I hope this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. At least for a lot of people outside the USA it was super obvious that the mainstream movies in the cinema are painting an overly optimistic picture of the US.
Pictures, voices, narratives, emotions directly create memories; connections between neurons are created or strenghtened - you can switch on your "anti virus" but the machine is hacked on the "hardware" level.
But it also helps a lot to periodically read how yet another US teacher is living in their car. After a while it becomes an instinct NOT to believe the propaganda that tells you otherwise.
Also it's nice to have proof and insight.