[q] https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/...
Seems to me we're doing ourselves in. It just took a nudge to get that self-destruction rolling.
First, people with less cognitive capabilities seem to be inclined into conservatism and prejudice.[1]
Now, how do you make people's cognitive capabilities less?
You make people poor.[2]
Second, you can make people conservative by making them scared [3]
So you being a conservative politician and wanting to get more votes, you make people poor and scared and you get more votes. And the problem is, it is much easier to make people poor and scared than wealthy and feeling safe.
[1] https://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conser...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poverty-brain/study-finds...
[3] https://mic.com/articles/26911/people-who-are-fearful-tend-t...
There are additional levers to be used, mass surveillance makes people not want to talk lest they reveal themselves to be not 100% aligned with the edicts of the regime. Plus if people aren't talking then they aren't discussing ideas, discussion is needed as without it people can end up believing very strange ideas told to them by the mass media or the conspiracy theorists, with both sets of those ideas being oppressive.
Fear is the big one though, even the smartest people succumb to it remarkably easily. It is quite funny to watch in a 'lemmings' type of way. But to watch it in a 'lemmings' type of way then you have to be in on it, a sick individual spreading the fear.
Per "Here Comes Everybody" (and similar books) the internet can allow the normally separated to organize and GTD. The __exact__ role the gov has played in the past. But people have to be willing to do that. Unfortunately, escalating fear and decisiveness maintain the power status quo.