Every new idea will … be troublesome to [the individual’s] entire being. He will defend himself against it because it threatens to destroy his certainties. He thus actually comes to hate everything opposed to what propaganda has made him acquire. Propaganda has created in him a system of opinions and tendencies which may not be subjected to criticism. … Incidentally, this refusal to listen to new ideas usually takes on an ironic aspect: the man who has been successfully subjected to a vigorous propaganda will declare that all new ideas are propaganda.

Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, theologian

Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, 4 (1962) [tr. Kellen and Learner (1965)]