> When I look at the world unfold in the 2020's, it seems very few people accounted for how much corruption, economics, social media, propaganda, etc. would fac

> When I look at the world unfold in the 2020's, it seems very few people accounted for how much corruption, economics, social media, propaganda, etc. would factor into geopolitics. While I agree that propaganda has never quite been as hyper-targeted to specific micro-populations as it is today, you can't forget the larger role propaganda has played since, say, the printing press. Especially propaganda tied to the same concerns as today: economic insecurity, racial and cultural in-groups and out-groups, etc. Ask a Southern male US citizen in the 1850s what he thought about the island of Cuba — although he likely never would have any interaction whatsoever with the island, its inhabitants or its politics, he would've encountered (and probably adopted) talking points given to him by propaganda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend_Manifesto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend_Manifesto