Nathan Radke

In the initial stages of it, they were even told that it wasn't a war at all.

And this is despite evidence in the form of news footage on their screens and their sons coming home on planes in coffins.

And it's certainly a lesson that the American government learned about gaslighting.

Because in that war, in the Vietnam War, the American government had very little direct control over journalists.

And so while the American government might have been trying to present the war in one narrative, because there was independent journalists doing actual work on the ground, it was very, very difficult for the American government to push that narrative when people could see with their own eyes what was happening on TV screens.

Oh, absolutely.

So the thing is, a key part of being a strong man leader is being, you know, strong.

But because time comes for all of us,

Often authoritarian regimes, they tell absurd and hilarious lies about how robust a dictator is, even as their body is decaying and falling into pieces and their mind is basically turning into goo.

We have an example from the 1970s.

The leader back then was Brezhnev.

I don't know if you remember Brezhnev.

He was like the most Soviet guy ever.

Like even in real life, he was in black and white.

This was just a grim, grim sort of Frankenstein of a human being.

He's the head of the Soviet Union.

He was clearly in the 1970s just deteriorating in front of the entire world.

His speech was slurred.

He was going off on weird tangents.

He'd lose his place when he was talking, generally just acting like a malfunctioning robot.