How dictators generate fanatic support, from Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com
If you haven’t looked into it, you might believe the majority of colonists living in what was then British North America – aka, the colonies – favored separation from Great Britain. In fact, it was a minority who did and it was their chore to persuade the reluctant majority – these were called Tories – to support the effort.
If you read the private correspondence of some of the men who were trying to make the case for separation, you’ll find out all about their frustrations trying to get their fellows to see that separation was the only way to achieve independence.
Of course, independence is not generally a popular thing, then or now. Most people seem to prefer to stick with what they know rather than try something new, even when what they are sticking with is sticking it to them.
Twitter, for instance. It has been rebranded, of course. But it is still the same old Twitter. By which I mean it operates on the same speech-suppressing model. I can personally attest to this because I have a large enough audience to notice when what I say – specifically, what I write – is being hidden from view.
That’s the trick, by the way.
