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milestogo

(16,829 posts)
Thu Jan 5, 2017, 02:10 AM Jan 2017

Robert Reich: 15 warning signs of impending Trump tyranny

As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically do these 15 things
ROBERT REICH

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. Call anyone who opposes 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 to 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 to “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 refugees bans.

10. Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such as labor unions and opposition parties.

11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority.

12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public.

13. Put generals 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.

Consider yourself warned.

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/04/robert-reich-15-warning-signs-of-impending-trump-tyranny_partner/

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Robert Reich: 15 warning signs of impending Trump tyranny (Original Post) milestogo Jan 2017 OP
Trumpies. We tried to warn you. Now we must all suffer. The Wielding Truth Jan 2017 #1
All of these are 2naSalit Jan 2017 #2
So tRump is using the tyrant handbook AmericanActivist Jan 2017 #3
Its like he read the official book on tyranny - milestogo Jan 2017 #4
Evan McMullin, ex-CIA agent, said that in the last couple of Hortensis Jan 2017 #5
I really appreciate Evan McMullin as of late and I agree w him nm AmericanActivist Jan 2017 #6
I feel the same way. MBS Jan 2017 #7
15/15, easily. MBS Jan 2017 #8
It makes me wonder if all tyrants are narcissists. milestogo Jan 2017 #9
Fascinating! Most of those... Myrddin Jan 2017 #10
Its like a disease that is spreading across the Western world. milestogo Jan 2017 #11

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
5. Evan McMullin, ex-CIA agent, said that in the last couple of
Thu Jan 5, 2017, 02:08 PM
Jan 2017

days he's become more disturbed about what Trump might do than all the time before.

Myrddin

(327 posts)
10. Fascinating! Most of those...
Fri Jan 6, 2017, 05:28 AM
Jan 2017

... also apply to the Brexit process, and its leadership!

I will always maintain that Brexit is, fundamentally, a right-wing coup, disguised as 'taking back control'?

All vehement Brexiteer Politicians have always been outspoken opponents of social protection policies, and they despised the EU for obstructing their neo-liberal aims.

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