> Idiot says idiotic statement
It’s a loyalty test. If you follow the insane order you are loyal.
The failure modes of autocracies are more obvious: bad kings, low information decision making, incompetent bureaucrats, and no way to remove them peacefully without waiting for them to die.
IMO we kind of lucked out. I shudder to think of what might have happened if Trump, Musk, and that whole crowd were reasonable people who could work together and take criticism.
"Matter" is unfortunately correct both then and now: the word does not imply objective correctness.