this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Why does it feel that the evil sides globally are winning. Even evil people are winning. Why?

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[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 236 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The common version of the phrase...

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

The actual version of the phrase...

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

[–] anamethatisnt@lemmy.world 88 points 1 month ago (8 children)

A favourite of mine on that theme is from Boondock Saints (1999)

Now we must all fear evil men.
But there is another kind of evil.
Which we must fear. Most.
And that is the indifference of good men.

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[–] adam_y@lemmy.world 215 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Unpopular opinion, but in the west particularly, folk have mistaken writing on the internet for action.

Tweeting resistance rather than performing it.

A lapse into inaction framed as radical rest and self care.

Online they are fierce warriors of justice, offline they go to work in Starbucks, use their apple devices to talk to their families and enjoy the treadmill of streaming services.

And this isn't to blame them. This is the point of consumerist capitalism. To trap you in a gilded cage.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (5 children)

This is why I've stopped reading much of the content I had been reading before. Unless an article is about what someone is doing to stop what is happening, what is the point in reading it? I don't care so much about the bad, rather in how the rest of us are preventing it.

For all the people complaining, I haven't seen many talking about what steps they are taking to change the momentum. I get why I've may not want to announce what protests they are attending, but I haven't noticed much new talk about mutual aid or volunteering efforts. I know the recent political climate globally is motivating me to be involved in both.

I'm waiting to hear back in a volunteer position helping local wildlife, and once I get that schedule worked out, I've already started looking into local food aid opportunities as well.

If our society is leaving gaps unfilled, as you said, it's up to us to fill them ourselves before we all fall through.

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[–] gon@lemm.ee 125 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I saw on Mastodon someone say something kinda like this: good people don't feel the need to dominate others.

Evil isn't "winning" as much as it is "on top." If you look around, talk to your neighbours and such, you'll see that good and reasonable people are everywhere; good is the overwhelming majority.

That being said, positions of power are chased and coveted by those obsessed with power, and those aren't good people. Good people need to take charge, but it's


in a way


against their nature to do so.

[–] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 month ago (16 children)

good is the overwhelming majority.

Let the overwhelming centrist majority in 1930's Germany tell you otherwise. People who peacefully ignore evil, even if it's preserve their own safety, are not good at heart. People just don't want trouble or disturbance, that's why people are naturally kind from day to day. But ignoring the piles of bodies while saying "no politics at the dinner table" is literally how the holocaust happened - the majority failed to act.

1930's Germany at least had the excuse of limited information/education, all they had was radio from which only Hitler's voice was present. 100 years later with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, ignorance to politics is a choice. Might I say an evil one, all things considered.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 90 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Because the return of massive wealth disparity - similar to having kings again - has allowed those with money and power to bend the world in the direction of some form of dictatorship, whether it be fascism, oligarchy, whatever…. The New Kings are carving up society and want to increase control and profit, and an authoritarian governance is the way to do it. Just like how they treat their corporations. They are dictators, the little people are disposable production units to feed their machine.

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[–] ofcourse@lemmy.ml 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  1. Rampant unchecked capitalism of recent decades has created large wealth disparities akin to the earlier decades of the last century. It is no longer possible for one person in a household with a regular job to support a modest lifestyle for their family. All benefits especially medical for the whole family, being completely intertwined with the current job reduces mobility and further feeds into the wealth gap by keeping wages low. It’s easier to blame the powerless for this state of affairs than the powerful because the powerless cannot object.
  2. The fear of the other has been accentuated by media and misinformation. Targeted algorithms feeding most of the information that is consumed has created echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and fears. The propaganda state has never had it easier.
  3. The large military and police has given never before control to the state about what is allowed to be protested. Combined with the day to day struggles, it’s extremely hard to come together for what is right. The ruling class is able to maintain the fine balance between absolute misery and general dissatisfaction that it is still better to struggle through a thankless job than to say fuck it. Failures of recent large uprisings like Middle East and Hong Kong have reinforced the futility of standing up against the rulers.
  4. Evil has many heads and there’s always one head that you can find alignment with. It could be the deregulation of businesses, lower taxes, anti abortion, racism, but as long as there’s one thing you can align on, the general sense of powerlessness makes it easier to overlook the other heads.
  5. The line between evil and good has never been murkier, especially with globalization. If you focus on the betterment of your community, it would be considered good, but what if it leads to suffering of others outside the community. Is it also evil? What is community - is it the people in your neighborhood, your religion, your country, fellow business owners? The fuzzier these lines are, the harder it is to untangle them.
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[–] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 61 points 1 month ago (5 children)

We need more violent good guys

[–] Makhno@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (14 children)

Everytime we talk about violence being the only way to create change, limp-dick liberals bitch about how peaceful protests are the only way.

