A reference to a former Facebook executive.

Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about the company he helped make. “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” he told an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business, before recommending people take a “hard break” from social media.

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”

Here is the key idea: “More communication can mean less understanding.” There is a reason why the strategy of the authoritarian coup of the U.S. is to “flood the zone.” Because this is how oligarchs maintain control: sow hatred and fear to divide and conquer. This is how the few are able to wield power over the many.

The Ink by Anand Giridharadas

The handing over of the keys to the American Republic by a mendacious president to a megalomaniacal oligarch. Elon Musk is a wealthy private citizen who, relatively late in the game, happened to become a Trump supporter when he saw which way the wind was blowing. Now he has burrowed his way into the bowels of the federal government and is waging what can only be called an anti-constitutional coup.

The Ink by Anand Giridharadas

The handing over of the keys to the American Republic by a mendacious president to a megalomaniacal oligarch. Elon Musk is a wealthy private citizen who, relatively late in the game, happened to become a Trump supporter when he saw which way the wind was blowing. Now he has burrowed his way into the bowels of the federal government and is waging what can only be called an anti-constitutional coup.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/13/significance-new-steve-bannon-tape/

Putin has spent a significant amount of resources on making his regime coup-proof and revolution-proof. His main strategy is to minimize any chances of coordination.

leadership succession, authoritarian regime, constitutional rules, Africa

There are some commonly reported misconceptions about revolutions and coups, particularly with respect to military take overs of television and newspapers, that the average reader may wish to familiarize themselves with as they enter this area. One of the best resources I've seen for this is a recent recap by On The Media.

Trump claims nobody brought up Russian hacking before the election. It was already made public on October 7. And he had been personally briefed about it before denying Russian involvement during the debates.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-was-told-russia-was-blame-hacks-long-debate-n663686

(On Google Chrome, hypothesis fails to open for me on that nbcnews page.)