With 410 Days To Go... Are You Any Better Off?

 

Some thoughts... 

 

“Decades ago, George Orwell suggested that the best one-word description of a Fascist was “bully,” and on the day of the Normandy invasion, Franklin Roosevelt prayed to the Almighty for a “peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men.” By contrast, President Trump’s eyes light up when strongmen steamroll opposition, brush aside legal constraints, ignore criticism, and do whatever it takes to get their way."

     
~Madeleine K. Albright,

 Fascism: A Warning

“Do not obey in advance.

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

 
~Timothy Snyder

  On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.”

 
~Hannah Arendt

“Social conservatism and neoconservatism have revived authoritarian conservatism, and not for the better of conservatism or American democracy. True conservatism is cautious and prudent. Authoritarianism is rash and radical. American democracy has benefited from true conservatism, but authoritarianism offers potentially serious trouble for any democracy.” 

~John W. Dean,

  Conservatives Without Conscience

 

“[No] social principle in the world is more foolish and dangerous than the rapidly rising notion that hurtful words and ideas are a form of violence or torture (e.g., “harassment”) and that their perpetrators should be treated accordingly. That notion leads to the criminalization of criticism and the empowerment of authorities to regulate it. The new sensitivity is the old authoritarianism in disguise, and it is just as noxious.”

 
~Jonathan Rauch,

  Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought  

 

 “The authoritarian character worships the past. What has been, will eternally be. To wish or to work for something that has not yet been before is crime or madness. The miracle of creation—and creation is always a miracle—is outside of his range of emotional experience.”
 

~Erich Fromm,

        Escape from Freedom

 

“Flattery is directly proportional to authoritarianism. For this reason, flattery can be said to be one of the main signs of the non-existence of freedom and democracy in the political system. The more "honeyed words", the greater the deprivation of personal liberty.”

 
~Elmar Hussein  

 

  “Democracy can exist only in the countries where people are brave! Coward nations always live under the authoritarian regimes!”

 
~Mehmet Murat ildan 

 

 “Patriotism is a villain's last refuge.”

 

 ~Xiaobo Liu,

  June Fourth Elegies

 

 “One need only to admit that public tranquillity is in danger and any action finds a justification. All the horrors of the reign of terror were based only on solicitude for public tranquillity.”
 

~Leo Tolstoy, 

  War and Peace

 

 “Who is watching the Watchers?”

 
~James Hauenstein  

 

There are 410 days left until the 2026 midterm elections. 

 

Are you any better off then you were 4 years ago?

Are you any better off then you were 4 weeks ago?

Are you any better off then you were 4 days ago?

Are you any better off then you were 4 hours ago?

Are you any better off then you were 4 minutes ago?

Are you any better off then you were 4 seconds ago? 

 

VOTE