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How To Build An Autocracy


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2017 Feb 2, 4:05pm   7,801 views  23 comments

by Rew   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/

Plucked sections that resonated especially strong with me:


In the early days of the Trump transition, Nic Dawes, a journalist who has worked in South Africa, delivered an ominous warning to the American media about what to expect. “Get used to being stigmatized as ‘opposition,’ ” he wrote. “The basic idea is simple: to delegitimize accountability journalism by framing it as partisan.”

By filling the media space with bizarre inventions and brazen denials, purveyors of fake news hope to mobilize potential supporters with righteous wrath—and to demoralize potential opponents by nurturing the idea that everybody lies and nothing matters.

… people who expect to hear only lies can hardly complain when a lie is exposed.

The New York Times becomes the equivalent of Russia’s RT; The Washington Post of Breitbart; NPR of Infowars.

“Populist-fueled democratic backsliding is difficult to counter,” wrote the political scientists Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Erica Frantz late last year. “Because it is subtle and incremental, there is no single moment that triggers widespread resistance or creates a focal point around which an opposition can coalesce … Piecemeal democratic erosion, therefore, typically provokes only fragmented resistance.” Their observation was rooted in the experiences of countries ranging from the Philippines to Hungary. It could apply here too.

Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from within fortified compounds have never understood how liberty is actually threatened in a modern bureaucratic state: not by diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of corruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended is not with amateur firearms, but with an unwearying insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institutions and those who lead them. We are living through the most dangerous challenge to the free government of the United States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is up to you and me. Don’t be afraid. This moment of danger can also be your finest hour as a citizen and an American.

#LizardsForTrump

Comments 1 - 23 of 23        Search these comments

1   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Feb 2, 7:02pm  

By David Frum, Bush speech writer and coiner of the term "Axis of Evil".

Printed in the Atlantic, edited by Jeffrey Goldberg, a former volunteer Prison Guard.

Two snobby east coast Jewish American Prince elitists, whose parents were well off journalists and children of Department Store owners (Frum), or grew up in elite suburb of Malverne (Goldberg), the second safest community in New York after Briarcliff Manor, which is full of Gilded-era Mansions.

Lecturing us about Populism.

Next: Sir Smedley-Smith Viscount of Rimsby and Buttertor, KBE and Baroness Victoria Van Prescott-Prussia of Papenburg-Holstein lectures about the benefits of the rule of an inherited nobility.

"Why, since we do not depend on either manual labor or crass industrial or commercial interests, we are clear sighted and unbiased, you see. These recent bills to open up the Officer Class to the dirty tradesmen and price controls on wheat are so ill advised, and I say this from an unbiased position. Smedley, more tea and crumpets!"

2   marcus   2017 Feb 2, 7:04pm  

Rew says

“The basic idea is simple: to delegitimize accountability journalism by framing it as partisan.”

People such as Patrick and TLips will help out for FREE !!

Rew says

nurturing the idea that everybody lies and nothing matters

Amazing how many people think this is really cool.

Rew says

Piecemeal democratic erosion, therefore, typically provokes only fragmented resistance

Yeah, you've got otherwise smart people that think it's refreshing. "I want to tear it all down(Bannon)." As if to assume what pops up in it's place will be just dandy.

3   marcus   2017 Feb 2, 7:06pm  

Yeah, isn't there a KKK rally somewhere you could be attending ? You know, now that they aren't having Trump rallies in Florida anymore ?

4   MMR   2017 Feb 2, 9:44pm  

marcus says

Rew says

“The basic idea is simple: to delegitimize accountability journalism by framing it as partisan.”

People such as Patrick and TLips will help out for FREE !!

Rew says

nurturing the idea that everybody lies and nothing matters

Amazing how many people think this is really cool.

Rew says

Piecemeal democratic erosion, therefore, typically provokes only fragmented resistance

Yeah, you've got otherwise smart people that think it's refreshing. "I want to tear it all down(Bannon)." As if to assume what pops up in it's place will be just dandy.

Wonder what they will do with education in inner city math /science classes. Maybe we can inject some globalism into public sector. Trump appears to be against this so far, thought you'd me more happy about it

5   Rew   2017 Feb 2, 10:07pm  

T L Lipsovich says

Two snobby east coast Jewish American Prince elitists

So, what you are telling me is they have a lot in common with Trump? Maybe so, except for the fact that they clearly have more going on upstairs than Trump does.

6   anonymous   2017 Oct 23, 8:42pm  

You know the US has become batshit insane today when:

The answer to endless wars is more wars.

The answer to the police state is more tyranny.

The answer to a dead economy is starting a trade war.

The answer to regulations is more laws.

The answer to endless debt is more debt.
7   anonymous   2017 Oct 24, 7:15am  

Just read the linked piece. That's TPB's wet dream.
8   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2017 Oct 24, 7:26am  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

Two snobby east coast Jewish American Prince elitists, whose parents were well off journalists and children of Department Store owners (Frum), or grew up in elite suburb of Malverne (Goldberg), the second safest community in New York after Briarcliff Manor, which is full of Gilded-era Mansions.


