On January 21, 1924, Soviet Leader Lenin died. Joseph Stalin immediately began a purge of his rivals and intellectuals for the leadership of the Soviet Union. If people who are trying to gain power and control over a state or government start ridiculing, bashing, libeling, and calling into question the expertise of the educated of their society, expect bad things to happen. The educated and more intelligent in a society will be the first to notice that the canaries are dying in the coal mines. If their voices are silenced through repeatedly disproven false information, the freedoms you love will go away. The first people to be pushed aside or removed in an authoritarian regime will be the professors, teachers, and scientists and they will be replaced with less capable people who toe the party line.
This is why it's better to elect your leaders. It can still go wrong sometimes, but it always course-corrects. Share Twisted-History to see the democratic process in action.