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This short essay., written for the Winter 2025 edition of 3rd Act Magazine, focuses on how modern media platforms provide propagandists with powerful vehicles for the disseminating of disinformation. 

I discuss Marshal McLuhan's idea that the medium is the message, worry about the proliferation of niche media platforms and discuss how advocates of authoritarian rule, from Hitler to Steve Bannon use media to mess with our minds, stimulating the extremes of credulity or cynicism. I suggest that we can counter disinformation by continuing to call out the lies and conspiracy theories and that we cultivate - in ourselves, our children and our grandchildren - the mindset of open-minded skepticism. 

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