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Consider the first dictatorships, the pharaohs of Egypt.
There were no mass media, no books, no newspapers, TV, radio. Hardly anyone could even read. There was no means for the society to get together and talk things over to come to a consensus on how things should be run.
So they naturally gravitated to a patriarchal hierarchy, with the guy at the top telling everyone what to do. His military goons and terror ensured his word was carried out.
The mass media is the enemy of the tyrant. It gives a way for the people to make up their mind what they want.
Polls are part of the mass media, including the broadcasting of the results.
So a modern tyrant tries to get control of the mass media or to shut it down by forcing it to talk only about trivia
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