Reply to What’s it going to be like living in a dictatorship?

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "What’s it going to be like living in a dictatorship?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This may help figure out what dictatorship looks like now:
https://davisvanguard.org/2025/10/trump-autocracy-kleptocracy-threat/

Trump’s disdain for the rule of law is also unmistakable.

Applebaum draws a distinction between the rule of law—where everyone is accountable—and what autocrats call rule by law, where legal mechanisms are used selectively to target enemies. Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” and his promises to “lock up” rivals embody that shift. Law, in his world, serves power; it does not constrain it.

Applebaum’s concept of the “fire hose of falsehoods” perfectly captures Trump’s communication style: constant, blatant lying not to persuade, but to exhaust.

The goal isn’t belief—it’s nihilism.

“If you can’t understand what’s going on, you won’t join a movement for democracy,” she writes. Trump’s torrent of conspiracy theories about election fraud and the “deep state” is designed to erode trust until citizens stop trying to discern truth at all.

Modern autocrats, Applebaum notes, also hide theft behind outrage.

Leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán—a far better model for Trump than any monarch—use culture wars to distract from corruption and frame critics as enemies of national identity.

Orbán has rewritten Hungary’s constitution, captured the media, and stoked moral panic about immigration, gender, and religion while consolidating power. Trump’s America follows the same pattern: polarization as cover for self-enrichment.

Both leaders demonstrate Applebaum’s central observation about censorship.

“Unlike their twentieth-century predecessors, today’s autocrats cannot impose censorship easily or effectively,” she writes. “Instead, they focus on winning audiences—building support by channeling resentment, hatred, and the desire for superiority.”

Modern authoritarianism doesn’t silence speech; it drowns it in noise. The objective is not to forbid truth but to make truth meaningless.

That dynamic is visible in the meme circulating online: “Reminder: A king would not allow a protest called ‘No Kings.’”

On the surface it sounds clever, even harmless. But it’s a small piece of propaganda, a reactionary defense of power disguised as common sense. Its subtext says: “If you can protest, you’re free—so stop complaining.” It reframes dissent as self-contradictory and mocks the very idea of protest. That’s how cynicism spreads: by teaching people that resistance is pointless.

This is what Applebaum calls the victory of irony.

Autocrats no longer need to ban books or imprison every critic; they simply make protest sound absurd. The meme doesn’t defend monarchy—it teaches passivity. It tells citizens that permission is freedom, that they should be grateful for their leash. When this kind of cynicism becomes normal, democracy begins to hollow out from within.

The real threat isn’t a king who abolishes protest; it’s a leader who convinces people protest doesn’t matter.

That is the essence of Orbánism—and the trajectory Trump is following. Applebaum describes how Orbán keeps elections and courts intact but drains them of meaning, using patronage, propaganda, and disinformation to dominate public life. Elections still happen, but only one side can win. The press still exists, but only to echo power. That’s not monarchy—it’s managed democracy, autocracy in democratic clothing.

Here's what it looks like these days:
Mark Bray, the Rutgers history professor who wrote Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (and who is NOT a member of any antifa group and never has been) was put on TPUSA's watchlist several years ago and received threats, but things had settled down. Recently the Rutgers TPUSA tried to get him fired. Two officers of the campus organization were not students there and not eligible. Then Bray got a phone threat about his family (they have young children)  and the caller had his address. Family decided to leave the US. Get to the airport and someone has CANCELLED their trip.

They did finally manage to get out of the US, but this is what people who get people fired over Charlie Kirk are doing to other people. BTW, the book is not a polemic, it is a history. 
[/quote]

This article is great, pp, thank you. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics