Once upon a time, if you wanted to give the government a nudge, you'd probably take your protest signs and make some noise on the streets. Back in those days, the government's bag of tricks for shaping what you thought—or sprinkling a little curated misinformation here and there—was pretty straightforward. We're talking about the classic combo of education, radio waves, and the trusty trio of TV networks: NBC, CBS, and ABC. Ah, the late 1950s to the 1970s, often reminisced as t...