It's true.
A pure democracy without any form of governmental control would not have the intelligence to act in its own interest. Human beings are too easily manipulated by their own fear. A shrewd dictator would simply scare them into giving up their rights, "temporarily" for their own security (of course), and then seize power.
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This is one of the reasons Democracy is a terrible idea. Republicanism is slightly better but still comes to the same end. They all are inevitably flawed, so we are given the ugly choice of deciding between the lesser of the evils. "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny"- Thomas Jefferson