In Moises Naims 2022s book The revenge of power. He explains the new techniques that power-aspiring autocrats use to captivate and compel the public to give them the power. He defines it as the 3Ps: Polarization, Post-Truth and Populism. In this two-part blog series, we will reflect on how social media tailwinds these techniques.

Polarization and Social Media

Understanding polarization as reinforcing the differences between two different ideologies for their followers to concentrate on them and create union on the groups. This is used with a technique called Manichaeism were autocrats separate society in two the corrupt elite or power mafia and the good, pure people, betrayed and aggrieved by those corrupt.

Social media plays a role magnifying these techniques by the echo chamber effect. This effect gives someone the illusion that everybody thinks like them (powered by the filter bubble) reinforcing continuously the us versus them narrative.  Creating the desire for a strong leader, perfect space for an autocrat to ask for power.

Post-Truth Era Enhanced by Social Media

Post-truth can be a whole blog post (and maybe it will) but in short is when a topic is moved out of logic and fact and move to ideas, opinions and belonging as sources of acceptance.

The impact of social media in this aspect comes from two factors:

1. In words of the author “Post-truth had existed as propaganda, but now post-truth and propaganda are not monopolies of governments, but rather each person has access to disseminate information and ideas through social networks”. An example of this is how troll farms are influencing elections like in Mexico since 2017
2. Going back to Frasers Filter Bubble, once you start empathizing with a half-truth even a little if not careful your bubble will start moving in that direction and reinforce it continuously.

On the next blog post we will talk about the final P – Populism and a reflection of how the combination of the 3 is forging our political landscape on a global scale.

You can find the books and sources hyperlinked on the text.

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