The greatest tool ever invented by kings and dictators was propaganda.
Disinformation can help to win wars.
In WW2 the German naval codes were broken at Bletchley. At about the same time, a new type of radar had been developed to detect surfaced submarines. The U-boats would run surfaced at night to re-charge their batteries. The code-breaking allowed allied aircraft to narrow down the search area so that the radar could be deployed more effectively. An aircraft guided to a search area by good intelligence could be further guided by its on-board radar. Once over the target the aircraft would switch on its high intensity Leigh light and illuminate the problem.
Leigh light, courtesy Wikimedia commons, public domain image.
To keep the Germans from guessing the truth, disinformation was planted leading the Germans to believe that the U-boat Metox aircraft detection radar was being detected at long range and used to locate U-boats. The truth was that the Metox radar was very effective and had bought many a U-boat time to dive. However, as revealed by log books after the end of the war, many U-boat commanders did not make use of the radar, believing in the rumours. The use of Metox was eventually banned by the high command as a direct result of the spreading of disinformation1.
Those U-boat captains were not idiots. They were highly trained men with solid backgrounds in technology and engineering, the products of some of the finest schools, colleges and universities in Europe. Now, if a highly trained professional can be bamboozled, how much easier must it be to bamboozle a person who has had little schooling. There is an old saying: BS baffles brains. There is another old saying: they must think we are mushrooms - they keep us in the dark and feed us BS.
One way to spot propaganda and disinformation is by observing its narrow focus. The German U-boat captains were so focused on their own Metox radar that they failed to investigate the matter further. While you focus on the person who bumps into you in a crowd, another person may more easily pick your pocket. And while you focus on the cherry-picked data of bad science, you are distracted from seeing whatever greater truths good science stands ready to reveal.
If you come across a narrow focus, be alert for a narrow mind. Never forget that a small spot of light still leaves you very much in the dark - and you are not a mushroom.
Science is supposed to shine the light of reason into the darkness of ignorance.
It can only do that if the light is a bright and a broad beam.
Footnote:
1 - http://www.uboataces.com/radar-warning.shtml
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