Category: democracy

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Linguistic Terrorism_#1

Claims like the above – which won’t die, having just resurfaced again in this month’s presidential primary debate – that the attack on the US Capitol was a false flag operation orchestrated by the FBI have been so thoroughly debunked that, collectively, a cluster of such falsehoods was awarded 2021’s prestigious “Lie of the Year.”

BONUS VIDEO_1 min 29 sec

There is zero evidence to say that Jan. 6 was an antifa operation, a tourist visit, a false flag, or an uneventful day to forget.

This short must-see video clip is indisputable evidence that such claims are outrageous and dishonest.

Each lie featured in this series is a treasonous attempt to topple American Democracy by undermining informed, fact-based voter opinion. Perhaps fittingly, Donald Trump himself has suggested that traitors should be “executed.”

And yes, there are plenty of people stupid enough – or psychologically eff’ed up enough, as I’ve written about elsewhere – to believe this shit. Those not fooled but nevertheless too wimp to fight for their constitutional democracy will have their country stolen out from under them. A country gets the leader it deserves.


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WE GET THE LEADERS WE DESERVE

Two days ago in a YouTube video I summarized the strategies an authoritarian uses to rise to power. And then I asked if history repeats itself.

That same day, in a speech in New Hampshire, Donald Trump (once again) answered in the affirmative by embracing those very same tactics.

[I am told that some did not realize I posted a video. They did not see a little arrow in the image to click on and thus thought it was only a text blog. Here, again, is a link to YouTube in case you missed it.]  https://youtu.be/bQxeRbFJ-sE

In light of the strategies I outlined in my Saturday video, “The Dictator’s Bible,” Trump – as noted in today’s blog by Heather Cox Richardson – on that same day in New Hampshire boldly aligned his supporters with a global far-right movement to destroy democracy by:

(1) ECHOING Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s attacks on immigrants, saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country” – although two of his three wives were immigrants
(2) QUOTING Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attacks on American democracy
(3) PRAISING North Korean autocratic leader Kim Jong Un
(4) ALIGNING himself with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has destroyed Hungary’s democracy and replaced it with a dictatorship
(5) CALLING Orbán “the man who can save the Western world.” 

Trump skillfully goes on to scapegoat women and minorities and immigrants as seeking to undermine society, and thus – ripping a page straight out of the dictator’s playbook – equates returning white men to power as protecting traditional society.

“It is an astonishing rejection of everything the United States has always stood for,” notes HCR in “Letters from an American.”

🙂 🙂 🙂

When I don my academic cap and gown – i.e., slip into the role of neutral observer – I must admit that if a great democracy is going to fail, it is exciting to have a front-row seat.

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The Dictator’s Bible

Authoritarians rise when economic, social, political or religious change makes members of a formally powerful group feel as if they have been left behind.

Their frustration makes them vulnerable to charismatic leaders who promise to make them dominant again.

A strongman downplays the real conditions that have created their problems and tells them that the only reason they have been dispossessed is that enemies have cheated them of power.

Does history repeat itself?

🙂 🙂 🙂