It's not a coincidence that the same people who spread disinformation are not interested in funding public schools.
While doing research for my book on disinformation, I learned about Kari Kivinen, a headteacher in Finland, who explained how Finland combats disinformation.
Alexander Hamilton understood that if the government does good things for people, they will come to have confidence in the government, and this will give the nation stability.
It's in one of the Federalist Papers. I quoted it in my book. I'm not at my desk or I'd give the #.
Hi, @robreiner. I'm happy to take a stab at answering the question.
A would-be oligarch (who wants both power and wealth) has to keep the masses in their place, so they have to enact legislation that actually hurts their constituents.
That's why Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
GOP leaders know that their position on Covid relief is unpopular with their base, but they also know they're giving their base something they want more: Protection from "dangerous" enemies threatening to destroy the U.S.
Hungarian scholar Balint Magyar offers a theory that explains why the US is holding out against the same tactics that caused other countries to collapse into autocracy. His theory also explains why comparisons across nations don’t always work.
2/ While writing about post-communists mafia states, he talked about the “big bang” theory: He says that the “conditions preceding the democratic big bang have a decisive role in the formation of the system.”
3/ Here’s how I understand the theory (to use Russia as an example). At the time of the Russian Big Bang (early 1990s, when a Democracy struggled to be born) the Communist Party had a monopoly on power and resources.
Before the 2020 election, scholars of the kind of fascism taking root in that part of Europe compared what the Republican Party was doing to what Orban did in Hungary.
The conclusion from the comparison in Oct. 2020 was that Trump would steal the election.
I do think, though, that we can learn a lot about the modern Republican Party from studying Magyar's work.
Just don't conclude that the US will follow Hungary's course.
Magyar also talks about the "big bang" theory of Democracy. (If you ask, I'll explain) . . .