There's a difference between attacking a rival political position, and attacking the concepts of truth and shared objective reality. Authoritarians want to spread cynicism and nihilism so their populations won't one day stop tolerating their corruption and oppression and demand political agency.

It's literally a life or death conflict for them. If the whole of Russia or China wakes up tomorrow and demands free and fair elections, it's game over.

> If the whole of Russia or China wakes up tomorrow and demands free and fair elections, it's game over.

I've often seriously wondered about this ...

Would they not just as well be gassed, fired upon, ie. have the full brunt of their respective militaries turned upon them for the sake of "public order" or, as China would have it "Social Harmony"? Would they not just get "harmonized"?

Realistically it wouldn't be "everyone" it would be perhaps a slight majority of the total population. That way the gov could still mobilize half the population against the other half, respond with violence, and probably still retain power.

But ideas spread quickly. If anything close to 80-90% of a population demands something, that thing is likely to happen.

That's why the fight in the information space is so fierce, that's why the police response in HK was so violent, etc. Authoritarians know the stakes couldn't be hirer, so they fight this battle with everything they got. If a critical mass one day demands freedom their very lives are now at risk.

Keep in mind, the people that ordered the military to fire on Chinese students in Tiananmen square, they are still in power. If the CCP were to fall, I would assume those people wouldn't escape justice. So they will fight like hell to avoid accountability.

> mobilize half the population against the other half,

This, a likely scenario under such circumstances, sounds atrocious ...

It would be a human tragedy on a scale we've never seen before. This is why an authoritarian government of 1.4 billion people terrifies me. If history is any guide, the state will fall. But if it doesn't happen peacefully, god help us.

> This is why an authoritarian government of 1.4 billion people terrifies me.

Your terror is well-founded, I'm afraid.

(And, they are showing themselves to be increasingly nervous ...

... see the latest crackdown on academia, and student organizations ...)

The more weak they know their internal state to be, the more aggressive externally they will become. War or revolution are horrific outcomes, yet one or both seem almost inevitable.