Truth is irrelevant politically. The only thing that matters is what people believe is the truth.
Stating something that is empirically and objectively true will not change someone's belief if they're not already open to it. It will bounce right off them if they have a strong emotional attachment to their belief.
And some people are bad actors. They lie knowingly, and they cannot be debunked with facts, because they're playing a different game.
So much in politics and propaganda (and marketing, and elements of management) is about stock techniques for managing the emotions of groups and individuals. The emotional control provides leverage which can then be converted into beliefs, and eventually into desired actions.
This is a tough and unflattering lesson to learn, but - unfortunately - it seems to be how these things really do work.
Stating something that is empirically and objectively true will not change someone's belief if they're not already open to it. It will bounce right off them if they have a strong emotional attachment to their belief.
And some people are bad actors. They lie knowingly, and they cannot be debunked with facts, because they're playing a different game.
So much in politics and propaganda (and marketing, and elements of management) is about stock techniques for managing the emotions of groups and individuals. The emotional control provides leverage which can then be converted into beliefs, and eventually into desired actions.
This is a tough and unflattering lesson to learn, but - unfortunately - it seems to be how these things really do work.