Authoritarianism
- merit – good-for-nothing
- meritocracy – mediocracy
- patriot – sucker
- taxpayer – sucker
The plot of “The Manchurian Candidate” relied on a convoluted brainwashing technique to get an American to attack his own country. Who knew that a simple venal carnival barker from Queens and a lunatic South African fan of Apartheid and Nazism could achieve a much more impressive result?
Let the great eugenicist experiment begin! RFK Jr.’s terrifying Senate confirmation puts the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO in a foul new light. Ditto Felonious Husk’s freezing of USAID funds.
It must be rough to have many billions but to not know love, friendship, or respect.
Translations from MAGA to English:
I don’t know how the Republican party comes back from their fascism, however long the affair lasts, without some thorough housecleaning and a major rebrand.
What’s the U.S. version of “banana republic”? “Orange republic”?
📺 Is “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970–77) too subversive for this administration? “Good Times” (1974–79) too Black? “All in the Family” (1971–79) should be okay if they take the Archie Bunker character literally. But the social criticism in “Hill Street Blues” (1981–87)? *sigh*
The fighting spirit and actions announced here are a breath of fresh air: “Congressional Democrats on Trump Admin. Closing USAID HQ”.
Orange Oaf’s ongoing assault on American democracy is ironically narrowing our attention to America first.
Shit is Getting Conspiratorially Dark
“Senior U.S. Official to Exit After Rift With Musk Allies Over Payment System” (Wasington Post) https://archive.ph/omS67
Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide.… The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies…
This Musk business is getting increasingly dark. Democrats and Republicans should fight this, except there aren’t any Republicans in government anymore.
“Air Force says recruits will again learn about Tuskegee Airmen” by Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, January 26, 2025.
The head of the service’s San Antonio-based training command said a video about the famed Black aviators would remain in the Air Force basic training curriculum. The course had been shut down in response to President Trump’s DEI ban.
Apparently overly zealous interpretations of executive orders can be turned back in some cases. It’s a small win for military training and tradition building, but it also suggests that military professionals can get through, at least on something like this. Trump’s pardon of war criminals in his first term tell a different story, however.
Quoth Aviel Roshwald: “It’s not officially fascist until one could be shot for saying that it is.” /sarcasm 🫠
Finished reading Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (Norton, 2020). Highly recommended. Good antidote to feelings of confusion and helplessness in these troubled times.📚
Valuing loyalty over expertise and allowing violence to become an end in itself can result in a deprofessionalized and demoralized military, especially if misguided wars end in defeat.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen (Norton, 2020), concl.
“Heeding Trump, Air Force won’t teach recruits about Tuskegee Airmen” by Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express News, January 24, 2025, expressnews.com….
A video describing the exploits of the groundbreaking African American airmen, who flew combat sorties during World War II, has been removed from the instructional curriculum for new recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the hub of Air Force basic training.
Sherrilyn Ifill, “It Is MLK Day. Do Not Despair. This Year Especially, We Have Work To Do.” sherrilyn.substack.com…
Democratic heads of state often see their departures from office as an opportunity to build on their leadership legacy. The authoritarian regards the end of being adulated by followers and controlling everything and everyone as an existential threat.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen (Norton, 2020), chap. 10.
So much cringe, but Rebecca Shaw’s telling made me laugh. 😬😅 “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers,” The Guardian, January 16, 2025, www.theguardian.com….
“Proposed Legislation Threatens a Backslide on U.S. Democracy” by Samantha Karlin, newlinesmag.com…, January 16, 2025.
Lede: “A new House bill purports to counter terror financing, but it reads a lot like the ‘foreign agent’ laws used to quash dissent in Russia and Hungary.”
By creating nodes of empathy and anger, social media helps to overcome the cynicism and paralyzing fear that authoritarian states foster. It also boosts the humanizing power of laughter born of caricature.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen (Norton, 2020), chap. 9.
A book that manages to historicize a century of strongman regimes in an accessible and readable way while maintaining intellectual and scholarly rigor is a helluva thing. If you haven’t yet read Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (Norton, 2020), I highly recommend it.
Strongman regimes … turn the economy into an instrument of leader wealth creation, but also encourage changes in ethical and behavioral norms to make things that were illegal or immoral appear acceptable, whether election fraud, torture, or sexual assault.…
Rulers who come into office with a criminal record … have a head start. They know that making the government a refuge for criminals who don’t have to learn to be lawless hastens the ‘contagion effect.’ So does granting amnesties and pardons, which indebt individuals to the leader and make blackmailers, war criminals, and murderers available for service.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen, chap. 7.
Who would the strongman past and present be without those crowds that form the raw material of his propaganda? His secret is that he needs them far more than they need him.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen, chap. 5.