Your Brain on Propaganda
So this morning I woke up a little later than usual. Didn’t have much on the agenda besides maybe working out. I got up from bed, stretched a little, took one step and boom, stubbed my toe. Ouch 😫.
As I’m holding my foot, annoyed at the universe, this book falls off the shelf and hits the floor:
Propaganda by Edward Bernays.
It was given to me a while back, it’s one of those books you know you should read but never get around to. It’s been just sitting there collecting dust until today. And I figured, alright… maybe this is a sign.
So first, before diving into all this – let’s define propaganda real quick.
Propaganda is the art of shaping your perception without you realizing it’s happening.
It’s not always a lie. In fact, it’s more dangerous when it’s not.
It’s truth wrapped in emotion, stripped of context, and repeated until it becomes reality.
It plays on fear, identity, repetition, groupthink.
It doesn’t tell you what to think directly – it creates the environment where certain thoughts feel natural and others feel like crimes.
It’s not just in the media. It is the media.
It’s your commercials. It’s your politics. It’s your algorithm.
And most people have no idea how deep it runs. And neither did I.
So I start reading this book as I sip my caramel latte lol – thinking it’s gonna be some dry, intellectual history lesson. Nah. Within a few pages, I’m like yo… this is wild.
Edward Bernays – this man wasn’t warning us about propaganda…
He was teaching governments and corporations how to use it.
He was literally out here showing them how to control public opinion without anyone knowing they were being controlled.
One of the first examples that blew my mind?
Bacon and eggs. 🍳 🥓
You ever wonder why that’s considered a “traditional American breakfast”? That wasn’t culture – that was a marketing campaign. Bernays was hired by a meat company to boost bacon sales, so he got doctors to say a heavy breakfast was healthier. Then he ran with it. Boom – bacon and eggs became a “classic.” Not because we chose it, but because we were sold it.
And I couldn’t believe it – I love bacon 😩 🥓
Whole time I thought it was just a family thing or some American tradition. Nope. It was psychological product placement before that was even a term.
And that’s when it hit me – 😳
If they could shape something as harmless as breakfast, what else have they been planting in our minds?
Turns out, it’s not just breakfast. It’s everything.
Bernays talks about how people don’t make decisions based on logic – we make them based on emotion, fear, identity, and repetition. And the ones in power? They know that. So they don’t argue with you. They don’t need to.
They just feed you the same message over and over until it becomes your truth.
And the wild part is – they make you think you came up with it on your own.
Let me break it down:
Fear: Keep people afraid, and they’ll do anything for safety. Doesn’t matter if the threat is real or exaggerated – fear overrides thinking. Whether it’s a virus, a country, or your neighbor with a different opinion… fear is the quickest way to get people in line.
Repetition: Say something enough times and it becomes “common sense.” It’s why you hear the same slogans across every channel. It’s not an accident – it’s a script.
Groupthink: Humans want to belong. So when everyone around you is saying the same thing, you start to feel like questioning it makes you the crazy one. So you stay quiet. You go along. You scroll past. And that silence becomes part of the control.
Sound familiar?
That’s how wars get sold.
That’s how politicians get elected.
That’s how billion-dollar lies become bedtime stories brother.
It’s easy to think propaganda only exists in history books – Nazi Germany, Cold War Russia, whatever. But once you learn how it works, you start seeing it everywhere.
Like remember when we were told Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”?
They repeated it nonstop. Every news outlet, every press conference, every politician. Fear. Repetition. Groupthink.
People were so convinced, they cheered for a war that killed hundreds of thousands – and there were no weapons. But the perception was there. And that’s all they needed.
Fast-forward to today.
You’ve got wars happening right now – people dying, countries being destroyed – and half the world doesn’t even know what’s real anymore. Because every side has its own footage, its own headlines, its own “truth.”
But the truth doesn’t go viral.
Emotion does.
Fear does.
Tribal loyalty does.
So most people just pick a side, regurgitate what they’ve been fed, and scroll on.
And this is where it gets deep:
Perception is reality.
Not the reality.
Your reality.
If your perception of a group is that they’re dangerous, you’ll treat them like a threat – even if they’ve never done anything to you.
If your perception of a politician is that they’re “for the people,” you’ll ignore every corrupt thing they do.
If your perception of the system is that it’s fair, you won’t question the injustice built into it.
Control perception → control thought → control behavior.
That’s propaganda’s true power. It doesn’t just lie to you. It reshapes the way you see the world. And once it does that, it doesn’t need to lie anymore. You’ll defend the illusion all by yourself.
So how do you spot propaganda?
First off – if it triggers a strong emotional reaction before you even understand it… pause.
That’s the first red flag. Propaganda doesn’t want you to think – it wants you to feel, instantly.
Here’s a quick filter I use when I feel like something’s trying to steer me:
Who benefits from me believing this?
Always follow the money, the power, or the distraction.
Is this being repeated by everyone in the same exact way?
When every outlet, influencer, and ad is using the same words – it’s probably a script, not a story.
Am I allowed to question this without being shamed, canceled, or called crazy?
If disagreement feels dangerous, you’re not in a conversation. You’re in a cult my guy.
Does this message rely on fear, guilt, or outrage to work?
That’s manipulation, not information.
Is it telling me what to think, or teaching me how to think?
Big difference.
Most people think propaganda is just about politics or war or the news.
But it’s deeper than that.
It’s in what we think is possible.
What we think is normal.
What we think we deserve.
And that’s what messed me up the most.
Because once I realized how easily our reality can be shaped without us knowing, I had to ask myself:
How much of my mind is really mine?
And how much of it was installed?
So yeah… all that from stubbing my toe and sipping a caramel latte.
Now I’m sitting here wondering if the iced caramel latte was propaganda too.
Was it really my craving, or did some marketing team plant that in my head back in 2011 during a Starbucks commercial with soft jazz and smiling people? I don’t even know anymore.
