I have a dream that one day, a leader of the world will wake up and say all the things that are logical and heal us. Since they seem to be useless, I have written the speech for them. Please retweet it if you like it: 1)
Today, we have so much information that it is possible for us to start living our lives in an almost normal way...
We now know exactly which age groups and types of patients are in real danger from this virus, and we know what parts of society we can make normal..
We have learnt that our citizens have great resilience but also that very restrictive measures have bad effects on our long-term health.
From now on, we will report on this virus objectively.
We will no longer tell our citizens who to meet, and where and when to meet them. We will no longer tell you to stick to a chosen group of friends.
We will also stop testing those who are healthy. We are not in a war-like situation where we...
We are asking you all to enjoy the freedom you always deserved but to be careful: it’s not the time for huge parties.
The way forward for any society is to get the best out of living.
We must be careful but we must also live full lives and give our children the chance to be happy.
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And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.
Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2
"propaganda is often not used for indoctrination, but rather to signal the government\u2019s strength in being able to afford significant resources and impose on its citizens...not meant to 'brainwash', but rather to forewarn the society about how strong it is" https://t.co/mFAurhEHeO pic.twitter.com/WXKKJaPqWQ
— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) June 18, 2020
When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.
The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3
In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it
Authoritarians do not use propaganda for brainwashing, "but to demonstrate their strength in social control...propaganda may need to be dull and unpersuasive, to make sure citizens know it is propaganda when they see it and hence get the implicit message" https://t.co/PqRpxjaIPL pic.twitter.com/1y67d2RCjB
— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) June 19, 2020
Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.
The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
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One thing I've been noticing about responses to today's column is that many people still don't get how strong the forces behind regional divergence are, and how hard to reverse 1/ https://t.co/Ft2aH1NcQt
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 20, 2018
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote: