One of the astonishing things about the rise of fascist dictatorships is that they tell you what they're going to do. And then it happens.
It works because about a third of the population welcomes autocratic rule, if the ruler looks and sounds like them. They don't like democracy.
About a third of the population doesn't believe the rhetoric, "It's just politics." Or they feel as though the "other side" is somehow worse. These are the fools.
Between the fascists and the fools, they can get a majority and then democracy is over.
It's kind of amazing we didn't get here before. I suspect it may have had something to do with the relatively limited amount of media we had before, and the role it played in kind of enforcing norms. Now, with a diverse, fragmented media with an intense competition for eyeballs, anything goes. No norms. Just "Grab 'em by the pussy," all day long, every day.
And here we are.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:35 Monday, 29 April 2024