4d ago

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode

www.theguardian.com

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode | Jonathan Freedland

The trouble is, people still don’t talk about it the way they talk about Hungary, not inside the US and not outside it. That’s partly the It Can’t Happen Here mindset, partly a reluctance to accept a reality that would require, of foreign governments especially, a rethink of almost everything. If the US is on its way to autocracy, in a condition scholars might call “unconsolidated authoritarianism”, then that changes Britain’s entire strategic position, its place in the world, which for 80 years has been predicated on the notion of a west led by a stable, democratic US. The same goes for the EU. Far easier to carry on, either pretending that the transformation of the US is not, in fact, as severe as it is, or that normal service will resume shortly. But the world’s leaders, like US citizens, cannot ignore the evidence indefinitely. To adapt the title of that long-ago novel, it can happen here – and it is.

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4d ago

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-authoritarian-donald-trump-national-guard

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4d ago

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode | Jonathan Freedland

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-authoritarian-donald-trump-national-guard

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5d ago

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-authoritarian-donald-trump-national-guard

10 comments

Chiming in to say it's not just Trump. It's the capitulation to Trump from the "opposition" as well, from both politicians, and, unfortunately, a significant portion of voters.
I'm seeing people defend Gavin Newsom over transphobic comments, and instead of demanding better or seeking someone more in line with their beliefs, they'll attack people who point that out and say "oh, we need to capitulate on this issue because he's the 'best' chance we have!".
And it's like congrats, you're capitulating your values to be more in line with the people taking people's rights away, saying that certain people's rights are now on the table as some sort of playing card in politics... which is exactly what the far-right wants normalised.
Then you have people like Mamdani come about where they don't use people's rights as a chess piece, and the same people who espouse "unification" will be up in arms about how that doesn't apply to those they disagree with. Democrats have been playing the capitulation game for so long rather than chart their own path, have made zero gains on that front, and decided that doubling down on that is the way to go despite Republicans making it clear as day they have no interest in changing stance.
All while they further lose support from the people that vote for them, those who are disenfranchised and watching as both parties veer more to the right at the cost of their rights and well-being, and with those who still support them being as smug and insufferable as the people they claim to be opposed to.
- The Overton Window is shifting further and further Right by the day, and it makes me sad.
  We have a (small "c") conservative government in Canada, and I was celebrating his victory because it kept the (big "C") Conservatives out of power... But our government's policies are alarming, and are only good insofar as they aren't as terrible as what we'd have with PP in charge.
  Seems like the whole world is shifting Right.
The intro to the article pretty much sums it up:
If this were happening somewhere else – in Latin America, say – how might it be reported? Having secured his grip on the capital, the president is now set to send troops to several rebel-held cities, claiming he is wanted there to restore order. The move follows raids on the homes of leading dissidents and comes as armed men seen as loyal to the president, many of them masked, continue to pluck people off the streets …
As a Canadian with young children, I worry for what their future will look like, with an American dictatorship to our south.
- the entire global north is heading in this direction as their respective capitalist empires start their decay; your children might be spared, but their children are likely to be voting for a future canadian version of trump and he's going to sound like doug ford or pierre poilievre.
- The same it always has with an American dictatorship to the south.
The whole premise the US was some bastion of democracy has always been false. Can it get objectively worse, I think it can. Were we already in over our head covered by shit, certainly.
This raises a far bigger question than is our nation turning fascist. The question is why did we not notice it was a fascist oligarchy already.
- The whole premise the US was some bastion of democracy has always been false.
  It's a lie that they have told themselves (and the rest of us) for many generations.
  It is one of the core assumptions underlying American Exceptionalism.
- This is a false equivalence, and doesn’t provide any insight into the situation, not unlike both-sides”ism”. No country is an ideal democracy, but there has been a fundamental change in the American state that needs to be acknowledged.
  Nixon snuck around trying to do some of these things, and was done when caught. That’s because America used to at least aspire to democratic republicanism and rule of law under a constitution. Openly giving up on that is a very big deal.
  
  Oh sweet child. Tell me about the Cold War when the US toppled over seventy democracies and installed fascist dictators.
  Did you miss operation Iraqi Freedom when we invaded a country for 9/11 that had nothing to do with 9/11 and killed around 150,000 people.
  Did you study the Mexico war. After the US defeated Mexico they needed to decide what to do with the territory. There was a plan to turn Mexico into several US states. There was a lovely debate that was settled with we can't let our blood be poisoned.
  Did you forget about the Native Americans? You know the people that actually lived in the US originally. It is estimated we had over a four million or perhaps even higher. Well, we betrayed them by breaking every treaty and murdered them, took their land, and forced them into reservation where we starved them to death.
  Have you ever studied the revolutionary war to discover our founding fathers were a bunch of fascist fucks before fascism even existed. Did you know they used terrorism on their own people. They lied, murdered, raped, bombed, and tortured people to turn civilians against the crown.
  Do you remember how popular Nazism was in the US in 1930s. This is where the America First saying came from. You see the Nazi looked up to the US. They admired our genocide of the Native Americans and modeled their final solution after it.
  Wealthy people in the US helped fund the Nazi party and later on US corporations helped the Nazi as well. When the Nazi lobbied the world to take in their Jewish population these same people lobbied the world not to take them in thus ensuring their eventual demise.
  This is just the tip of the Iceberg. Let's just say you have been mislead by a lifetime of propaganda.
They need to stop saying "dictator-like" and simply call him a dictator. He's not the president, he's the dictator.

10 comments