> Schooling and mass media are expensive things to control

Expensive to run, sure. But I don't see why they'd be expensive to control. Most UK are required to support collective worship of a "wholly or mainly of a broadly christian character"[0], and used to have Section 28[1] which was interpreted defensively in most places and made it difficult even discuss the topic in sex ed lessons or defend against homophobic bullying.

USA had the Hays Code[2], the FCC Song[3] is Eric Idle's response to being fined for swearing on radio. Here in Europe we keep hearing about US schools banning books for various reasons.

[0] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hays_Code

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_Song

[0] seems to be dated 1994–is it still current? I’m curious how it’s evolved (or not) through the rather dramatic demographic shifts there over the intervening 30 years