Does the average person have no critical thinking?
I don't know about y'all, but if I grew up in a country that never has the news criticizing its leaders, I'd be very skepical and deduce that there is censorshop going on and the offical news could be exaggerated or entirely falsified. Do people in authoritarian countries actually just eat the propaganda? To what extent do they believe the propaganda?
I'd be very skepical and deduce that there is censorshop going on and the offical news could be exaggerated or entirely falsified
After you realise you are a hostage, what's the "good" response, in your opinion? Protest and get surpressed? Start a partisan group, and be afraid for your life 24/7? Join the surpressors for small benefits for your and yours, at the peril of others? Play along with the idea to "change it from the inside"?
Probably nothing revolutionary.
But if you don't believe the propaganda, you'd probably enjoy life more.
For example: there literally a list of steam games that some far-right nutjob compiled that declares a lot of games to be "Woke" or "DEI". Imagine how much fun they miss out on because they are so far up the kool aid cult and actually refuses to play those games.
And other times, it can save you from a lot of misery and perhaps save your life. See: Anti-Vax and Anti-Science propaganda. If you are able to see through that bullshit, you wouldn't die from a stupid horse dewormer or other psudoscience crap.
"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." -Mahatma Gandhi
The fight might not be right here, right this moment, but you can pass along the torch, the spirit.
Teach your children to be skeptical of the authorities, and be vigilent of propaganda. If they are getting involved in a "Hitler Youth" equivalvent, you'd intervene and stop them.
Treach kindness and empathy, but also decisiveness when the time comes to stand against injustice.
And also, pick your fights carefully, do not do this alone. Do not become a foolish dead hero, become a successful revolutionary. (Underground Movements)
Don't let them imprison your mind.
TLDR: The best you can do is just refuse to regurgitate the same propaganda. This is a passive thing that is, while subtle, an important part of the resistance.
Teach your children to be skeptical of the authorities, and be vigilent of propaganda.
I grew up in DDR. That act in itself is punishable. In mandatory state school, there was a lot "you live thanks to, and for others" propaganda. Teachers would get benefits if they succesfully got children to tell on their family, or their friends. The children who did so were lauded.
Would you trust your 8 year old kid to not tell his best friend what you talked about at home?
I think your imagination fails to understand the magnitute of surpressing a state can and will do. It's not just the state, and bad guys in it. It's everywhere. 1-in-3 people were informants to the stasi. Je stärker der Sozialismus, desto sicherer der Frieden.
I do think people without direct experience are unable to understand the depth or the totalitarian evil. It's just too terrifying to accept that one can be trully powerless, that any kind of resistance can lead not just to the destruction of themselves, but also their families, that the degree of bullying and control can be so high and the regard for human life so low.
It's too scary, so normal human minds just refuse it as a possibility and try to imagine more optimistic scenarios.
It's healthy not to lose hope, but it's also not good to underestimate the evil and unfair to look down on the people facing it.