what techniques it uses, how it works inside our heads and in the external media space. I’m sure that even in our complicated world, where lies and truth are mixed, where mass media create such convincing images that you don’t even want to question their truthfulness—people can independently regain control over what they know and what they believe, and therefore over their own lives. But for that, you need to arm yourself with information, logic, awareness of your feelings, and emotional intelligence.