A state trying to convince it's people of x political belief isn't an inherently bad thing. Going "oh this is propaganda" is a really bad way of trying to delegitimize a narrative. Like... no shit? Who cares that it's propaganda? Point out what's actually wrong with it
Understanding and internalizing the nature of propaganda is one of the major ways in which my thinking nowadays is radically different from my thinking 15+ years ago. I think I might have a difficult time having a conversation with my past self because if the self-imposed mental roadblocks I had. As OP mentioned:
...people get super hung up about the classification of communication and persuasion as being "propaganda" or not. It's so thought-terminating that it's difficult to even engage with people on certain subjects.