Lecturing us about Populism.


Trump and Bannon are much better at it. Goldman Sachs alum and Goldman wannabe - both billionares, Trump born rich as a golden goose. Anyway, go ahead and attack the messenger. That's what you do.
9   Shaman   2017 Oct 24, 8:22am  

Populism will live on in America, growing stronger as the traditional tools of elite oppression are nullified by technology.

The future is a classless society, where wealth and privilege only accounts for perhaps 20% more benefit than everyone else.

How? Technology, Artificial Intelligence, free energy, robotics, and automation will make most goods so cheap as to be declared a public good. If everyone has a thing, it ceases to be a source of wealth extraction, and when everyone has access to nearly anything, wealth itself becomes meaningless.

I suspect AIs will take over the management of our civilization and probably government as well at some point in the next fifty years. And they’ll do a much better job than fallible people ever did, producing abundance that obliterates the old ideas of wealth and class.
10   joeyjojojunior   2017 Oct 24, 8:25am  

Quigley says
Populism will live on in America


Trump is about as far from populism as you can get.

Tax plan--not populist
Regulatory environment--not populist
Cabinet makeup--Goldman Sachs south. Definitely not populist.
11   Shaman   2017 Oct 24, 8:29am  

Shut up, shill! You didn’t even address my main point of the post, just the first line because commenting on strictly current politics (with a Leftist apologist slant) is what Your shilling contract requires! You have no true opinion and thus are worthy of no respect.
12   joeyjojojunior   2017 Oct 24, 8:44am  

Quigley says
Shut up, shill! You didn’t even address my main point of the post, just the first line because commenting on strictly current politics (with a Leftist apologist slant) is what Your shilling contract requires! You have no true opinion and thus are worthy of no respect.


I know you Trumpcucks would like to shut up any opposition views, but pat.net is supposed to be about free speech so until Patrick changes it, I will go on commenting on whichever part of your post I desire.

In this case, I wanted to take the opportunity to dispel the notion that Trump is a populist because that misperception seems to linger with many folks.
13   Shaman   2017 Oct 24, 9:23am  

joeyjojojunior says

In this case, I wanted to take the opportunity to dispel the notion that Trump is a populist


He’s shown himself to be far more elitist than he was representing during the election. This is no surprise, given his entire personal and business history. However, his populist election message has taken on a life of its own and will continue without him if necessary. We can repeal and replace members of Congress and even the POTUS if necessary until the will of the people is carried out.
14   anonymous   2017 Oct 24, 9:51am  

Hope and change was a populist message too. Obama didn't deliver, but he did better than Trump will.
15   Shaman   2017 Oct 24, 10:00am  

anonymous says
Obama didn't deliver, but he did better than Trump will.

Your comment would be more meaningful without the lame attempt at prognostication. When it comes to predicting politics, the best we can ever do is make educated guesses.
16   RWSGFY   2017 Oct 24, 10:32am  

Rew says
In the early days of the Trump transition, Nic Dawes, a journalist who has worked in South Africa, delivered an ominous warning to the American media about what to expect. Get used to being stigmatized as opposition, he wrote. The basic idea is simple: to delegitimize accountability journalism by framing it as partisan.


Is this derived from his experience in South Africa?

PS. To OP: why the fuck didn't you clean up your quote from all that ’ †shit?
17   Shaman   2017 Oct 24, 12:27pm  

oil says
what if the elites send the 99% to the concentration camps


That’s only possible with a genetically engineered virus. No dictatorship has ever managed to kill more than 20% of their populace. And then, who would they boss around for fun?

Just think about it. If 99% of the people died, civilization would mostly die as well.
18   anonymous   2017 Oct 24, 7:15pm  

This is the end game.

The elites are suicidal psychopaths. They don't care if they die as long as everyone else dies, too.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/05/the_psychopaths_among_us.html
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/humanity-is-ruled-by-psychopaths-key-globalists-their-thoughts/
19   WookieMan   2017 Oct 24, 8:12pm  

Oil is a bot. Probably the same one that's been spamming from Hong Kong for about the last week.
20   anonymous   2017 Oct 24, 8:51pm  

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
21   Rew   2017 Oct 24, 10:41pm  

KimJongUn says
Is this derived from his experience in South Africa?


If you do not understand the relevance of why South Africa was mentioned, perhaps you should learn more about the country. Hint: try learning about their president.

KimJongUn says
PS. To OP: why the fuck didn't you clean up your quote from all that ’ †shit?


Nah. See original post date. Those garbage characters were added after OP due to some updating of PNet/recovery of the post/etc. I don't care enough to update it. Enjoy!
22   anonymous   2017 Oct 24, 10:46pm  

I'm not going to pontificate and tell you to execute your government at dawn, but it wouldn't be a bad idea.
23   Shaman   2017 Oct 25, 5:08am  

Yah South Africa is a great example of how to turn a racist oligarchy which oppressed the majority into a racist oligarchy which oppresses the minority.
So much winning!

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