Did you know that a lot of authoritarians and tyrants were duly elected, and then they just decided never to leave – or installed a puppet government? Indeed.
How do they get elected?
Demagogs have been part of the political reality since the beginning of civilization. Many who are in campaign mode will be enticed to lie about whatever makes their potential constituents perk their ears, get their most basic emotions flowing – so long it moves their happy butt from their cozy living spaces to the ballots. The actual platform is almost irrelevant, because a demagog plans on doing whatever they want anyway.
However, those rallies, those commercials, debates, zingers, sick burns, or whatever other tactic their followers find enticing will make them angry enough to show their undivided support and loyalty. This support will be incremental, first by tuning in, then buying all kinds of merch, then showing up at whatever place they are asked (where they will likely buy even more merch), get surrounded by a bunch of people who are falling under the same swindle – and fired up against whomever they are supposed to be angry at this particular time.
Yes, you’ve read that right – whoever is the person or entity that will be recipient of the furious rage will change – and that could even include an ardent loyalist who for whatever reason was disavowed. Remember, for an authoritarian – EVERYONE is disposable, no matter how close or loyal they were to the authoritarian.
They get elected by getting you angry (worth repeating), and posing themselves as the only solution to all problems they claim is tearing the fabric of society – what they don’t tell you is that a lot of those problems are really make believe – they are designed to get you fired up, make you so enraged as to lose your rationality, while making you feel as the smartest person in the room, because you’re surrounded by a bunch of people who were convinced of the same BS.
AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools
Available worldwide on eBook and Paperback worldwide
How do they get YOUR vote?
Authoritarians “wanna-be” will be getting YOUR vote by lying to your face. Once they get to power, they could very well become full authoritarians if the office to which they have been elected is corrupt enough to become a rubber stamp to their antics. That is why they will surround themselves with loyalists to erode the strength of those who are actually holding them accountable. Accountability is good and expected if you’re the leader. Lack of accountability opens the door for authoritarianism and tyranny.
If an “authoritarian wanna be,” and their propagandist realized that you and your like-minded folks are naïve, they will lower the standards on the narrative even more and see how much they can lie to your face without you calling them out, or worse – if you’re short-sighted enough to keep parroting their buzz words and talking points, even if they are inconsistent.
This of course will frustrate the crap out of the people who are actually paying attention – even if they were in the same political party at some point – but the most naïve group will double down on their devotion for their “dear leader” and attack anybody who dares calling the inconsistencies out. But remember, for the naïve group, the inconsistencies are irrelevant, because in their echo chamber all that BS makes perfect sense. It is designed to be that way.
When a person is angry, rationality and fact-checking is the first thing that goes out the window – especially if planted talking points are making them believe they have the answers. But talking points are not the same as facts. They are statements that are easily digestible and can pass the smell test unless you dig an inch deeper for scrutiny. The authoritarians just need you to be naïve enough until they galvanize power. After that you’re disposable.
If you realize that you’ve been duped, then they will silence you because they already got all the power that they needed to keep you and everybody else quiet – or make you and everything you ever loved violently to disappear. In my book Authoritarianism & Propaganda the Puppet Master Tools I cite several examples that show how situations like this happened. And yes, lying to naïve voters is a tactic that has been proven and used pretty much forever. But people keep falling for it. Why?
I’ll be as diplomatic as I can – because tons of people don’t give a crap about anything or anyone who is not in their immediate surroundings, or if it does not seem to affect them. To get your vote, the demagogs will make you believe somebody who is outside your bubble is the enemy – but if you would actually get to talk to them, you would realize the obvious – we are more similar than different.
That realization is inconvenient to a demagog – if you forget everything I said, remember this – they don’t care about you, or if you pledged your loyalty to them – unless it is self-serving to them. And the very second you become inconvenient, then you will become disposable. There is a reason why all these demagogs surround themselves by “yes” men and women. HLC