As a friend once said: in SG, propaganda is a mode of political thought. Rather than a commital to a set of beliefs, or even a set of principles, a not-insignificant amount of Singaporeans are committed solely to the nation-state of Singapore, and have no concept of anything else https://t.co/ldC8WJNzP6

It's a combination of Singapore's hardcore siege mentality, the colonial racial structures and narratives that the PAP inherited then cultivated, and the autocracy that our government and its allies created that have resulted in a country bereft of real political literacy

Most countries have a national mythos that enshrines a specific few beliefs about why their states are to be preserved:

Singapore has 'fuck everyone else, we're the best' with varying degrees of overt racism

That illiteracy is dangerous: Singaporeans are more susceptible than most others in Southeast Asia to the rhetoric and speech of fascists and propagandists; Singaporeans are on multiple levels less educated about politics than the vast majority of Southeast Asians

Ask your average Singaporean what communism is or what propaganda is and there's a not-insignificant chance that it'll devolve into buzzwords and reused news phrases, because that's how most Singaporeans learn about politics: through the lens of powerful media outlets

It's important to recognise this is an issue of education, not an issue of 'intelligence', as some want to reduce it to, or an issue of Singaporeans simply being docile: it has taken 57 years and the active participation of an entire media apparatus for things to get here

But whatever the case, Singaporeans will at least in the near future continue to uncritically repeat the promises of authoritarians, seeing truth as merely another phrase; it is on us that we educate each other about politics, and escape the cultivated ignorance the state created