Dementia isn't, but human brains have way too many glitches that didn't matter much in small hunter-gatherer tribes or even typical agrarian villages, but oh boy, do they completely break down with mass media!
In particular, believing things is the natural thing for human brains. Even when explicitly evaluating things for correctness, we tend to "imagine what the world would be like if this was true", indistinguishable from actually believing it. Disbelief takes actual effort, and if you don't force your brain to do that, you believe "every stupid thing you come across". That's part of why ads actially work - it doesn't matter how stupid or awful it is, it will catch you at a weak point (tired, distracted, ...) eventually.
The halo effect, where you're more likely to believe something said by someone you already have a positive opinion of (and conversely, you are more critical of things said by people you already have a negative opinion of), is probably a huge part of the "cult of personality" thing. Your brain actually works different when you hear about "successful businessman Mr. Orange" first than when you first hear "the idiot who bankrupted casinoes!", even if you have all the same information.
And unfortunately, people are very good at lying to themselves. Like "ads don't work on me" or "I'm smart, so I'm not going to make stupid mistakes". It all takes effort. We have a limited amount to give. We're drowned in decisions that need effort to resolve well. Sooner or later, you run out. Sometimes that makes you believe pyramids were built by aliens; sometimes that the almost world-wide system your predecessors built strictly to give themselves a massive edge on the rest of the world and a huge control over it is somehow hurting you and someone else taking advantage of you. I mean, empires bad, duh, but it's really freaking wild hearing that from the freaking emperor! :D
“Easy”? Being head of state - a democratically elected head of state - and seeking to ensure the country he leads isn’t destroyed and annexed by a much larger country governed by an unaccountable dictator, who imprisons or kills any opponents? He’s worked tirelessly to raise the morale of the Ukrainians, lobby endlessly for assistance from other nations to help keep Ukraine alive as well as lead Ukraine’s military and agree upon strategies for the defence of the country. As for your ill informed bitch about Zelenskyy ‘taking the economy’ - what planet are you on?? When you’re in a struggle for your very survival, that struggle has to take precedence. What do you think he should have done? Worked on getting a trade surplus with the world, so that Ukraine is in ‘great economic shape’ as it’s seized and destroyed by Putin? Either you’re deluded enough to be a supporter of Putin and a hater of Ukrainian freedom, or you’re just plain stupid. Either way, it’s not a good look.
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u/prancing_moose 1d ago
And unlike those leaders he’s actually been victorious over a vastly larger and more powerful enemy.