Of course this technique predates social media. Ferdinand Marcos, for example, understood that intellectuals and top-rate academics desired to be with other eminent thinkers. Why did so many of our best brains work with the most corrupt president in our history? Why did they serve in his Cabinet, work in his research centers, and ghostwrite his speeches and books? It wasn’t just because Apo paid well; it was also because of the promise of being around the best and the brightest, of playing for the A team. Marcos also knew that if he read the work of the intellectuals he was courting, if he made them believe that he valued their contributions, he could make them ignore the moral depravity of his regime.