It sounds like a nightmare. A disaster. Terrifying.
I am so sorry to hear.
I would guess that those would be the “in-group” who were not arrested, tortured, killed, exiled…
Nostalgia is a complicated, highly subjective place:
This is something I fear could easily happen in the U.S.
Thank you.
You’re doing fine. I always appreciate your perspective and your time you share with us.
Thinking critically is a job I learn and re-learn every day. I appreciate what you bring to our discussions.
My husband and I talk about this sometimes. I actually think the article misses the mark a little bit but it is actually also something Americans need to know and I see a point in trying to get the message out.
Being under an oppressive government doesn’t feel like torture and death every day just like being in an abusive family can be like totally and fun and normal all the other times etc.
Being at higher risk and having fewer options in life is something frankly a lot of people won’t even notice and if they do they may not even connect the dots anyway. Freakishly cruel and unusual punishments that one hears whispered about could just be ugly rumors and people starting trouble if it never happens to you then you might not even believe such things are real.
I’ve known old people who talk about how much better off Poland was under the Soviets. They’re delusional. But I guess they were young and happy back then and that’s what they know about it and what they believe the real truth to be.
Do you know what is funny? Some fring far right movement are starting to say that the last Dictatorship was actually a series of left-wing authoritarian governments because they were against freedom, they bloated the state and intervened in the economy. These Mises fans are the most entertaining, it’s a shame that many bad people listen to their ravings.
I was a child and I don’t remember much about the politics of the time. I grew up after the most violent period of the regime. My parents worked in downtown before they got married, and they say they saw the authorities violently repress demonstrations demanding freedom. They also say that before the coup d’état, some politicians and sectors of society called for more energetic action against communism and military intervention. The irony is that in a very short time these people became enemies of the state, had their political rights revoked, some were arrested, and others had to leave the country to avoid an even worse fate.
Not really. In our highly hierarchical society, with little social mobility, few people benefited from the dictatorship. Alienation played a very important role in maintaining the regime. Censorship, persecution of intellectuals, dismantling of public education and other measures created a generation of conformist people, in all social classes.
Nowadays, alienation also acts, mainly with the slogan “I don’t have a favorite politician” and “I’m neither left nor right wingsupporter”. Generally, those who say they don’t have a side are reactionaries and believe wholeheartedly in corrupt far-right politicians.
A phrase said by the ministers of the dictatorship was “We need to make the cake batter before sharing it.” I don’t know if I translated it correctly, but the idea behind this catchphrase is that economic policies will yield results in the future and that the needs of the poorest people are not really urgent and they have to be patient. Well, the cake sank and very few people got a slice of this indigestible treat.
Unfortunately, the promises of a bright future rarely become reality.
Obrigado. Thank you. I, myself, learn a lot here and I must confess that a lot of people here made me change my mind in a lot of topics.
That’s right. Many people who say that things were better in the past actually remember fondly the time when they were young, didn’t have many responsibilities, had energy and good health etc. They were oblivious and didn’t notice the problems around them.
Even if these people do not suffer direct and explicit violence, their lives can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. An authoritarian government could, for example, close schools and universities, leaving thousands of workers unemployed. These educational establishment closures will have a long-term impact on a generation of young people who will not be able to study. Rights can be revoked at the whim of dictators and bureaucrats. Technocrats who are out of touch with society’s reality can implement disastrous changes and policies.
And yet many will not notice these injustices, they will remain alienated, because they have not suffered violence and no one in their restricted social circle has either. For these people, life will go on as always, because everything has always been this way.
No. It’s telling you to keep your eyes open.
You know what’s worse? Many times even minorities think this is a good thing, because they have the impression that the violent and simplistic responses that authoritarians give to society’s problems are an elixir against the evildoers who they believe make their lives miserable.
More projection.
Fuckface von Clownstick is just musk’s autosharpie
Whenever I see the last portrait, I can’t help. thinking about Zoolander…
Not necessarily. When I lived in the Former Soviet Union, many people, especially pensioners, pined for the days of the Soviet Union, despite the privations, despite the oppression, and the constant corruption they had to navigate. The primary reasons they have were the stability and certainty they had. Stability in pay and goods they could buy. They didn’t live high, but they felt they had the necessities, and weren’t poor compared to their peers. Certainty in life, knowing the state had a plan for them, a cradle to grave path that they would follow and never had to think too deeply about it.
It was largely viewing the past through rose colored glasses, but the old system they had grown up learning to navigate was more comforting than the daily chaos of the post Soviet system.
https://bsky.app/profile/kwcollins.bsky.social/post/3lkjy6ns6fs2x
Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away. They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
May shadenfraude painfully visit those that made these decisions. Cancer doesn’t care you are maga.
Especially something as deadly as pancreatic cancer.
As someone who has lost 2 family members to it, and as someone who has a slightly elevated risk due to genetics, I offer an extra hearty fuck you to Trump and Co.
Yup. We call it Ostalgie. around here.
Especially this bit:
A surprisingly large amount of people are quite comfortable with this and can make it work for themselves.
Time to file articles of impeachment Democrats. Not just once, but every day for the next four years.
I interpreted the intention of this article completely differently. What it was trying to say (in my opinion) is that people who say that the US isn’t sliding into authoritarianism because people aren’t being regularly executed in the streets are just deluding themselves. It’s the same thing when we’re being told they’re not fascists because they’re not committing industrial genocide, completely ignoring that it is the Nazis of the 1920s and early 30s that need to be looked at as a comparison, not the Nazis of the late 30s and 40s, when it was too late
The article is less saying “see, everything will be fine, or at least tolerable”, and more “is that what you want? Because right now you’re lying to yourself that this isn’t in your future”
I thought so too, and to some extent it’s a valid point. People who think authoritarianism means you get executed by the secret police every day are not going to recognize its reality. At the same time though it is written from a point of view of blind privilege. He says you go to work, you eat your lunch, you go home to your family – but we already have people who can’t do those things! All the most vulnerable people who are being targeted are simply forgotten in his portrait, just the way the authoritarians themselves would like.
The whole auto pen thing is a big nothing burger but that won’t stop them.
Even Fox noted the same thing was done during the trump administration.
It all has to do with digital copies on display vs. the original documents.
The source of all this nonsense is the group responsible for project 2025.
Exactly.
A federal court even ruled in February 2024 that pardons don’t even have to be signed, because the plain language of the Constitution has no such requirement. It is a big nothing burger, but Trump’s MAGA base will run with this, and no amount of evidence or logic will convince them. That’s who Trump is speaking to when he does shit like this.
By the way, here’s a photo from the El Salvador detention center. Guards wearing masks. Prisoners with shaved heads, being forcibly bent over. Yeah, that’s not at all concerning.