Liberalism helped build this hell, and it's determined to maintain it.

Leftist need to get guns. Now.

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[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 60 points 1 month ago

Because good natured people don't want conflict so they avoid it.

Bad natured people actively seek conflict and engage with it whenever possible.

Evil never sleeps. Peace does.

[–] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 59 points 1 month ago

Have you ever cheated at a game, cut corners on work or purposefully did something unfair to get better from it yourself?

Yeah it's much easier to win without any pesky ethics or a strong moral compass.

Good folks have been struggling uphill since the Ancient Greeks as long as there are folks trying to win with a different rule book.

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago (13 children)

Capitalism is dying because of unchecked greed and people are turning to socialism. The wealthy choose fascism. Until we have class unity. Once we bring out the guillotines, They will retreat to spending the rest of their lives in the bunkers they have built with their stolen wealth.

[–] zenitsu@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 month ago (4 children)

people are turning to socialism

Feels like they're turning more to fascism

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[–] AkikoMasayoshi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 48 points 1 month ago

People are scared and angry and want action without thinking about the long-term gains only the short term. Creating fear is fascism 101 and how many rise to power

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 47 points 1 month ago

Because now it is affecting you personally. Before it was in the middle east or some random aftican nation where people dont speak english, and media make sure it is not in the front page. Reading some history of any conflict will show the root starting a while back but no one cares.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmings.world 46 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I think the issue in America, is that the Constitution only addressed political power, but failed to account for fiscal strength. Money is inherently a thing that manipulates the fates of individuals, companies, and nations alike. By not setting down rules, limitations, and expectations regarding economics, the Founding Fathers allowed a key form of power go unaddressed.

The vast majority of Project 2025's major backers are wealthy people, who have far beyond what any normal person can ever hope to possess. This imbalance means that workers have to sacrifice much time, money, and energy to be barely heard on a single issue, while a rich person can just hire experts to massage every aspect of their many messages and to deliver it everywhere with a mighty voice.

IMO, we will need a Constitution v2.0 that fixes not only assorted political flaws like the voting system, but also prevents wealth from being a microphone that only a few can afford.

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[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

My opinion on this generally boils down to that the system has been set up to reward evil/antisocial behavior, and this part of the system is so entrenched and well established and organized that it has not been effectively and completely toppled or eradicated in so long, it has been able to consolidate power and resources to a point where very few extremely evil people are personally in charge of so much of what happens that it seeps into everything. Actually "seeps" is the wrong word, it's injected into everything. It's like has been said many times in recent memory, the cruelty is the point.

For a simplified example, evil executives reward evil behavior by their managers, who in turn punish their employees, who lose control of so much of their lives to these companies and managers that they end up hurting their families and friends out of confusion and anger and other complex emotional reactions, and harm is perpetuated in every area of life.

It's self sustaining, and even worse it replicates itself. In some ways I think of these systems as viruses. Also as cults. We all buy in to some degree.

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[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The internet. It led to the following:

  • Good social change occurred very rapidly from the 1990s-2010s, causing highly motivated pushback from those who didn't like the changes
  • Rising wealth inequality caused by tech billionaires increased incentives and capability for a small number of extremely wealthy people to seize control of media and political power centers
  • Foreign dictator governments became more able to more easily spread pro-dictator propaganda
  • Media became more decentralized, leading to some good things but also the hijacking of our psychology to spread fear and disgust for the sake of grabbing attention
[–] JOMusic@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I would just like to push back and say that the Internet was an open public project, and it has helped countless people across the world. Every single problematic tech that people are pointing to at the moment are closed-source commercial projects.

That is Capitalism at work.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

Class solidarity among the rich. Rich people want willing servants. They want people to fear disobeying them.

