“Surrendering to Authoritarianism”
by Chris Hedges in The Chris Hedges Report on Substack
“Liberal institutions, including universities, traditionally surrender without a fight to the dictates of autocrats. Ours are no exception”
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/surrendering-to-authoritarianism?r=27oltk&utm_medium=ios
#SPIEGEL International - Freitag, 7. März 2025 - highlights from #DERSPIEGEL in English
"Europe on the Sidelines - Trump Steers America Away from Allies and Towards Autocracies - For 80 years, the United States was the undisputed leader of Western democracies. But Donald Trump is discarding allies and values in favour of power and money as he steers America into the camp of the #autocrats."
From Turkey to Hungary to Venezuela to Benin, firing civil servants and dismantling government departments is how aspiring strongmen consolidate personal power.
Scholars share lessons learned from around the globe: #CivilService #autocrats #DOGE https://buff.ly/40WR9n6
...stand by #Ukraine ... #democracy must not just cave in to the #autocrats demands !
#tyrants #fascism #humanrights #freedomofspeech #freepress #nato
The best book if you want to understand how people like Trump, Orban ,Putin think, operate and why.
Autocracy Inc by Anne Applebaum
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725302/autocracy-inc-by-anne-applebaum/
#autocracyinc #autocrats #trump #musk #anneappplebaum #geopolitics @geopolitics
Most presidential transitions bring changes, but the current shift in D.C. stands out for its speed, scale, and impact—touching #immigration, #tariffs, research, and more. Here are 4 essential reads on #autocrats and #authoritarianism: https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-trumps-flurry-of-executive-action-4-essential-reads-on-autocrats-and-authoritarianism-248492 #politics
Democracy is too weak to fight against autocrats. Today's cartoon by George Riemann. More cartoons: https://www.cartoonmovement.com/search?query=&sort=created&order=desc
"Meta is Not Returning to its Free Speech Origins – It’s Preparing for an Autocratic Future"
https://www.techpolicy.press/meta-is-not-returning-to-its-free-speech-origins-its-preparing-for-an-autocratic-future/
#meta #facebook #autocrats #oligarchs #zuckerberg
The #media in democratic countries have the freedom they wouldn't have in autocracies.
That freedom, like all freedom, comes with #responsibility
Yet the media amplifies #autocrats who are against that #freedom
E.g. there's barely any addresses by our democratically elected European leaders as they meet this week. You'll struggle to find a livestream of #Zelenskyy's interview to the press.
But multiple media outlets live-stream war criminal #Putin's yearly address & "interview" to the #press
@latif @clive @mmasnick 
From the Dave Troy article:
"If democracy-minded people don’t seize control of the information environment, powerful sociopathic autocrats will do so instead. We leave a power vacuum open at our peril, and at the moment, Musk and Putin are the ones with the most will to fill it." --DaveTroy
https://davetroy.medium.com/no-elon-and-jack-are-not-competitors-theyre-collaborating-3e88cde5267d
#Democracy #Autocrats #Musk #Putin #SocialMedia #InformationEnvironment #TuckersBalls
'Totally illegal': Trump escalates rhetoric on outlawing political #dissent & criticism
“This is out of the #autocratic playbook. As #autocrats consolidate their power...anything that threatens their power...becomes illegal,” historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat said.
#FreeSpeech for me, but not for thee: that's the Trump/MAGA/#GOP position.
What do you call it when a powerful entity widely disperses disinfo, misinfo & fear to manipulate & control minds & behavior?
#Trump spent years trying to dismantle the #ACA & boasts of picking the #SCOTUS justices who ended the constitutional right to #an abortion.
“Globally, #Harris would work to maintain & strengthen the #alliances w/like-minded nations that have long advanced American interests abroad & maintained the nation’s #security. Trump—who has long praised #autocrats like #Putin, #Orban & #KimJongUn —has threatened to blow those democratic alliances apart.
#ReproductiveRights #democracy #law #HarrisWalz2024
“A person who admires #autocrats and murderous #dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our #Constitution and the #RuleOfLaw.”
- John Kelly was the secretary of homeland #security in 2017 and then Trump’s chief of staff.
Use this #GiftLink:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/26/opinion/donald-trump-personality-history.html?unlocked_article_code=1.N04.WtYZ.si_DZztSNq9p&smid=url-share
To check out this interactive article sharing statements made about #Trump by those who interacted with him regularly.
The new interconnected breed of #autocrats gains and retains power
-- by deception --
globally #undermining #democracies through their own institutions
An autocratic wave has crept up on us in the U.S. -- and over the world in the last decade.
#Democracy and #autocracy were once seen as two separate and distant worlds
with little in common,
and that the triumph of one weakened the other.
Now, however, autocrats across the globe,
in poor and wealthy nations,
in established and nascent democracies,
and from the right and left,
are using the same tactics to 
dismantle democracies from within.
As of 2021, of the 104 countries classified as democracies worldwide,
37 had experienced moderate to severe deterioration in key elements of democracy,
such as open and free #elections,
fundamental #rights and liberties,
civic #engagement,
the rule of #law,
and checks-and-#balances between government branches.
This democratic backsliding wave has accelerated since 2016 and infiltrated all corners of the world.
#ConvictedFelon #DonaldTrump's Constant Use of #Superlatives Is #Typical of #Autocrats and #Dictators.
His #reliance on #superlatives not only helps to #groom the #dictators’ #followers by creating a narrative of each little #cult member being unique in world #history – but also contributes to the eventual #disintegration of the #dictators’ own #mind. Seems fitting.
Via #KamalaHQ @ 11:20pm EDT on Aug 22, 2024:
Vice President #Harris: I will not cozy up to #tyrants or #dictators who are rooting for #Trump. They know he is easy to manipulate. He will not hold #autocrats accountable because he wants to be one himself
Trump’s explicit campaign promise of authoritarian rule,
the GOP’s enthusiastic embrace of it,
and the media’s utter failure to alert voters to what’s coming:
At a rally in Michigan over the weekend,
Donald #Trump uncorked one of his longest rants ever in praise of the world’s #autocrats, #strongmen and #dictators.
He hailed Xi Jinping of China as “brilliant” for controlling 1.4 billion people “with an iron fist,”
and described Xi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban as “tough” and “smart.”
People said it was the media and the donor class that pushed our #Biden. That was never true. Joe was listening to the citizens and to #democracy. Never underestimate the People. Let us follow #France and the #UK in pushing back #autocrats and the #oligarchy
Via #RuthBenGhiat @ 9:56am EST on July 21, 2024
#Trump is immersed in the new autocratic international order and role of US if he wins will be to stand down and allow #Xi and #Putin to expand. The talk of "peace" and non-intervention by #Vance & Co is about creating conditions for #autocrats to succeed.
