The key to controlling what people think is controlling what they think about. The best control method is not to refute a claim but rather to get people to argue about a ridiculous false binary. Don’t make a person rethink their position; make them take it sideways a little at a time: not self-rule - Right wing or Left wing ; not armed citizens - gun control or school shootings; not sexual morality - abortion or pregnant 10-year-olds. People will say with a straight face that having one choice for a leader is tyranny, but having two choices is freedom.

By introducing a false binary, you can easily steer people to the next logical conclusion, like redirecting a river. You can’t make a river run uphill, but you can redirect it to irrigate your crops. For example: when a nation has one story, the citizens ask if it is true. When a nation has two stories, citizens ask which one is true. Isn’t that a neat magic trick?