Very well put, thank you. I experienced this first hand during the covid mania of '20-'21. My educated friends, almost without exception took the "trust the science" approach. It was an example of Clown World in action as the actual truth became propaganda and the propaganda became truth.

I am not a particularly smart person, I have always struggled with mathematics, programming, and science, but I have a deep appreciation for philosophy, art, and language which somehow I feel gave me a slight inroad to understanding the "sound of manipulation" as you say. I could see it on the faces of the media personalities, I could read between the headlines of the newspaper, it slowly became more and more clear to me.

I have since developed an ability to happily parse a newspaper or headline, however clearly Clown World-aligned, not for its "truth content" in any objective sense, but for its signifiers of the next move. I read the national newspaper of my country like the script of a television show, with plot twists and guest appearances, with deus ex machina and season finales and product placement.

Does this make me vulnerable as I blindly reject all and everything coming out of the media apparatus, even on the off chance that it is beneficial for me to actually follow that advice? Yes it certainly does. But that is a risk I am willing to take.