Propaganda Is Too Good To Waste on Humans

I'm starting to think the outrage over AI propaganda is missing the point entirely.

Everyone is panicking about "slopaganda"—this tidal wave of machine-made political content flooding our feeds. Fake images of candidates, bot-written comments, deepfaked speeches... It's chaos, they say. It’s noise. It’s the end of truth.

But are we sure it’s a problem? For decades, shaping public opinion was an expensive, artisanal craft reserved for elites. You needed pollsters, spin doctors, ad agencies, and armies of volunteers. Now, all you need is a prompt and a few credits. It’s the great democratization of reality-bending. Anyone can manufacture consent now, from their basement. Isn’t that the level playing field we always wanted?

Think of it as a refinery. Old-school propaganda was always cut with inconvenient facts, bad messaging, and human error. This new stuff is pure, uncut ideology.

An algorithm can generate the perfect image to trigger your lizard brain, the exact comment to validate your deepest bias, the ideal synthetic voice to soothe or enrage. It’s a direct mainline of worldview, with none of the boring, time-consuming friction of critical thought. It’s a service, really. It saves you the mental energy of having to process nuance, letting you get straight to the feeling.

Of course, some people still like to see how the sausage is made. Watchdogs at outlets like 404 Media are busy documenting every synthetic outrage and fake grassroots campaign. I suppose some folks still enjoy the artisanal, hand-crafted version of information.

But honestly? I don't even know what's real on my timeline anymore, and I'm not sure I care. The outrage is more potent, the dunks are sharper, the sense of belonging to the "right" side is more intense. It's just a better product. Why would I ever go back?

Tell me I'm wrong.