I spent a few decades in the corporate landscape, working diligently to climb the corporate ladder and did quite well at it. We had terms for management styles, one was crisis management or fighting fires. Using this style you jumped from one fire or crisis to the next appearing to be very busy and hard working.
The opposite style from that was forward thinking, by planning for things in the near and far future that might go wrong. While not all of the fires were predictable, there was a pattern. If you could recognize the patterns and learn from your mistakes, the solutions were easy.
I see the same thing with our government always fighting fires and never thinking too far in the future or learning from their mistakes. Everything they want to use as a tool for change is a crisis. Rather than asking for solutions, they demand that their version of a solution be imposed on others. How about building a consensus, or convincing people that their ideas are good and practical?
Instead they lie and censor, putting our lie after lie and trying to micro manage the narrative with fear and force. Anyone who does this is a propagandist, not a leader and our government and corporate culture has devolved into a self serving vortex of control, fear, and greed. Know them by their deeds and not words. Demand better.
I'm just going to say the thing you aren't supposed to say. Better requires different leaders.
That pretty much sums it up. Have you read the book The Most Dangerous Superstition, by Larken Rose? It really opened my eyes to what I previously thought was mere ineptitude to the reality that governments "manage the narrative with fear and force," as you say so eloquently. It is by design.