Mastodawn

But “of all the forms #democratic #despotism could take,” #Tocqueville continues, “the worst would be to turn over all the powers of #government to the hands of an irresponsible person.” www.salon.com/2025/05/17/w...

When a president goes rogue: I...

When a president goes rogue: In these books, it already happened - Salon.com

American novelists have often imagined presidents who seize power and defy the courts. Their lessons are sobering

Salon.com

Indie Tech News Sep 8

Militarization of Domestic Cyberspace

Fire and Police have the #Military so they don't require the truth.

Title 32 is for #Martial_Law and not just supporting foreign directed cyber operations. #Patriot_Act #Totalitarianism #US_Constitituion #Army #Despotism

https://www.cerias.purdue.edu/news_and_events/events/security_seminar/details/index/02eifs5rv64o6a7o3mlssq4v6f

#Cyber_Security #Cyber_Dictatorship #Wisconsin

People - CERIAS - Purdue University

The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) is currently viewed as one of the world’s leading centers for research and education in areas of information and cyber security that are crucial to the protection of critical computing and communication infrastructure.

WIST Quotations Sep 8

A quotation from Victor Hugo

Certainly the influence of the past is very strong at the present time; it is reviving, and this rejuvenation of a corpse is surprising. It is on the march, and it seems to be winning — a dead thing yet a conqueror! It comes with its army of superstitions, its sword, which is despotism, its banner, which is ignorance, and in recent years it has won ten battles. It advances, laughs, and threatens; it is at our door.

[Le passé, il est vrai, est très fort à l’heure où nous sommes. Il reprend. Ce rajeunissement d’un cadavre est surprenant. Le voici qui marche et qui vient. Il semble vainqueur ; ce mort est un conquérant. Il arrive avec sa légion, les superstitions, avec son épée, le despotisme, avec son drapeau, l’ignorance ; depuis quelque temps il a gagné dix batailles. Il avance, il menace, il rit, il est à nos portes.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 4 “St. Denis,” Book 7 “Argot,” ch. 4 (4.7.4) (1862) [tr. Denny (1976)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/78840/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #lesmiserables #lesmiz #despotism #ignorance #oppression #past #reaction #regress #superstition #threat #tyranny

Andi Waffeln!Aug 26

#Trump #MAGA #despotism #fascism

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/trump-authoritarianism-rightwing-conspiracies?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawMbC2VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHqNHqX4hOE6_6T3uRkL_zcBwXh6fPFc9nDgRaEuNX7s_1hOtZsBSyCSKc8If_aem_LAWFY4GN4yAwTLZB6QNahw#Echobox=1756244065

Trump Manifests Right-Wing Anti-Government Conspiracies

Where is the outrage now that Trump has manifested the right's deepest darkest fears about an oppressive state?

The Big Picture

WIST Quotations Aug 7

A quotation from Cicero

No person is so foolish that they don’t understand that if we remain asleep at this moment we will have to live through a rule that is not only cruel and arrogant but ignoble and disgraceful too. You know this man’s arrogance, his friends, and his whole household. To serve shameful lusts, bullies, disgusting and irreverent thieves, those drunkards — well, that is the worst suffering married to the greatest dishonor.

[Nemo est tam stultus qui non intellegat, si indormierimus huic tempori, non modo crudelem superbamque dominationem nobis sed ignominiosam etiam et flagitiosam ferendam. Nostis insolentiam Antoni, nostis amicos, nostis totam domum. Libidinosis, petulantibus, impuris, impudicis, aleatoribus, ebriis servire, ea summa miseria est summo dedecore coniuncta.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 3, ch. 14 / sec. 34-35 (3.14/3.34-35) (44-12-20 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2021)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #cicero #alertness #arrogance #attention #crisis #danger #despotism #dictatorship #disgrace #dishonor #misery #payattention #politics #regime #tyranny #warning #regime

M. Ní Sídach Aug 5

Apartheid Is The Existential Threat
#MatthewCooke
#US #Politics #Economics #Academia #Fahrenheit451 #Project2025 #Despotism #WhiteSupremacy #ChristianNationalism #Trump #TrumpRegime #AmericanApartheid #IsraeliApartheid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6T35wyKQyM

Apartheid Is An Existential Threat

YouTube

M. Ní Sídach Aug 4

Rashid Khalidid on Why He Won't Teach at Columbia This Fall
#DemocracyNow!
#US #Politics #Economics #Academia #Fahrenheit451 #Project2025 #Despotism #Trump #TrumpRegime #AmericanApartheid #IsraeliApartheid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrG6mce_-4

Prof. Rashid Khalidi Cancels Fall Course over Trump Settlement

YouTube

Thierry 🅰️🕒Jul 31

Ça me rappelle quelqu'un...

« dans [gouvernement] le despotique, un seul, sans loi et sans règle, entraîne tout par sa volonté et ses caprices. »
MONTESQUIEU, L’Esprit des Lois (1748)

#despotism

Bohemian Peasant Jul 30

#tyranny #authoritarianism #democracy #ruleoflaw #despotism
“From offshore detention camps and pardons for seditionists to open attacks on judges, watchdogs, and journalists, this administration has followed, with unnerving precision, the authoritarian playbook. And make no mistake, this isn’t speculative. These are real-world policies and executive actions, documented in public records and reported by independent outlets. The pattern is not subtle. The mask is off.”

https://therationalleague.substack.com/p/made-in-america-a-guide-to-authoritarianism?utm_campaign=post&triedRedirect=true

Mix Mistress Alice💄Jul 27

"As you read this, you might hear a lot of boxes being checked in your mind, and you might wonder if Grok is calling the shots. But, dear reader, this is all purely theoretical. As they say in the movies, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental."—Open Culture

The Steps a President Would Take to Destroy His Nation, According to Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot, Grok >

https://www.openculture.com/2025/04/the-steps-a-president-would-take-to-destroy-his-nation-according-to-grok.html

#destruction #how_to #Grok #answers #according_to_grok #national_destruction #despotism #chatbot #theory #answers #according_to_grok #USA

The Steps a President Would Take to Destroy His Nation, According to Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot, Grok

Just out of curiosity, and apropos of nothing, we asked Grok (the AI chatbot created by Elon Musk) the following question: If a president of a superpower wanted to destroy his own country, what steps would he take? Here's what Grok had to say:

Open Culture