I don’t know about y’all, but if I grew up in a country that never has the news criticizing its leaders, I’d be very skepical and deduce that there is censorshop going on and the offical news could be exaggerated or entirely falsified. Do people in authoritarian countries actually just eat the propaganda? To what extent do they believe the propaganda?

  • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works
    81·
    4 days ago

    often people know that, for example, elections are fraudulent, but they are too scared to say anything

    People might vaguely understand that elections don’t produce good outcomes or have systemic bias. That’s then condensed to „elections are rigged“, regardless of the facts and details.

    Most people know little about most things. It’s difficult to even have good fundamentals about most things in our complex world. So people will defer to their personal experience and information seeped into their minds by osmosis/exposure.

    Things like an economy or political system are extremely complex already and not fully understood even by experts.

    • Lyrl@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      There is deeply emotional resistance to the idea of topics being too complex for the average person to understand. The “experts” promote something that superficially contradicts our lived experience? They must be corrupt liars! Down with the experts!

      The economy had, on balance, positive trends in 2024? We felt poorer, so economists should be lynched! /s

      Feels scarily like America is moving towards something like China’s Great Leap Forward https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward

      The Great Leap Forward stemmed from multiple factors, including "the purge of intellectuals, the surge of less-educated radicals… Mao was dismissive of technical experts and basic economic principles…

      Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies… Mao did not retreat from his policies; instead, he blamed problems on bad implementation and “rightists” who opposed him…

      …dozens of dams constructed in Zhumadian, Henan, during the Great Leap Forward collapsed in 1975 (under the influence of Typhoon Nina)… with estimates of its death toll ranging from tens of thousands to 240,000.

      The failure of agricultural policies… suppressed the food supply… The shortage of supply clashed with an explosion in demand, leading to millions of deaths from severe famine.

      • bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works
        11·
        2 days ago

        We felt poorer, so economists should be lynched!

        The contrast between people’s experiences in their everyday lives and what politicians or experts say is important.

        If the economy is supposedly doing great but I can afford less and less and my life gets worse, that’s a contradiction.

        The USA is moving more to something like the gilded age with more wealth disparity, more suffering for the poor, more violence.

        The anti-intellectualism and anti-elitism of the cultural revolution was far more extreme. You are right that there are some similar ideas brewing.

        When the political and economic system is no longer delivering for the population, it will turn against the (perceived) leaders. Trump and the right spins this very well by directing the anger against „woke“ liberal academics, foreigners, and away from the billionaires.

        The „woke“ elites are also in crisis. The Democratic Party is in shambles.