Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew. He was also one of the most influential propagandists of his day. Bernays applied his talent mainly to advertising, where he saw himself as sort of a benevolent manipulator.

In his seminal work, Propaganda (1928), he wrote, “We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

Bernays played the long game in advertising/propaganda, thinking years and sometimes decades ahead. His goal wasn’t to persuade you to buy a widget today. It was to change your worldview so you eventually buy the widget “of your own accord,” as if it were your decision alone to buy it without any hint (or awareness) of sales pressure.

Rather than sell you a piano, Bernays would promote the idea of a “music room” in every American household. Imagine a compelling ad in The New Yorker or a lush write-up in American Homes & Gardens about the simple elegance of a music room in your home. These singular impressions didn’t change your worldview, but with repetition over time you begin to like the idea of a music room. Of course, once you buy a home with a music room, what do you fill it with?

Bernays called propagandists, the men we’ve never heard of, “invisible governors.” In his view, they were men of ideas, leaders, a social elite who organize the chaos of human society into in a smoothly functioning machine, “guided throughout our lives by a benign elite of rational manipulators.”

But what if those manipulators are not so benign? What if, instead of manipulating us to buy pianos, we are manipulated to buy fear, hatred and mistrust? What if an organization or institution — or government? — sets out the systematically sow fear, hatred, mistrust and political discord in the worldview of an entire nation?

None of us is immune to this systematic manipulation, and some of us are more susceptible than others.

There is no doubt Russia manipulated our 2016 elections, and influenced the outcome. You may argue that not a single vote was changed in state voting systems, and you may be right. But minds were changed before the election, and the result was exactly the same.

It’s clear Russia worked to undermine Hillary Clinton by supporting Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein. In a constant spew of misinformation, Russia drove a wedge between Bernie Democrats and Hillary Democrats.

If you’re Christian, you saw Clinton referred to as “Satan.” If you’re Jewish, she was an “anti-Israel Jew-hater.” If you’re pro-Second Amendment, Clinton was going to take away your guns.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because we were targeted through our social media trails with sophisticated, almost personalized misinformation. We all were, and most of us didn’t even know it. It was “our conclusion, our decision” to think the way we did.

Bernays would have been horrified. And proud.

The Russians are coming. Again. In fact, they never stopped. They will pull out every stop to influence our 2018 elections, to sow political strife among us and divide us from our neighbors with fear, hatred and mistrust. They are not piano salesmen. They are not benign manipulators. They are a hostile foreign power hell-bent on weakening our country.

We are being targeted in social media, right now. Be suspicious of sensational newsfeeds that confirm your worldview. Sit on stories for a day or two, and verify they’re true before sharing them.

We were sucked in once. Let’s not get sucked in again. “Fool us once, shame on them. Fool us twice, shame on us.”