A refreshingly simply analysis of politics and power. From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:
an exploration of “shiny hat censorship” and why you never get “better/smarter/more honorable guys this time”
some cartoons are classics for a reason.
and this is surely destined to be one of them.
as i wrote in my very first substack:
“it is easy to become that which you purport to hate.
those who conquer kingdoms by “speaking the truth to power” are, once enthroned, often those least likely to allow truth to be spoken to (or even nearby to) them. after all, who better to understand the dangers posed to rulers by such truths than those who just used them to supplant the antecedent sovereign?
put a shiny hat upon a man’s head and watch as he becomes the very king he once condemned: from @jack to @jackboots in one business cycle. it’s just human nature. you cannot fix it. you cannot get smarter or more noble guys next time. there is nothing new under the sun.”
and this is trebly true of government.
shiny hat censorship is always the name of the game.
once you capture the crown, you want to keep it and suddenly the idea of people speaking against the king looks very different than it did while you were in opposition.
i would argue that this is the primary political driver in states whose government passes a certain event horizon of scale and reach.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 