The primary goal of authoritarianism is consolidation of power among a small number of elites. Anything that can reduce that power is an enemy.

The essential weakness that the powerful elites have is that they are, by definition, outnumbered. So in order to consolidate and maintain power, they need to disturb any system that the masses can use to coordinate and form collective action.

(It's a kid's movie, but Hopper's speech in "A Bug's Life" captures this very well: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1hfo90u/hoppers_jus...)

Reality has a strong consensus-creating effect. We all live in the same material world, so simply by understanding it better and sharing that understanding, we will automatically trend towards having more common ground and more agreement.

That's a threat to elite power, so authoritarian governments have always been anti-science. They may pay it lip service, or attempt to harness it to their own ends, but they never want an entire populace that it well-educated and grounded in reality, because well-informed masses are harder to divide and conquer.

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peyton 8 hours ago | parent [-]

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	▲	munificent 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What supporting evidence would be compelling to you?
	▲	usernomdeguerre 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		What supporting evidence would convince you concretely?
	▲	AngryData 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I would point to the consistent consolidation of power upward in our government, from Congress to the President, away from States to Congress, away from local governments to State. Our population grows and yet congress is capped, our problems and cases grow and yet the Supreme Court isn't being increased and instead picks and chooses cases that support the federal government. I find it hard to believe anyone is willingly ceding power upward except towards the goal of a stronger more authoritarian rule by the elite classes because they don't think lesser people are worthy of making decisions. They don't care about stepping on others as long as they think they will get to do the stepping.
	▲	CamperBob2 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		If you ignored the Project 2025 manifesto, it's safe to say you'll ignore anything written here as well. Like most great conspiracies, Project 2025 was not confined to a smoke-filled room in the basement of a guarded mansion. It was published and distributed freely for anyone and everyone to read. Now's a good time to catch up: https://www.project2025.observer/en
	▲	Hikikomori 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That they're fascist? And project 2025 is essentially a blueprint of what Hitler did by purging the bureaucracy of anyone that might oppose him. The new OMB guidelines extends it to anyone getting grants to do science. Its clear that Vought, Miller and even Vance are fans of Carl Schmitt as they're implementing his ideas, Vance has even mentioned him publicly.