Propaganda has been used by despotic regimes to justify atrocities for a thousand years. If a despotic regime has control of information, anything is possible. The media has used propaganda for a hundred years to sell Americans junk that didn't work and medication that was nothing more than snake oil. It still happens. As long as Americans are dumbed down by a substandard education system and Americans fall for junk products from celebrity hucksters, political hucksters will continue to sell us bad science and strategy.