04-28-2022, 06:34 PM
As important is knowing how campaign funds and media manipulation (that's right, propaganda, whether private or public in origin) work. If someone gets aid from dark-money groups that demonize the opposition then one must expect that the sources of the dark money will pull the strings on someone who poses as a plain-folks figure. That means the dark money will prevail in the pol that it supports whether one thinks its agenda ludicrous or even inhuman if its chosen pol wins. So if a secretive group has a menacing campaign and says "vote for Senator Jones" then you can expect Senator Jones to be its stooge.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.