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The nature of liberal democracy prevents propagandistic statements from being banned, since among the liberties it permits is the freedom of speech. But since humans have characteristic rational weaknesses and are susceptible to flattery and manipulation, allowing propaganda has a high likelihood of leading to tyranny, and hence to the end of liberal democracy.

— Jason Stanley How Propaganda Works (2015)

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More quotes by Jason Stanley

To me, my Judaism means an obligation to pay attention to equality and the rights of minority groups.

How Fascism Works (2018)

Democracy is an ideal. It is an ideal in which every citizen has political equality rooted in the recognition of all people’s full humanity. And realizing the ideal of political equality is impossible without an understanding of who has been denied it and why.

Erasing History (2024)

I haven't been focused as much as I should have been on supporting trans rights in the last 12 months. I now realize that this is where the fight for global democracy is. There is no avoiding it.

The massive state bailout of financial institutions, leading to immense public debt, was followed by a demand by those very same financial institutions that were bailed out by those states for the states to pay down their debt.

How Propaganda Works (2015)

According to the civilization savagism paradigm, the "uncivilized" are not fully human, and may reasonably be reduced to their capacity for labor. Because of this, they are worthy only of what we might call industrial education, a dehumanizing form of education focused entirely on technical training, which ascribes no value at all to knowledge.

Erasing History (2024)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jason Stanley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.