The Sycophancy Machine: How Flattery and Disinformation Undermine Democracy

The consequences of stifling dissent a leadership doesn't want to hear can be grim, with unfortunate endings in bankruptcy, plane crashes, and collapsed republics.

Throughout history, adulation has been scorned as a strategy of the lowest of society, earning flatterers' condemnation to the Eighth Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno.

The growing attachment to flattery cannot be separated from the rise of sycophancy as a political strategy and a form of propaganda.

These depictions capitalize on prejudices and logical fallacies to sweep audiences further and further from ground truth.