You know, games and media tell the truth. You can dig deeper into that yourself, but there's a series I watched recently that I highly recommend. It aligned with everything I think some real life experiences I've had.

The series is Utopia, originally written in the UK in 2013... Before the current events that seem to be a collapse of our societies even happened. America rewrote an Americanized version in 2017. Both are worth watching. The UK version seems to be better from a theatrical sense while the American version seems... Idk more American, lol.

You can watch the full UK series here. (11h total)

Season 1 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_jIDr2tZiuRHlp-bLwYNgWaFAp6dR7_Y

Season 2 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_jIDr2tZiuTbX0eeNBacb4J-GkQ3bOXC

The American version is on prime and I think is filmed in a different style that makes it watchable even after seeing the UK one. The UK one is more like a theatrical movie while the USA one almost feels fast like modern it matches modern attention span deficits in comparison.

In terms of social manipulation, I highly recommend watching The Century of Self Documentary. What's terrifying is that documentary is based on an analog world before modern Internet and social manipulation was still massively successful.

Here's a link to the documentary. (4hs total) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLktPdpPFKHfoXRfTPOwyR8SG8EHLWOSj6

More of his documentaries can be found on the same channel.

And this CIA whistleblower is good to look into too. John Stockwell. (YouTube short) https://youtube.com/shorts/GK29L3Dv0X0

That guy has a great quote along the lines of "...they make people live a life path that is not their natural life path..." And I think society and people feel the weight of that on their psyche constantly and we are offered novelty and escapism to be able ignore it.