I think that it's a bit of both and the Republic got infiltrated.
A lot of Star Wars fans themselves argue that even in the context of the propaganda the Sith are the better side
and make good strong arguments. Obi Wan Kenobi lied to Luke about his father and other things, didn't tell him Leia was his sister (though in the first story she supposedly wasn't really his sister) and the Jedi code sucks
compared to the Sith code etc.
Thing is there's loopholes and flaws in a lot of those arguments, and the Sith code is also flawed imo.
The Sith code is similar to the Satanic Bible in that it basically just says no morals do whatever the flying fuck you want, which has an appeal but
is flawed, whereas the Jedi code is too strict. My opinion of Star Wars was that both sides were evil and
that that was the big secret not one being good or bad, there were some good guys caught in the middle though, and it was actually
about communists vs fascists or liberals vs conservatives or even religious vs non religious.
There's a Star Wars geek who has the entire history of everything that happened in Star Wars memorized
and it parralells everything going on in our politics today.
There were groups in Star Wars known as the Seperatists who wanted a legitimate
movement for freedom in the galaxy. Palpatine financed both sides so in the context
of the movie he wasn't exactly the good guy, he may have even been secretly a Jedi. As for Montauk, yes I think that's
true I think that there were a lot of real alien groups fighting and the rebels were largely bad
but it's complicated. IMO Darth Vader was not really evil but Palpatine was.
Vader was manipulated and a tragic figure, deeply flawed and anger issues but a pawn without knowing it, who
really just wanted to be close to his son and a family man and thought his movement was uninfiltratable.
What ends up happening is that no one takes you seriously when you talk about this stuff
cuz it sounds silly to most people which is probably what the real intention is.
That's what I think it is in most movies. And why they sometimes reveal truth in movies.
Because no one takes movies that seriously. So the Illuminati puts stuff in movies
to make conspiracy theorists look even crazier.