I will continue to be a proponent of meditation practice. It’s honestly a shame imo that it has a “mystical” connotation. I think it’s very practical. I really don’t think of it much more than dedicating time to observing how my brain works. And a lot of that is all the stuff that arises that doesn’t feel like it “under your power.” When you actually sit down regularly and take notice of the arising and falling away of thoughts and emotions, it becomes a lot easier to not let it consume you and react.

It’s one thing to “know” the emotions are temporary and you shouldn’t react so strongly. It’s another thing to really internalize that and be able to have that same perspective in the moment of strong emotion. It’s practice.

Well this is what he’s aiming for but it doesn’t say much about how

I’m announcing I have put $1 towards getting a new set of tires for my car

I would only add to do this also when you are not feeling this way. In my experience it’s very hard to make this happen if I only try to roll it out when I’m already feeling mad. Doing some daily meditation for 10-15 minutes is the only way I’ve had any success being able to engage that when I really need it. Also it’s nice to be able to step back and recognize good emotions / reactions.

I also don’t think it’s like a bright line that propaganda is necessarily the worst form of dishonesty. The subject matter and intent is huge. If a US president runs ads with cherry picked economy data, you could argue that’s propaganda. But that isn’t necessarily worse than say a Pharma exec who pushes through and misleading advertises a potentially harmful drug. The exec could potentially get in trouble for this, but you could easily argue his actions were worse.

The potential harm is generally pretty high when we think of propaganda. And governments willing to participate in more flagrant propaganda are likely going to be willing to participate in other unsavory behavior. And use propaganda to affect it.

What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?

The degree of lie and the consequences of the lie.

Advertisements can be misleading, but if they go too far can be subject to false advertisement laws. No such check is there for a government participating in propaganda. That government also has the ability to wage war and generally oppress people rather than just sell products.