You notice this?

It's literally everywhere. So much negativity. Sometimes I wonder how much is enemy action and how much is just depression or some other mental illness.

Producing political apathy and learned helplessness is an explicit purpose of the "Flood the zone" propaganda strategy.

It's a serious requirement for despots. You don't need a large and supportive group. You don't need 80% of the population expressing support for your acts.

All you need is like 20% of the population absolutely Ride-Or-Die levels of support for you, willing to do violence and hate on your behalf, and everyone else just kind of apathetic, unsure, or oppressed enough to stay down.