In general, I'm aware that absolutely everything "formal" I consume was made by someone with an institutional connection, and thus under the pressure and structural limits imposed by these institutions. Sometimes that's dependence on local governments, like any mainstream media corporation ("private" corporate networks don't exist without being in the good graces of the governments that license them, give them access to sources, etc.); sometimes that's a social media platform that can block and ban them; sometimes it's an audience they depend on for monetization, so they can't go against the hard preconceptions of that audience or lose subscribers that pay their rent. Often it's some combination of those three. You might call that skepticism a hermeneutics of suspicion.

And it's especially useful when it comes to the designated enemies of the day. I always find it useful to remember: I don't speak Russian, Chinese, or Korean, Farsi or Arabic. I have little access to internal stories there. What I get is from mostly Western sources with their interests, and I generally assume 100% of what Western media (and politics, and school) tells me about Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc. - anyone who goes against them - is a bold, dirty lie until proven otherwise. I recommend this stance to everyone.

I have some friends in some of these places I trust who can help me put things into perspective; that's a privilege, but they're all still trapped in the frames of their upbringings and are also not immune to all this. (I always remember that I wouldn't trust 90% of people in MY country when they try to explain something about that very country to me... but at least with friends,. I KNOW their preconceptions and can adjust for them. Also, they're critical, resistant souls, they're my friends, after all, and I picked them that way.)

You have to assemble it and see what sticks. And you still can't really know.

That said, it's also good to remember that "that's propaganda!" is the usual rallying cry OF propaganda against everything that goes against it. "flak" is what Chomsky calls it. And while your country has you surrounded with school, media, politics, and everyday conversation culture all reinforcing its propaganda, "foreign" one has to break through, sneak in, and when it does, goes against everything you've learnt. Which is to say: the people propagandizing you are usually your own, the other side has much, much less access to you. Or, with another quote: Always remember your main enemy is in your own country.