If I may interrupt. Reading about methicide from the guy that coined the term, Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D.
He wrote "Rape of the mind" in 1956 after treating soldiers from WWII & Korea. In addition to medical & psychological diagnoses, he had relevant observations about democracy.

"Democratic self-government is determined by restraint and self limitations, by sportsmanship and fairness, by voluntary observance of the rules of society and by cooperation. These qualities come through training.

In a democratic government those who have been elected to responsible positions request controls and limitations against themselves, knowing that no one is without fault. Democracy is not a fight for independence but a mutually regulated interdependence.

Democracy means checking man's tendency to gather unlimited power unto himself. It means checking the faults in each of us. It minimizes the consequences of man's limitations."

(this is the democracy we knew growing up. he lays it out beautifully. responsibility, self-control.)

He writes about brainwashing, how it relates to totalitarianism & the propaganda used. A phrase worth repeating:
"Any influence which destroys the individual can destroy the whole society."

Remindful of Putin's brainwashing of not only our population, but the military too.

About brainwashing for political purposes he says,
"If we are to survive as free men, we must face up to this problem of politically inspired mental coercion, with all its ramifications."