"The word 'choice' is a fraud, while people choose only what they've been taught to choose." (Idries Shah)
People only have the choices that they are aware of. If a choice exists that nobody is aware of it is a fair bet that nobody will make that choice. Likewise, if people can be convinced that a given choice is absurd, even if that conviction is based upon misinformation or outright lies, then most of them will avoid that choice without ever examining its merits.
Going one step further, if people can be convinced that a choice is somehow morally wrong; again even if that conviction is based upon misinformation or outright lies, not only will they not themselves make that choice, but they will compel others by persuasion or possibly even force to avoid that choice.
Choices can be and are taught to us since childhood. If our "teacher" should want to constrain our choices, for instance, if they should want us to only choose what benefits them, then it would just be a matter of teaching us that some choices are "good", while others are "bad". And if they are really skilled they can teach us to not even be aware of many choices .
Our parents did this when they took us to a particular church and taught us that our church was "right" and "good" while another church, which might have had the same core beliefs was "bad" or "wrong" or even "less right". This happens to us in a myriad of different ways by a myriad of different people who try to constrain our choices as to: politics, racial views, gender roles, musical "taste", etc.
As children our choices are constrained by the adults around us. This early childhood conditioning prepares us to dutifully accept choice-constraint. Most of us hit our heads up against it when we reach adolescence. It generally manifests itself in the form of "acting out". Usually that means "seeking to expand our choices beyond what others want for us." Then when we are grown we do the same thing to our children.
This early childhood conditioning sets us up to be prime targets for economic and political choice-constraint as adults.
This is the essence of marketing, indoctrination, and electioneering; which are nearly the same thing.