[–] CompleteUnknown@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

[–] Shizrak@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Evil is willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to win. As long as good keeps fighting with one hand tied behind its back, evil will keep gaining ground.

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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 month ago

One aspect is that mass media is overall owned by those people and is propaganda. If you don't have ways of seeing what's happening on the ground, you miss a lot of the good news. Even your twitter/bs/mastodon feeds won't give you the full story, you have to (where possible) get involved in a real community organization.

[–] barryamelton@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

We are losing the class war.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 29 points 1 month ago (4 children)

The rebels in Myanmar are winning.

There's a new miracle drug for addictions.

That's all I can think of.

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[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, I'd say it's because they don't even hide it anymore. They know they can do whatever they want, and get away with it.

Enshitification is a real thing, and companies and evil people are being blatant about it, because they know they don't have to hide it because they know they can't be stopped.

It sucks. I hate it. I wish we could do something about it.

[–] VITecNet@programming.dev 28 points 1 month ago

Because Evil is winning globally.

[–] ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz 27 points 1 month ago

I blame the success of neoliberalism (perhaps confusingly, a distinctly conservative project driven by the likes of Reagan and Thatcher). Ever-widening wealth gaps and focus on individual responsibility for solving problems seems to have created an environment where people will jump on just about any bandwagon that tells them they're inherently better than others. Unfortunately, evil will keep winning as long as there's enough support (or indifference) for evil to keep winning.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You are more informed in how shitty the world have always been.

Also the decades from the 90s to the 10s were probably a small golden age that has already ended.

[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 1 month ago

I study history a lot, also I’m older so I have the perspective of two or three generations now.

Things have normally been not the idealized concept of Disney princess goodness in government. Evil shits normally have been doing stuff for as long as civilization has existed. So all this is not new.

What is new, and makes this newsworthy, is the masks have fallen off. Those masks and idealized fantasy much of the population indulges in took decades, generations to build up. In many ways this is a very rude culture shock.

The other reason this is important now is the climate is rapidly collapsing while the trade systems have reached unprecedented complexity. So a group of particularly thuggish people rising to power in several nations at once, as they tend to do with regularity. May have epic and disastrous consequences! It’s a really bad time for this to happen

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Neuroscience says that the scared brain has a lower IQ, which is good for giving in to survival instincts in an acute threat situation, but really bad to make any longterm decisions. Populists try to scare us for this very reason. Scared people are easier to manipulate. It's working, and it's fucking scary how effective it is. But I am not scared in the way that lowers my critical reflection. So I hope someone brings out the guillotines before more poor people (our people) die.

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[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Because evil is loud and self-important, and people doing good have learned to be mycelial, underground, quietly building the new world in the shell of the old.

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[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 1 month ago

My theory is "shallow thinking" and "busy-ness". We are prone to mental and expedient shortcuts which seem benign at the small scale in which we interact, but when aggregated become something terrible... and on the exceedingly rare chance that we might hear an actual solution, it either sounds so foreign to us that we cannot consider it, or so hopeless a fight that the super-majority of people do not push back.

Consider how slippery the slope is for even one aspect (diffuse responsibility):

  • Alice needs help
  • Bob sees that Alice needs help
  • Bob excuses himself from being the one to help (not prepared, wasn't expecting, other obligations, could be a trap, others are better suited to help, the government ought to help)
  • Bob excuses himself from being the one to get help (I don't have the number handy, someone else will call, she probably already called someone for help)

Conceptually, this is fine if it is ONLY "Bob", but the deceptive part is how finite the procedural gap is between Bob being one person and it literally being everyone.... thus Alice gets no help.

[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Evil has always been there. People have a tendency to turn a blind eye when it isn't directed at them. Recently it's very much been directed at Europe and North America. It brings the problems of the world into sharp focus.

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[–] 7dev7random7@suppo.fi 24 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I just talked to my superior about the most urgent thing EU countries are facing currently. I should add that he is 100% disabled but studied in CS and reads everything which is interesting to him and his world view.

When I said that social media dictates the discussions and the media, we agreed on the thought after a short period.

And if we could solve this issue we mostlikely would get awarded a noble price.

What I am trying to say: Social media is run by - at least - flawed people. And used by the evil ones to their maximum, putting the honest Ones into a position to explain.

