The assumption appears to be that ordinary voters will be cowed, obsequious, and unwilling to challenge autocracy, just like the billionaires, business leaders, media executives, and other leading institutions of civil society, which have decided that fighting back is “not worth the hassle.”

October 31 should not be a spookiness cliff, where spookiness drops precipitously the second it's over. There should be a slow, month-long decline in spookiness where spookiness levels gradually drop off during November at the same rate per day as they increased in October.

This shit ain't nothin to me man. I'm in the White House snorting Special K and pitching continental missile defense. My self-driving scam long like the Trojan War. Shorty wanna invest in magical thinking, that sound like her problem. My chatbot so racist it says the pyramids built by Andrew Jackson

There was an old man you could gaze
At his works in despair in a daze
If you looked upon them
And were mere mortal men
'Ozymandias mighty', it says