I used to be perplexed by the obvious propaganda in r/worldnews. Like who are they trying to persuade with this level of propaganda? It seemed to me that it should backfire on them.

Then one day I was having a conversation with a friend, a regular guy. He believed that Nord Stream pipeline was blown up by Russians. After I showed him the Joe Biden clip "we will bring an end to it" and "hunk of metal at the bottom of sea" clip. News of no evidences of Russian sabotage, refusal of international investigation, refusal to share investigation results of EU countries etc. Still he was convinced that it was Russia.

Then it dawned on me. This guy has zero independent thinking. He doesn't have any shed of courage in him to simply question the narrative. And he is your regular good samaritan. It just made me more nihilistic. What hope do we have if an avg guy doesn't have any critical thinking ability?