We are loosing our discourse, we are mixing our cultures - or we split at our ethics.

Social media is a cancer with no current treatment. Civilians will be in favor of social media since it also benefits society directly. But we are diminishing other things with it.

Maybe there will be one more brilliant mind educated who may aid us in these times.

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[–] match@pawb.social 22 points 1 month ago (3 children)

when evil is winning on your nation's scale it feels like it's winning globally. is evil winning in rojava? in southeast asia? is evil winning in the spanish speaking world?

for that matter, what's going on at your state level, or at your city level?

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[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago
[–] DegenerationIP@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Well. Lots of people drank the kool aid. As long as some people getting a feeling of Power (like shitting on minorities), they will take the blow from the ruling class.

The last time that shit worked started WWII.

But yeah. What will we do about it. There are days where I think we will make it through. But other days I just feel weak and powerless and think we're doomed.

Fuck greed, eat the rich.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Babylon rots from the inside. Corrupt systems cannot last forever.

[–] wolf@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Perhaps, because by now enough people feel a real impact on their life and fear for the ruling classes is not there anymore?

Just a few examples from direct, personal experience (I am German, so what I enumerate has a German/Euro perspective):

  • Constitutional state? Does not matter, as long as powerful/influential people can literally buy laws or prevent even discussion of laws in the parliament
    • Easy way to figure out who is favored by one law, is to check who has to prove something and how hard it is to prove
    • Best part about this is, people in power can always point out to the law and that 'we' agreed upon that law
  • Systematic discrimination against the worker class/people not owning things: Thing about laws, taxes, ....
  • Every media has an agenda and is propaganda (In the west, propaganda means mostly being selective about the information presented and how to build the narrative. Only idiots in the west will outright lie about things. It also means, who gets to talk in the media, where to position news (headlines ore somewhere else) etc. Media are owned by rich people or the state owned media are controlled by people with strong affinity to political parties
  • Corruption on all but the lowest levels, especially in the government (In Germany corruption on the lowest level is uncommon und has a high penalty, but go up the level a little bit and 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours')
  • Nepotism on all but the lowest levels (Worked in many different companies and the bigger the company the worse it gets. Working class kid does not get an intern position although it would technically be the best choice? No worries, some kid with the right parents and no clue will have that opportunity.
  • No feedback loops: In Germany, we have professional politics which have extremely good conditions for their pension, whose children do not visit public schools and who have private health care decide, what in their opinion is appropriate for most of the people in the country concerning this things...
  • No real political influence: We just had the clown-show of voting. Guess what, I can only vote between Nazis and non-Nazis. Can I vote for more taxes for the rich, a sane economic agenda which not benefits the rich, and full military support for the Ukraine? Sorry, I am out of luck. Of course I am free to build my own party. Let's see how successful that is without massive investment of money and good connections to the ruling classes to get positive media coverage.

Before the eastern block fell apart, at least in Europe/Germany, there was always the fear of the ruling class to experience another (French)revolution. Since this fear is gone, they literally have nothing to fear...

Is it possible to change anything about the situation? I am more than cynical by now:

  • Most everyone is struggling to keep their level of wealth/position in society, so the middle class fights hard to be a little bit better of then the lower class, don't even mention the upper middle class, which fights with nails and teeth for every little advantage and privilege they have
  • The higher you go in hierarchies, the more sycophants you'll discover, which don't mind selling out other humans for status/privileges, and there are even true believers, so brainwashed by neoliberal agenda, that they will fight for the privileges of rich folk they will never belong to
  • There is no way to organize enough people in real life to force any political change (especially not with an aging population)
  • The ruling class figured out for a long time in western world, that instead of fighting facts/the truth, they just have to generate more bullshit, discussions, alternative narratives and lean back, because people will discuss and not agree
  • Nearly all change to the status quo is opposed and fought by some group, which benefits from the status quo
  • Neoliberal propaganda and views are so ubiquitous and pervasive in our media, stories, etc., that a lot of people cannot even think about alternatives any more.

That's just for the western world, let's not start about the dictatorships/regimes supported by western governments with money, weapons and knowledge, where things are even more shitty.

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[–] NoxAstrum@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 month ago

It's very simple: human emotion. When something upsets the status quo, people get scared, angry and desperate. They turn to whatever solution they think will fix things.

