They realize that the people they're reporting to are desensitized and largely incapable of empathy, so the number has to be inflated in order to elicit any emotional reaction at all

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I feel like it's the opposite though, the numbers become meaningless after a while. To quote Liberal Stalin: "One death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic."

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder if the numbers become meaningless because they are literally meaningless, since they're fake numbers.

Real numbers have real names and real stories attached to them, which atrocity propaganda can never replicate.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

Which in turn is probably why their atrocity propaganda needs to rely on Yeonmi Park types and "anonymous sources" so they can have both the sad personal story and the big scary number at the same time.