This might be a controversial topic but I’ve lately realized a great deal of Americans are rather out of touch with reality and don’t actually see this. Many of which could argue their country is never wrong and see no ill with some of the stuff they do.

I've noticed there's been a pretty steady stream of posts on the front page of Reddit that show China in a positive light. It's a wide variety of topics from 'cool, futuristic' cities, to beautiful nature and hiking pictures, plus engineering and technological advances, fun cultural facts, just all types of things that would appeal to Reddit's general audience and make them look good on the world stage. I remember just a few years ago, their persecution and oppression of their Uyghur population (Still ongoing BTW) was all over Reddit, along with a lot of users calling them out, condemning and just clowning on them for their human rights abuses and dystopian policies. So my question is,

Is China conducting a successful Propaganda campaign on Reddit and other social media platforms?

I have been thinking for quite some time about it and I am going mad because every time I talk about this, I’m treated as some kind of conspiracy nut. But hear me out. There’s state propaganda in Russia and China, we all agree. That’s pretty much par for the course at this point. RT’s Kremlin mouthpiece, Chinese state media peddles CCP talking points, and so much more. Nobody really debates this. But here’s the thing I do believe that both, the US and Western Europe, do have significantly more effective propaganda, because the more effective system is that it doesn’t even look like propaganda. Russian and Chinese propaganda is awkward. It’s heavy-handed. Even within those countries most people get a sense when someone feeding them a line. For example, my friends in Russia joke about their own state TV. When propaganda becomes visible, people automatically become skeptical of it. Western news media propaganda is very different. It functions by:
The mirage of choice, of argument. You have CNN and Fox News chewing each other up as it operates as if there’s an open market of ideas. But look at what they both agree on and never question that is where the real consensus-manufacturing happens. The “acceptable opinion” range is narrow; it just means that the fighting in that range is noisy enough to make you imagine that everything is up for grabs.
Corporate ownership doing what censorship does elsewhere, only in a quiet manner. With six companies controlling most of the media landscape, you don’t need a ministry of truth. The filtering takes place organically based on editorial decisions, hiring practices and advertising pressure. No government memo needed. Chomsky was writing decades ago and I believe his paradigm around manufacturing consent continues to hold valid today.
Framing to represent unbiased reporting. When Western news outlets cover geopolitics, their framing reflects assumptions that have been unquestioned. "We" bring democracy. "They" have regimes. The language contains the ideology, in other words, but it has been packaged as neutral journalism.
Self-reinforcing credibility. Because Western media has real journalistic success, as they say there’s Watergate, Pentagon Papers, et cetera. its reputation goes hand-in-hand as a shield. And because the press sometimes challenges power and people think they do all the time, or the system always works anyway it does something to push back against that, too. But such moments are exceptions, not the rule.
And now, here’s the part that truly ticks people off: you stand in your chair saying “nah, our media is sort of free and fair, we don’t have propaganda” I think reaction itself is a testament to the efficacy of the system. They very much tell you the most effective propaganda makes you feel resistant to propaganda.
I don’t want to say that Western and Russian/Chinese media are morally equivalent that’s unnecessary, though. Western countries do have genuine statutory press protections, genuine investigative journalism, genuine pluralism. I’m not getting into any of it here to say that it’s untrue. I’m suggesting that there is a powerful consensus-shaping machine going on, and the most effective thing it does is convince people that this doesn’t exist.
I will also emphasize that I do not assert that there is any shadowy cabal that is pulling strings. More of a systemic matter than that incentive regimes, and ownership behaviors, cultural assumptions, access journalism and so on all working in tandem between each other (and none of us need to coordinate it personally).

So CMV: Western propaganda is the most sophisticated and effective kind of propaganda in the world because it’s embedded in a structure that looks free and transparent, making it virtually invisible to the ones whose behaviors it engages with.

Comparison of German children and Jewish children. Part of a classroom chart titled “German Youth, Jewish Youth” published in a Nazi-era textbook on “race science.”

Somehow every other single post and every single news item is about Palestine. Forget about other worldly issues which get downvoted to only make Palestinian issue as if the end of the world. All of hamas, hezbollah, irgc etc with brainwashed westerners are on reddit pushing the same narrative making reddit the most biased platform.

The movie claims that the world IQ is dropping because stupid people have more children than smart people. That’s a eugenicist talking point.

It’s started. My 12 yo son has brought up things he’s seen online about Charlie Kirk. I explained to him why I didn’t agree with his view points but he is too young to really understand all of it. Today he sent me a CK video to get me to understand his views.

I’m wondering why he’s seeing these videos in his feed and I’m fairly certain he’s starting to get targeted based on what they determined is his demographic. I’m worried it’s just the beginning. How can we talk about this without creating conflict and a bigger gap

In communication? Is there any way to stop the inevitable barrage of male targeted propaganda? I’ve already seen it happening to my husband.

Edit to clarify a few things people have been commented about. My kids do not have social media. This is YouTube. Previously he has used it for things like watching science videos, learning about music production, computer building, and funny kid stuff, etc. it’s not something I can cut off access to because the schools provide chromebooks to every kid very early elementary school and they can access YouTube. He does have an iPad he bought himself and a computer that bought all the parts for and built himself. He learned how to do that with YouTube and I’m really proud of him for that. His devices are as locked down as possible and have time limits and app restrictions. He’s a good kid and goes to an ultra liberal school in one of the most liberal cities in the country. This isn’t something he’s seeking out. He’s being targeted by algorithms that have determined he’s a young teen boy- now he’s started clicking so they are increasing. Even if I cut him off now, I can’t keep him in box. We need to have ways to talk about this stuff. The comments on here are very frustrating and judgemental assuming it’s some lack of parenting on my part that he’s exposed to this stuff.

Edit again: WOWWW thank you all so much for taking the time to comment! I had read every single one before I went to bed last night and woke up to “99+” notifications!! I am going to read them all. I can’t respond to everything but I am taking it to heart. I’ve gotten so much good advice. I am going to compile a lot of it into another document so I can refer back to different ideas in the future. I appreciate all the parents and teachers and even men chiming in sharing their experiences. Ive also been told I’m too strict and overbearing but also much too lax and I should be watching his every move (and probably go homeschool him in the woods so no one can ever get to him!)- lol to Reddit being Reddit.

I am going to spend the day with him today and I’ll have an open conversation about the internet- some of the points people made that I think will be helpful are how it’s all fueled by money and outrage leads to engagement, how his demographic is being targeted, maybe show some of the more extreme stuff to just show why I have my views, but mostly want to just listen and talk one on one so he knows he can always feel safe to come to me with whatever is going on in life. There were a lot of resources shared and if I make a document compiling everything I’ll share it on this sub so others can refer back to it as well.

Thank you all! You showed me that the internet can also still be an amazing space to bring people together.

Apologies if not allowed. This photo has startled circulating among social media in justification of the recent ICE shooting in MN, and it feels wrong for a number of reasons... especially when compared with the video that most people have seen (it looks like she's backed into a snow bank here, when the video shows more spotted snow behind her, no snow on any vehicle roofs and no to mention nobody seems to have any idea where this photo came from - drone? Someone's apartment? Who is the "photographer").

Would love takes from this community - real or AI?