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?

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    59·
    4 days ago

    I think this USSR quote is a good answer:

    We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.

    (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

    In any authoritarian system where indoctrination starts young you’ll probably have a fifth of the population that’s high on the coolaid or never questioned anything due to ideology or intelligence (or both). The rest know they’re lying, etc. And keep their mouths shut because they don’t want to go to Siberia or El Salvador.

    • starlinguk@lemmy.world
      27·
      4 days ago

      Also applies to modern day Russia. Everyone knows the elections are fake, for example, but they keep their heads down.

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, and just because you know they’re lying, doesn’t mean you know what the truth is, much less so how to prove it to someone else.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
        12·
        3 days ago

        That’s not the point of the phrase — the statement refers to the true believers drinking poison unquestioningly, without entertaining the thought that it will kill them.

        • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
          12·
          2 days ago

          Check the story! They knew they were going to die. That was the point. He told them. He told them exactly what was up and they consented. Their minds were so twisted by his lies that they couldn’t imagine any other life. That’s what drinking the koolaid means: you subscribe to a belief wholeheartedly, even a crazy one, to the point where youd rather die than question it.

          • Hawke@lemmy.world
            5·
            2 days ago

            you subscribe to a belief wholeheartedly, even a crazy one, to the point where youd rather die than question it.

            That’s what I said too, which is to say that the point is not the killing but the unquestioning nature of it.

            It’d be so much better if that authoritarian fifth would drink the flavor-aid in the sense of killing themselves.

      • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        I know. What you have hit upon here is my obviously unsuccessful attempt at making these people look more ridiculous than the OG death cult.

    • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      You learn that truth is a dangerous luxery you can do without, as power dictates, and can do so for generations.