Let's concede you can't shape narrative or change peoples minds through online content (though I would disagree on this). The very act of addicting people to digital platforms is enough for control. Drain their dopamine daily, fragment them into isolated groups, use influencers as proxies for control, and voila, you have an effect.

I would agree with you. It's easier to just muddy the waters and degrade people's ability to hold attention or think critically. But that is not the same thing as convincing them of what you want them to think.

It's always easier to throw petrol on an existing fire than to light one.

If you censor all opposing arguments, all you need to do to convince the vast majority of people of most things is too keep repeating yourself until people forget that there ever were opposing arguments.

In this world you can get people censored for slandering beef, or for supporting the outcome of a Supreme Court case. Then pay people to sing your message over and over again in as many different voices as can be recruited. Done.

edit: I left out "offer your most effective enemies no-show jobs, and if they turn them down, accuse them of being pedophiles."

i'm having trouble following what you are saying. Are you describing something that's happening now or will happen in the future ?

I'm unaware of any mass censoring apparatus that exists outside of authoritarian countries, such as China or North Korea.

I think you dramatically underestimate how much your own mind is a product of narratives, some of which are self-selected, many of which are influenced by others.

Perhaps, but what you said is unfalsifiable and/or unknowable.

Ideologies are not invented unless you're a caveman. We all got to know the world by listening to others.

The subject of discussion is if and when external forces can alter those ideologies at will. And I have not seen any evidence to support the feasibility of that at scale.

The idea that falsifiability is necessary or good for a belief system is a narrative you are choosing to believe in. :)

You lost me.