In the case of nations, that becomes right-wing politics. Many factors in the recent past have caused distress and fear. People are afraid of losing what they have, they don't like the uncertainty. They lack the education and critical-thinking skills to choose the best course of action, instead they choose the most reassuring course of action.

In 1930s Germany, support for extremist political parties (not just the NSDAP) surged due to the desperate times they were experiencing. Germany underwent a period of hyperinflation, which was followed shortly after by the stock market crash of 1929. They were already in poor shape, both economically and emotionally, due to the punishments meted out by the Versailles treaty.

Things became very bad for the Germans, and they turned to the looneys who offered a solution. A similar scenario is playing out in several countries around the world, especially the US. COVID really upset a lot of people, none more so than the overly emotional and uneducated. They felt attacked and vulnerable, and they were already deluded by years of misinformation. They turn to politicians like Trump, because he appeals directly to their emotions. He makes them feel safe, largely by scapegoating groups who aren't actually a threat (sound familiar?).

People don't check if what they're hearing is true, they care most about having their fears assuaged. This is why we've seen a resurgence of right-wing extremism globally.

[–] bouh@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Because capitalism. Capitalism is basically a philosophy that postulates that people are greedy and selfish, so it makes a society based on greediness and selfishness. It's a self-realizing prophecy if you ask me.

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[–] AlfredoJohn@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 month ago

Hate drives engagement and can have multiple intersections with opposing view points. Take our algorithmic methods of serving content and you get silos of positivity with oceans of hate in between that fuel metrics of user engagement and view time. Drive your share price by those metrics and run the economy on those share prices. Viola hate becomes the new most important resource to generate and those who can spread it most effectively or direct that hate become those with the most power. If we want to break that grasp on power we need to break the cycle of engagement being tied to hate, find a way to drive engagement through positive action and understanding. I talk like I know how to do that but in reality that's one of the most difficult problems humanity has in general. Like greed is terrible but if you could figure out how to make positivity and mutual understanding more profitable than spewing hate and divisiveness you could channel those at the tops greed into positive feedback loops. Once you have more understanding, and equity in individuals understanding each other we can them finally work as a collective to start eliminating things like bigotry, poverty, etc.

[–] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Because class war is being raged but most of the global north working class don't have any class consciousness. Capitalism is working on doing what it has done to the global South for decades but this time to the global North. Fascism is Imperialism turned inward. Welcome to the rest of our lives.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 month ago

Two answers.

Thomas Picketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine

Even reading a brief summary of the main points of both books gets you to a decent explanation.

[–] MrStargazer@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

While times seem bad, and they are worse than they used to be, especially with the election of Donald Trump, imagine what it was like during WW2. Nazi Germany invaded France, Czechoslovakia, and half of Poland (with the Soviet Union the other half); Britain stood alone. Spain was under fascist dictatorship. Now Russia barely controls 1/5 of Ukraine, and has suffered many thousands of losses in tanks and armoured vehicles. Modern Russia is now weaker than the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany was (for their time period).

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[–] Enfors@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago

What you're saying is true, but we must also remember that construction is always slower than destruction. What this means is that slow, steady improvements are not newsworthy - and thus gets no airtime - compared to destruction which happens over night and is thus newsworthy.

So there is also a lot of slow, steady improvements going on in the world that we never hear about. There's not enough of it, I don't think, to offset the big evils of greed, climate change, and fake news. But it is there, and we must not forget it.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 month ago

I theorize that it has a lot to do with rich people. There's more wealth inequality than ever before, or at least (because I'm not well versed in history) if billionaires are maybe roughly equivalent to some kings of yore, that those kings couldn't have the same widespread impact in old times because of modern mass communication. Billionaires skew overwhelmingly amoral, so this increased global reach is allowing them to shape and skew things in amoral directions, which includes propping up power hungry leaders to do their bidding. This is especially true because the communication channels are controlled by other wealthy people who benefit from the system, so they have a vested interest in seeing that the algorithms continue to support the owner class.

Even savvy leaders like Putin can't do it alone and alienate the oligarchs (see this CGP Grey video on "rules for rulers" as to why), but beyond that it's easy to see why weak idiots like trump are simple enough to puppet with money and flattery.

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