content: Neither was the Soviet union. It didn't really matter until Solzhenitsyn was deported. States depend on the people for their existence. Even autocratic ones where the people don't actively participate need the great masses to somehow be pacified. That's why marketing has become so sophisticated. Marketing is not what it used to be in the 60s. Modern big data driven marketing gives you control over the population in aggregate. Some of us has been saying for a long time that this is the real threat of social media, not the loss of privacy which is bad enough. This is also why you shouldn't get all your news from one source such as social media. Consume all sources, especially sources outside your own echo chamber just in case you are being manipulated on some topics. This is why controlled opposition exists. I remember zines back in the 80s. They were fun. They were also extremely small circulation hobby horses that had all of a couple thousand readers at most. They were entirely ineffective at changing people's minds. It pains me to say that propaganda is a tool that rightwingers have lost the ability to use. It's not about sitting in a corner of the internet, circle-jerking about the jews but talking to people in a language they understand to change their minds. Zines are not going to cut it.