Conspiracy and Fear Buy-in to the Party Line

http://mruniversity.com/courses/economic-history-soviet-union/conspiracy-and-fear-buy-party-line

So how do people end up
letting something like this happen?

There are two different routes
by which people can allow this to happen.

The first is that people believe
that the charges against someone,

even a friend, or a family member,
or a fellow party member,

who they were closely in line with before,

must be guilty,

because to believe that the charges
against them are false

would mean believing
that all the witnesses

against the accused

were coerced.

That would mean believing
in a wild conspiracy theory

or believing that your entire country
is under the thumb of a dictator

and is totalitarian already.

People don't want to believe this
and don't think it's rational.

People believe that the accused is guilty,

because that's less
of a conspiracy theory.

And then, on the other side,
you have sort of the opposite.

You have people who realize

that if they speak out
against the party line,

if they say that the person is not guilty,

that they will be in trouble.

They're afraid.

Either people believe it,

because they don't want to believe
the conspiracy theory

or they don't believe
that everyone is being coerced,

or they know that everyone
is being coerced,

and so they're afraid to speak out.

Transcriber: Michel Smits
Reviewer: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka