The myth of freedom

And wouldn't you know it, the people who embrace this kind of rhetoric usually happen to be either Fascists, Corporate leaders in search of power masquerading as "charity", or even Racist Nationalists.

The OP doesnt talk about what it takes to avoid these sorts of "human hacking" - robust education including rhetoric and debate, but also in sniffing "sponsored content", advertising, and bulls%!t. It takes independent news sources not beholden exclusively to profit, but who can trust that quality, independent journalism will earn a living, and find a public that trusts such news.

It takes remembering our history - through the labor movement and World Wars, we dont teach the lessons we learned, and so we suffer.

Neglecting that solutions exist isn't even nihilism. Its depressive navel gazing. Yes, the solutions are hard. Having a civilization at all gets hard from time to time.