silence7Feb 24

How to stop a dictator | I spent months studying how authoritarians like Trump lose. The answer is shockingly simple.

https://slrpnk.net/post/34528122

How to stop a dictator | I spent months studying how authoritarians like Trump lose. The answer is shockingly simple. - SLRPNK

> For this reason, elected authoritarians who wish to consolidate control typically win not by flashy displays of might, but by convincing a critical mass of people that they’re just a normal politician — no threat to democracy at all. > > That means the survival of democracy depends, to an extent not fully appreciated, on perceptions and narratives. In three recent countries where a democracy survived an incumbent government bent on destroying it — Brazil, South Korea, and Poland — the belief among elites, the public, and the opposition that democracy was at stake played a critical role in motivating pushback.

Show threadcobysevFeb 24

TL;DR: “Making democratic threats legible,” i.e. spreading the word about how every action Trump takes is a threat to our democracy. It has been proven in several other countries run by authoritarian governments to be effective at stomping out fascism before it can take hold.

Saved you a click.

Show threadpartofthevoice

Seems like they stopped shy of the good stuff:

  • Why is it so hard to convince your fellows (I.e., Trump supporters)?
  • Why is propaganda so effective and how is it currently being employed?
  • What tactics can be used that aren’t already?
Feb 24 at 5:44pmWeb
Show thread🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞Feb 24

Worse, in the examples they give, the legislatures and/or judiciaries stood against the dictators.

Here, we have decades of propaganda fueled by the oligarchs that has removed the world view of a third of our population from reality, and it’s not just Trump - the Republican party is in on the deal, from Congress to SCOTUS.

It’s not the same battle. It’s not the same order of magnitude. It’s at least two orders of magnitude harder.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t fight; rather, we should fight all the harder.

But that’s why I’m not certain partition / civil war type solutions are off the table.