Have you ever noticed that some authoritarians seem to get away with tons of mayhem, but anybody else is castigated for doing the same stuff? Here is why.
The double standard starts very early
Authoritarians start their reign of terror as “authoritarians wanna-be” – fortunately most of them are pretty awful at it, and end up drifting into the shadows. Those who graduate to full authoritarian do it because of their clout. In other words, they are only as powerful as their followers allow them to be. Those who drifted in the shadows just could not gain a clout that was “strong enough.”
And this is an important distinction, because authoritarians will traffic on the court of public opinion. Propaganda is meant to be easily digestible, and to “hit a nerve.” In other words, get your emotions to overwrite your common sense and sensibility for pragmatic decision making. And it works, because it makes the targeted people think they are the smartest in the room with a faux-moral superiority, while it can discourage the victims from standing up for themselves. It’s a tactic as old as humanity itself – and it works!
In other words, it has become a game of popularity. And much like a “celebrity” or “star-struck” syndrome, people who are sometimes in the presence of this person can start to develop some sort of affinity. Even if at first impression they did not care for this person. For example, a lot of Ultra MAGAs today did not like Trump at all before. But the more they saw him, the more they became familiarized with him. Suddenly even some of those idiosyncrasies become endearing to them. That’s when the slippery slope gains unmitigated following.
To illustrate this point, I will continue citing former US President Trump as an example of how people can get very emotional and go up in arms in the defense of this object of their affections – or in some instances very much on the offense. And a mirrored but similar emotion might happen in the hearts and minds of his opposition.
Bottomline, this person is already polarizing. This is convenient for any authoritarian propagandist, because people are already primed to “find their place” on the chessboard. And from there it is very easy to exploit the biases from those for or against [in this example] Trump. Even if the propagandist is really targeting Trump’s clout and is only featuring Trump as another useful [yet prominent] fool in the equation.
Am I saying that Trump is an authoritarian? Not quite, but he is definitely an authoritarian wanna-be, and he exhibits all the traits we’ve seen in history – even if he has not realized it himself. The only difference is that on Trump these red flags and indicators are a lot more prominent and on the nose. Yet this makes his followers cling even more to him. It is paradoxical, but it works. Because they are not as enamored with Trump, as they are enamored with the perception that they did not make a wrong choice by following him.
Any person who literally acts like a cry-baby, who calls sophomoric nicknames to people he dislikes, has a rap sheet longer than a roll of toilet paper, has likely a lot of legal issues, who is opening advocating for illegal activities [ironically in the name of justice], but attacks the same systems that held anybody else accountable – if he is on the receiving end, etc.
We’ve seen this behavior in authoritarians before. And if you think this should be tolerated, let’s say that in this case Biden is exhibiting the same traits? Would Trump followers give Biden the same benefit of the doubt under the same metric? Think about it.
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It’s about exploiting your emotions
This is a complex topic; therefore, we’ll be breaking it down through many other articles in order to make it easier to understand. The game is complex because it is meant to confuse you. Much like an illusionist uses misdirection to perform a trick – this is similar but much larger in scope and scale. But the end game is the same, to get their adoring followers to fall into an awe-like trance – and implant whatever false reality they want them to perceive as truth.
When it comes to group mentality, it is a lot easier to gravitate towards a particular “reality” in your immediate environment. For example, when people go to a night-club, maybe they are not used to drink in excess or even smoke when they are on their own – but now that they are with this particular group setting and this festive environment, they might feel more enticed to drink or smoke in this social setting.
Something similar happens with brand loyalty. It might be an inferior product – but if that is the one everybody seems to be consuming in this group, soon it will become the “favorite.” People are generally afraid or at the very least very uneasy about change. And once they build some familiarity with a figure, then they tend to automatically lower their guard. Even if the person is menacing – but it is familiar. It’s a strange phenomenon.
But remember what I said at the start of this article. An authoritarian is only as strong as their followers. The last chapter of my book Authoritarianism & Propaganda the Puppet Master Tools goes on detail about it. And it is the last chapter on purpose, because by then you’ll get a huge dose of introspection for what that really means.
This article will also help you get towards that realization. And I am writing many small articles after my books because this topic on authoritarian propaganda is gigantic – and it has already been weaponized against you. That way you can follow along, because everything I am telling you is happening, and it will affect you – just like it affected millions of people before us. And many people back then were not paying attention until it was too late. This series is meant to change those dark history chapters from repeating. HLC