The explicit goal of dezinformatsiya (coined by Stalin) is not to get people to believe the lies (an occasional bonus) —— the goal is to get people to GIVE UP on finding the truth.
Once people give up on finding the truth, dictators and despots can get away with anything because people literally do not even have the knowledge prerequisite to any opposing action; the people become a mere mass of compliant NPCs in the despot's regime.
OFC, if the news is genuinely crippling in a way that renders you incapable of any action, then by all means take care of that first.
But especially in these times of serious real threats, anxiety in response to those real threats is the exact expected healthy response!
More broadly, as a society in the US and EU, the threats have outpaced the speed of anxiety growth, a delay which allowed them to gain power. Anxiety overall is only now growing to the point where a backlash is forming that may restore small-d democratic norms and overtake a rapidly growing authoritarian regime.
Remaining ignorant is personally easier in the short term, but definitely helps an authoritarian regime gain and cement its power, so is likely to be regretted in the long term. Many under Hitler's regime lived out their lives in shame they had not done more to stop him when they could have.
I think so much of it is us feeling emotionally overwhelmed and running away. Anxiety can be really helpful if we engage with it, have the courage to address the fear. If we just always run, especially with social conflicts, the conflicts often don't go away, we just pretend they don't exist until they boil over.