Authoritarians thrive when they can cling to the frustration of the populous. Sadly, this ends up being a coning on steroids, and these are highly effective too!
They don’t care about you
Let’s start from the basics – authoritarians, authoritarians wanna-be, and propagandists do not care about you at all. For them your devotion is only a means to an end. And that end is to galvanize their power for them and their also ironically disposable close circle of cronies. YOU as the regular supporter are not invited to that club, even if you attend the galas.
As I said before, this is a swindle on steroids. Sure, you might feel welcomed, and even excited to be in the company of everybody who seems to gravitate towards the authoritarian. A lot of these authoritarians, even if they are not actually all that bright, they do to tend to be charming and engaging. And that actually lowers the guard from unsuspecting victims. And yes, the most ardent supporters could very well be those victims.
A lot of authoritarians turn out to pander to the populous segment of their potential constituency – why? Because there is strength in numbers, they understand that to keep those numbers high enough to get to the base line there are certain things this targeted group of people want to hear. The truth is irrelevant, at this stage of the game. It is more about the delivery of talking point.
Then something interesting happens – obviously a lot of the “promises” won’t be possible (or even legal). Therefore, in most instances these “projects” will become unfulfilled. Therefore, the propagandist will shift to “blaming the other guys” – whomever has been designated as the scape goat. It will never be about personal responsibility for the authoritarian – they will pose as though THEY themselves are never wrong – but they will ironically attack the personal responsibility of whomever is the scape goat.
From there cognitive dissidence will grow. People are complex, and the minds are actually very easily hacked by people who have low scrupulous but understand this game. The majority of the people who are conned are the blind loyal followers, but this – often smaller – group of people can negatively affect the collective. Also, this small group tends to be very vocal, and because they have been taken for a ride, they cannot understand why nobody else would be onboard while listening to the same nonsense and accepting it cheerfully at face value.
AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools
Available worldwide on eBook and Paperback worldwide
A massive scam
When and if somebody is trying to scam you, they will be charming – and kind – at first… but they will turn on you on a dime, once they reach a certain point. This point could be when they no longer need you, or if you become wise enough to call them out. Whatever the case, they were never looking for your best interest – but they were – often – very compelled to make you believe they were, and make YOU believe every word. They weren’t on your side; they were scamming you.
If you’re draped from head to toe in a political candidate regalia and even use it when not attending a rally – then these propagandists know that you’re a perfect vehicle to spew and repeat whatever narrative, talking points, and buzz words that they half-ass throw at you. These talking points make PERFECT sense when you’re in the echo chamber. They lose a lot of traction once you are out of said cozy echo chamber.
They anticipated this, and they expect you to get defensive and angry to defend the “dear leader” and these – actually – hollow and easily debunkable talking points. They don’t care about the facts, they care about YOUR EMOTIONS, and if your biases are exploitable. If they are, they will not play you like a fiddle, but rather like a full orchestra. And you’ll be happy to be “part of this symphony” – it is designed to be that way. And it works and has worked for millennia.
There is an easy way to know if you’re being used as part of this gigantic scam. If the “dear leader” is a wimp, a petulant, sophomoric, name-calling, likely already in legal trouble, has a history of controversy, has been previously accused of alleged fraud, their previous staff do not endorse him/her, spews divisive rhetoric to anybody who is “their political adversary,” advocates for punishment for people who disagree with him/her… I can go on. But if you missed any of these red flags, it also says a lot about who you are. Just saying.
The saddest part is that most populist get their power galvanized by inciting divisiveness against another group of people they deemed “more privileged than them” – even if this other group is in fact less affluent, or if they have already more restrictions than this other “angry” group who is chastising them. Yes, it should be counterintuitive, but as I said, people are complex, and their cognitive dissidence can be mind-bending.
Let’s finish today’s article by understanding introspection, and to this end remember what I said at the beginning of this article – an authoritarian does not care about you or what you stand for. They care about what biases you have and how they can exploit them in order to galvanize their power. Once they do, then you and your devotion for the dear leader is disposable. This is nothing new, and these dark chapters in history are repeating.
Check my book Authoritarianism & Propaganda The puppet Master Tools, because it goes on detail about how to defeat these scammers taking over our lives. HLC