>The best defense is to not absorb the data to begin with.

The despair that can result from this is almost unimaginable though. When you separate yourself from the propaganda infrastructure then try to have conversations with people and at the slightest prompting they start vomiting talking points and a viewpoint that's purely based on propaganda... oh god, it's unbearable. And you can't call them stupid because they're not stupid they're just... outmatched by a professional force.

It's too true and so depressing. People can't stand up to the immense volumes of resources and hundreds (thousands?) of years of research these organizations are founded on. All my education has lead me to not participating being the best solution.

Despair is a good word. I couldn't think of a better one to describe the dropping of emotion that I feel when I hear people repeat verbatim.

Wish there were something we could do.

Indeed. The talking points really stand out. Especially from the reactionary side, they often have no other basis than 'this is what is being repeated'.