It’s not alarmist: A second Trump term really is an extinction-level threat to democracy
www.vox.com
Why a second Trump term is a mortal threat to democracy — though perhaps not in the way you think.

This article was posted shortly before the election but everything in there is still true and seeing his appointees perhaps worse than predicted.

  • @givesomefucksEnglish
    104•3 days ago

    We live in an era where democracies once considered “consolidated” — meaning so secure that they couldn’t collapse into authoritarianism — have started to buckle and even collapse.

    Literally everytime a society acts like authoritarianism isn’t a threat…

    You’ll never guess what shows up.

    It’s a constant fight, it will literally never be over. But over and over, all it takes is 2 or 3 generations for people to think it was really over last time.

    A huge part of the issue is writing them all off as evil monsters. The leaders always are. But their supporters are almost always desperate people who think they’re doing the right thing.

    To truly keep it at bay, we need a society where everyone has enough to live comfortably so they’re not desperate and looking for scapegoats to blame. It would solve the vast amount of local crime as well. We focus on making prison worse than poverty, but no one would choose prison over a comfortable life.

    • jrs100000English
      40•3 days ago

      It would be easier to believe they think they are doing the right thing if they weren’t so excited about all the people they want to hurt.

      • @givesomefucksEnglish
        12•3 days ago

        Because they believe the people they’re going to hurt are hurting others worse…

        There is nothing new about what is happening.

        • jrs100000English
          6•3 days ago

          I didn’t say there was anything new about it. People are, and always have been, capable of monstrous evil. It is normal human behavior, but that doesn’t make it any less vile.

    • @Seleni
      12•2 days ago

      It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone’s fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I’m one of Us. I must be. I’ve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.

      -Terry Pratchett

      • @UnderpantsWeevilEnglish
        2•2 days ago

        I agree with the sentiment. But I think one of the perils of Democratic erosion has been “Us” having less and less say in how government functions, particularly at the local level.

        The mayor is as alien and removed from me as any CEO or celebrity. City council is dominated by real estate agents and business cronies. Even the school board is inaccessible, as they pay far more attention to their friends in state government than anyone with kids in grade school.

        Fearmomgering against the other is a tool leveraged to win high office. But it’s hard to see who isn’t just running a racket when the profession seems to repel activists and draw in shills like a magnet.