I’m surprised no one has been talking about the story itself.

I think I was first exposed to it in Ray Bradbury Theater form, and it’s very much stuck with me, the idea that we in principle could have a better world if we had more hopeful messages and weren’t fed what to think and what to allow and what to feel powerless against by the powerful.

(Although of course my interest is in honest hopeful communication and not fabricated "evidence".)