Propaganda Machine

Today around the world, demagogues appeal to our worst instincts.  Conspiracy theories once confined to the fringe are going mainstream.  It's as if the Age of Reason -- the era of evidential argument -- is ending, and now knowledge is delegitimized and scientific consensus is dismissed.  Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, and autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march.  Hate crimes are surging, as are murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities.

What do all these dangerous trends have in common?  I'm just a comedian and an actor, not a scholar.  But one thing is pretty clear to me.  All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history.

The greatest propaganda machine in history.

-- Sacha Baron Cohen in his Keynote Address ascribing antisocial behaviors to Facebook, YouTube and Google, Twitter and others, at the Anti-Defamation League's 2019 Never Is Now Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate, 21 November 2019