Mendel
Senior Member.
This is why debunking is, at times, political.
Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCKkWMbmXU
Transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/what-is-fascism/ .
The 10 tactics of fascism
How do fascist leaders take hold? Lying to a whole nation, and having them believe you, is just one tenth of it.
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As Hitler says in "Mein Kampf," "Science is only useful insofar as it strengthens the nation." Fascism is a cult of the leader. It involves the leader setting the rules about what's true and false. So any kind of expertise, reality, all of that is a challenge to the authority of the leader. If science would help him, then he can say, "Okay, I'll use it." Institutions that teach multiple perspectives on history in all its complexity are always a threat to the fascist leader.
The center of democracy is truth. You're not free if you've been lied to. Nobody thinks the people of North Korea are free. The people of North Korea will vote for Dear Leader every time because they've been lied to. It's not a free vote because they don't have access to the truth.
Equality, similarly, requires truth because equality and democracy doesn't mean we all have the same amount of money. It doesn't mean we all have the same car. It means political equality, that each of our voices matters the same. And political equality means speaking truth to power. If someone really powerful is humiliated when they're caught lying, that's the core of political equality. So if you're gonna rip the heart out of democracy, you get people used to lies.
Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCKkWMbmXU
Transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/what-is-fascism/ .