The West, and particularly the USA, are incredibly highly propagandised. It is no longer about facts or logic or well-formulated arguments. It is all about NARRATIVE.

We see this in the US all the time. For example, when it came to the 2020 election, every mainstream media outlet, every commentator, every pundit, every "reporter" or so-called "newscaster" was constrained to preface any mention of the election as "the most clean and fair election in US history".

This framing of the NARRATIVE became the way in which any questioning of the election could be automatically and immediately dismissed as illegitimate, a so-called "conspiracy theory".

As Chomsky wrote in his watershed book, Manufacturing Consent, the purpose of the Western media is no longer to inform or debate; rather, Western media exists solely to propagate a narrative that serves the strategic political and financial interests of the "global elite".

Hence the election was unquestionably "the most free and fair in all history" and the war in Ukraine was "completely unprovoked".

I found this stunning, that every so-called "news" report would contain what was to me a blatant editorialisation, an opinion as to the legitimacy of the election or the illegitimacy of the invasion, without citing sources or proof.

But that is how things work now. People argue with 0 facts because they are convinced that they don't need to. They see their point of view as unassailable canon, something that cannot be questioned, because "everyone knows" that this is how it is.

Consequently, when it comes to issues like the election or the war in Ukraine, the media has propagated the "dominant narrative" and so successfully "manufactured" the consent of the mass media consumers to the point where, if you offer any critique or alternative opinion, you are treated as either a paid operative or a lunatic who is trying to say the sky is not blue, or water is not wet. Because "everyone just knows" what the truth is.