So, it turns out everyone could just talk with Chinese citizens this whole time

I always imagined travelling back in time 100 years and trying to explain our tech.
-"We have personal communicators available at all times, that we can use to instantly communicate with anyone on Earth."
-"Wow! But I guess language barriers make it impossible?"
-'No, actually. A surprising amount of people in the world understand English. Also, we have instant translators in our communicators. I could contact someone in China right now and have a conversation about anything."
-"Incredible!! What sort of topics do you talk to them about?"
-"...I don't. It's kinda impolite to just start talking to strangers. I mostly talk to old friends from school. And my family."
- We returned to greek origin. Wanna talk with randoms? Go to the forum...
  
  Yeah it worked for the first part of internet history. You talked to people from all over the world.
  Now people use the internet like a carnival freak show exhibition. They don't talk to others. They scroll to gawk at what oddities and tap the glass and jeer at the inhuman thing. Social media is designed this way.

yeah, but then you find out that you've been propagandized your whole life and NO ONE wants that shit. lol
- I'm trying to think what shattered the illusion for me... Weirdly, one of the first ones was when I was in high school, my Spanish teacher told me that in Spain, they had hardly any computers (she had just visited that summer). I told that to a friend of my dad, and he was like "uh... No, pretty much everyone has them". Which wasn't propaganda, but I think they was the first time I felt ashamed of my ignorance
  Then in college, I was having a discussion about politics with someone from Paris, and mentioned offhand how it's different because they're a socialist country. He laughed and said "what? We're not socialist". That was pounded into me since elementary school, that the UK and France were socialists.
  The guy owned a business, and I knew this and the fact he was fairly wealthy due to said business... And that's when the illusion completely shattered, and I realized I was repeating shit I'd been taught without evaluating the information
  Propaganda works. On all of us... It works less if you're aware of it and examine your own beliefs, but that shit creeps in through the cracks. It's insidious
  
  I'm so mad about the time I had to spend learning about the fucking food pyramid
  
  Very insidious and you can only be aware of the types you can identify, there are many more that you'll blindly accept until something like your experiences points it out to you; I think it's a lifelong thing to stay vigilant against it.
  
  Who in school told you Britain and France are socialist? That was never the case. They were literally always allies, why would any school teach this? I know fox news viewers believe it for some reason but that certianly never impacted my curriculum
  
  my Spanish teacher told me that in Spain, they had hardly any computers
  it's different because they're a socialist country. He laughed and said "what? We're not socialist". That was pounded into me since elementary school, that the UK and France were socialists
  What is this country ? No. What's this planet ?
- Just keep in mind that propaganda is not unique to western countries, if you will.

One of my favourite (?) conspiracy theories locally is regarding any left wing policy or social action. Like, you can just go to the meetings bro. Socialist alliance or whatever are super keen for new active members. You can literally go see how they make decisions.
Obviously, the sort of person that makes these sorts of claims aren't actually looking to be convinced of any truth.
This reminds me of that
- Yep. Socialist orgs are generally public-facing and have no interest in secrecy, we're not hiding from people. We don't vet people before letting them see meetings like the neo-nazis and many politicians do, we're basically the same inside as we are outside. And it pays off: there's no fake persona to uphold, no paranoia about federal infiltration. Just walk in and have a look around, we're here to build a mass movement, not some arrogant secret conspiracy cell.
- lmao true!