Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“One of the most memorable passages in the memoir of the escaped slave Frederick Douglass is where he describes how one group of slaves would argue with another group of slaves over whose master was richer or stronger. Exhibiting a mixture of Stockholm syndrome with delusions of grandeur, these slaves, according to Douglass, ‘seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves.’ … Americans think themselves quite privileged to be dominated and exploited by the current American ruling oligarchy. Why? It is often because these victims of the regime judge their masters to be less awful than some other masters. But, not content with concluding one set of overlords to be merely less bad than another, these willing serfs then go a step further and attribute to their masters great virtue and kindness.” (09/24/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-government-so-loved-so-many