3 ms·

> These links help explain why strongman leaders often use misinformation symbolically to impress and control a population. There's an entirely logical reason

> These links help explain why strongman leaders often use misinformation symbolically to impress and control a population. There's an entirely logical reason why authoritarians undermine truth and truth-generating social systems. The #1 goal of an authoritarian leader is to acquire maximum concentrated power relative to other people. Everything else is secondary. One of the main ways someone's power can be undermined is by many people combining their small individual powers into a single coherent group. But that requires coordination and agreement. Everyone has to row the boat in the same direction for it to work. Reality has a natural coordinating effect since we all share the same material universe. Thus, the more people are grounded in reality, the easier it is for them to agree and coordinate. They have a larger set of facts which they already naturally agree on. Therefore, to undermine that coordination, every authoritarian regime in history has sought to undermine institutions and people that aim to discover and disseminate facts about reality. Being an edgelord who repeats known falsehoods plays into that. It's effectively throwing up flak into the information sphere to obscure facts that might otherwise disseminate.

djokkataja 1y ago
What's the benefit to an "edgelord", though? Why bother?
- munificent 1y ago
  This is a deep question! Authoritarianism has a lot of obvious appeal for the authority, but what is in it for the bootlickers? The answer isn't clear, but I think it mostly rests on a sense that it feels safest/strongest to be a member of the tribe whose alpha is the biggest baddest gorilla. People that support an authoritarian leader often believe that the leader will protect them and be on their side. Of course, anyone who knows even a bit of history of authoritarianism knows that Dear Leader will happily kick people out at the slightest provocation and seems to always need his subjects to make sacrifices he himself never seems to have to make. But there is always no shortage of suckers who just want to feel like they're on a winning team.

djokkataja 1y ago

What's the benefit to an "edgelord", though? Why bother?

munificent 1y ago
This is a deep question! Authoritarianism has a lot of obvious appeal for the authority, but what is in it for the bootlickers? The answer isn't clear, but I think it mostly rests on a sense that it feels safest/strongest to be a member of the tribe whose alpha is the biggest baddest gorilla. People that support an authoritarian leader often believe that the leader will protect them and be on their side. Of course, anyone who knows even a bit of history of authoritarianism knows that Dear Leader will happily kick people out at the slightest provocation and seems to always need his subjects to make sacrifices he himself never seems to have to make. But there is always no shortage of suckers who just want to feel like they're on a winning team.