@inthehands@hachyderm.io2025-10-20 17:50:33
Some folks in the replies seem a bit confused about what that 3.5% counts, conflating it with polling or election results: “What if 3.5% support the authoritarian too? Who wins then??”
That study was specifically looking at (1) ongoing political engagement (2) in opposition to an authoritarian slide. It’s •not• a poll. It’s •not• an election. It’s •not• a popularity contest. It’s about how much active counter-engagement an authoritarian takeover can withstand.
If 3.5% of the population is actually •actively• engaged in opposition work on an •ongoing• basis, then that likely indicates a much broader base of less active and more intermittently engaged opposition — like maybe an order of magnitude larger! Who knows! The golden brown on top of the bread is a decent indicator of what’s happening inside.
