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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert Reich: Be warned. 20 days to go. And Happy New Year.
What are the 15 warning signs of impending tyranny? As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern -- claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.
2. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
3. Publicly criticize anyone who criticizes them, labeling them enemies.
4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them deceitful and scum.
5. Hold few if any press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements.
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and believe fictions that support the tyrants' goals.
7. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against them.
8. Attribute acts of domestic violence on enemies within, and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
9. Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning or extreme vetting of refugees.
10. Seek to reduce or eliminate competing centers of power, such as trade unions and opposition parties.
11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority.
12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than with a security detail accountable to the public.
13. Put generals and other military commanders into top civilian posts.
14. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators.
15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern -- claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.
2. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
3. Publicly criticize anyone who criticizes them, labeling them enemies.
4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them deceitful and scum.
5. Hold few if any press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements.
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and believe fictions that support the tyrants' goals.
7. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against them.
8. Attribute acts of domestic violence on enemies within, and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
9. Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning or extreme vetting of refugees.
10. Seek to reduce or eliminate competing centers of power, such as trade unions and opposition parties.
11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority.
12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than with a security detail accountable to the public.
13. Put generals and other military commanders into top civilian posts.
14. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators.
15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.
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Robert Reich: Be warned. 20 days to go. And Happy New Year. (Original Post)
kpete
Jan 2017
OP
The media can help turn this around, but they will have to battle the bullshit that is
Baitball Blogger
Jan 2017
#7
mnhtnbb
(31,384 posts)1. Do you have a source for that list?
handmade34
(22,756 posts)4. facebook...
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)2. Link? PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
otohara
(24,135 posts)3. His Track Record of Advice
doesn't impress me anymore.
He warned us against Hillary then said she would win on 11/8.
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)8. He don't need no steenking advice, because he's ... like ... a smart person!
pangaia
(24,324 posts)5. Whether reich wrote this or even kpete, I don't need a source.
My eyes, my brain and history tell me.
Hugin
(33,135 posts)6. One addition.
16. Gather up all the guns. (His sycophants will turn them in willingly, y'know, for the public safety.)
Baitball Blogger
(46,703 posts)7. The media can help turn this around, but they will have to battle the bullshit that is
coming from the right-wing media echo chamber. And that includes their bloggers.
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)9. Link to Twitter
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)10. And the FB direct link