Propaganda

This is a burning issue. Has many categories. Right now i'm just gonna be focusing on the health aspect. I realise whatever i have to say might not be anything new. However, certain events have brought me to avoid dismissing this topic off.
It's pitiful that most people believe whatever they hear, or rather, want to hear. No wonder they are prime candidates for being operated on by propagandist pundits. I do not want to trivialise or simplify the issue, since the economic and psychological dynamics is too complex. But there are certain points i want to touch upon.

• The depth people go into proving claims made by propagandists is abysmally low (I'm not talking of the odd ones who actually explore into it). Chances are, if morally implicating stories, and ,one or two 'expert' opinions support the claims, it would be accepted hook,line and sinker.
• Most of the propagandist research reports that make their way into popular health magazines are funded either by political motives or industry. Hence at the outset, these studies throw honesty out of the FOV, which is one of the key factors required for trust.
  
• Common propaganda techniques: Touching FEAR, oversimplification, Stereotyping, False correlation, Neglecting possible coincidences, relying on stupidity of people etc.

Some of the examples of flagrant brainwashing i can think of are:

• Fear of mind altering drugs in general. Only the worst case incidences of drug usage(abuse!?!) have been reported to general public. Illegalisation of Marijuana. Hahaha.. where did that come from???? LSD being projected as one of the most destructive drugs ?????? Based on shit like this, the mind set of people who begin to use such drugs is permanently biased, which (according to Dr. Tim Leary) is one of the basic no-no's.
  
• All the pandemic threats that have ever hit the air waves have been big morale sinkers. They focus on the moral conditioning of people striking a rich c(h)ord with their 'conditioned' fear. SARS, Gulf war syndrome etc to name a few. Anyway, it's out of my scope to delve into this.
• All diet and hygiene boosters and the obesity syndrome. Nothing has been a bigger myth than the figure that correlates death and obesity. Popularisation of health tablets like vitamins and stuff. I say they are nothing but effective placebos.
  

As said before, i do not mean to trivialise any issue, nor do i mean this to be an eye-opener of sorts. Just that i wanted this to be a reminder before one takes too seriously any sort of bullshit being thrown at us.