I’m afraid propaganda and fake news occur so much more frequently than you suggest that it
is in fact virtually constant. It has particularly been on the increase with the advent of the internet and its global reach and perceived reliability, and the various (but generally deleterious) effects of this on the classic media. The ‘requirement’ of war you mention is easily met, both in the real sense (there are plenty of wars going on across the world) as figuratively (e.g., war on drugs, ‘terrorism’ etc.), and in the minds of many people (e.g., increasingly polar politics).
As to the specificity of the propaganda you perceive, I think that is also questionable. Yes, the blatant lies still feature prominently, but another, perhaps even more important goal is to confuse the adversary (often the general public) sufficiently so it won’t or can’t believe anything anymore and loses track of the reliably factual forest for the fake news trees in their underbrush of lies. Controlling the media helps a lot, but even sophisticated audiences can be fooled often and long enough for the perpetrator to achieve certain goals by delaying unified and consistent responses.
There is actually quite a bit of attention devoted to documenting and debunking fake news, but you have to dig for it (e.g.,
StopFake, focused on Ukraine, but offering more general information as well) and
EU vs Disinformation, to name just a couple. There are also efforts to rate web sites for bias (
Media bias/fact check) or reliability/veracity, as exemplified by browser extensions like
Fake News Monitor (Chrome). Even so, all these sources require an attentive and critical user, probably putting it beyond general usage. To achieve that, education is needed.
The cynicism engendered by hypocritical politicians who rail against their opponents while perpetrating the same offenses blamed on these same opponents can only increase when such methods are shown to be successful. Talking about war, anyone? That doesn’t seem to sound so bad any longer to many who haven’t actually experienced a real one, and, worse, even to many of those who have.
Unfortunately, the average US citizen has never been much interested in the rest of the world, unless something was going on that directly (and negatively) affected him/her, and then only to the extent of making that negative stop, often regardless of the method used. The latter has perhaps a lot to do with the fact that the US has not been subjected to a devastating war on its own soil, in which most major population centers (including the associated population), transportation and industry infrastructure were destroyed. The civil war only scratched that surface, but had it even been really all-encompassing, its deterring effects on the population would still have dissipated generations ago. Look at Europe to see this form of societal amnesia in action, where EEC/EU efforts to join together to stop a new conflagration threaten to derail within 3 generations (say, 25 yrs) after the last, amidst rhetoric that more than just marginally resembles the aggressively manipulative garbage leading to WW2. Talking about throwing out the baby with the bathwater…
Fake news and propaganda arguably featured prominently in a number of recent events, from the Dutch vote to reject an EU association treaty with Ukraine to the Brexit vote (both NON-binding referenda!) and the election of Trump. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any underlying grievances that needed to be addressed, but it turns out that many of those grievances had little if anything to do with the actual issues put to the electorate. It’s the result of what I’ve called the ‘FU’ Society for years. And I have to confess that I don’t see things improving anytime soon. Contrary to what many seem to think, things can
always get worse. A
lot worse. Should that happen and people experience a real McConflagration, we have precious few generations to try and fix things before the pressure to regress becomes irresistible, again.
