Impressive. I missed the tag. But as far as the story goes I would not put it past corporations to try to continue controlling the masses. Me on the other hand tend to see everything as a story. Whether it's true or not. For some it is and affects their lives to an unbelievable point. I take in what works for me and discard everything else. I will on occasion bring such stories to people's attention but other times I figure why bother because no one really wants to think for themselves.
They have been doing it for years, and even getting caught.
This is how we mostly operate, isn't it? The problem is that these days we can filter (or they can) out pretty much anything that goes against us until we are living in a bubble.
So how should we operate? Is, "as a man thinket..." a wrong mindset?
Not much we can really do except learn how our hardwiring works and perhaps avoid the manipulations the best we can.