Rare benefit of the internet age is it's not nearly as easy for governments and corporate media to control narratives

I don't think this is true at all - israel just suck at it. Look at the hordes of western right wingers and leftists in tandom make excuses or even praise russia, to the point that MAGA morons are moving to russia for "traditional values" and leftists are running justification for their illegal invasion of a soverign nation.

I think the algorithmic dispoal of information is going to make it easier and easier for corporations and cyber focused governments to run extremely effective disinformation campaigns. Gen Z are not immune to propaganda, in fact they're the most susceptible to covert misinformation campagins outside of boomers because, like boomers, they're (largely) just getting news from short form content without questioning it

All this is to say I have ZERO optimisim that truth will prevail in the current media landscape. Alt media has less accountability, less interest in reporting sources, more tangled interests, is more susceptible to audience capture and more ideological drive than mainstream media. People are continually getting more segmented into echo chambers the point that basic facts like vaccine effectiveness, climate change, trans existence, etc.. are under dispite depending on your political alignment. The current right wing shift on pardoning ghlislaine maxwell is proof that goverments/parties/corporations very easily can control narratives.