One of the finest weapons of ideological combat is the word, "And". If you take any fundamentally legitimate belief and bond it to other, less defend-able ideas within the popular media, the strength and integrity of the original idea is lessened by the union. As the additions mount up, the idea begins to dissolve, transforming under the weight of all the extra baggage until it becomes a different idea entirely. When done over time, with consistency and authority, the bonds can become so lasting, that even after the original idea's collapse, its' name is forever bound to the failure of the union. This is better than killing an idea. This guarantees that the idea will stay dead.
For example, if we start with the idea that Democracy is the best governmental form on the planet, AND then state that the best government should at least be able to take care of its elderly citizens; suddenly we are talking about "Democracy AND ElderCare".
If we then bring up that being the best, Democracy should also take care of the sick and the poor; now we are talking about "Democracy AND ElderCare AND Welfare AND Socialized-Medicine.
With little additional effort, we've further redefined "Democracy", encumbering it to include ElderCare, Welfare, Socialized-Medicine, Free-Education, Guaranteed-Employment, Fair-Housing, ...and every other financially-unmanagable social program we can think of.
Taxes skyrocket and the actual performance of all these social programs plummets. The economy teeters on the brink...
And when it inevitably collapses, we blame it the fall on the "will of the people". We conclude that "Democracy" was a bad idea in the first place and carefully write tomorrow's history books so that our children will not be dumb enough to try that bad idea, ever again.
Idea Assassination 101 : The word "AND"