People are divided over ideas.  The majority of the time, the ideas are about how or who should initiate violence.  These violent ideas will continue so long as reason is scarce.  Many people, including career economists, support violence and view it as a means to acquire goods.  Rather than using physical force, they’ll get the victims to support their victimizers.  The individual can be infinitely more violent in a group.

The violence of the state relies on the consent of the victims.  The state maintains control of everything by convincing people aggression against them is beneficial.  Their rule is continued by the masses believing this.  They don’t even have to believe it.  They just have to get them to believe it’s a mistake.  This is the error theory of government.  The racket is up once the masses realize their violence is intentional.

The state may interact with you through various middlemen.  There are many actions which are straight forward.  For example, taking money from your paycheck.  The state will seek to control speech using a medium.  The state uses social media platforms to delete posts, profiles, shadowbanning, etc.  They become an arm as soon as they cooperate with the state.  The right to free speech is being violated. 

There is a warped view of totalitarianism.  If they happened to learn about it—it must have been on their own—many think about concentration camps and gulags.  Totalitarian societies do take on a similar structure.  However, the violence today is not outward aggression.  The totalitarians smile to your face while they stab you in the back.  It’s a covert form.  The victims don’t realize they’re victims.

The covert totalitarianism might be disguised in humanitarian garb.  It might be cloaked in “green” energy or helping certain groups.  The “green” movement is harmful to the environment.  Helping people hurts them in reality—if done by the state.  A good rule of thumb: the opposite is much closer to the truth.  Violence relies on the masses supporting it.  They may not realize it, but they support aggression against themselves.

Reference

Charles Tilly; The Politics of Collective Violence