Is the world heading towards authoritarianism in the short term?

[danieldemol]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

 

[Valjean]

A lot of countries are becoming more authoritarian lately, and the causes generating this swing to the right are continuing.

The long term effects of the current pandemic remain to be seen, as do the effects of climate change.

 

[Sunstone]

Short term? This won't be short term.

How do you short term 24 hour surveillance on all kinds of frequencies and mediums. Tracking software that put together your movements almost moment to moment through out each day. Voice record software that pick you up peeing. And super AI that identify whether you meet the profile of a dangerous risk from the government?

You don't. You submit like a beaten dog to a cage, then hope your tyrant gets into a war.

It's likely to happen here because the pattern of lies in America is the pattern used to prep a nation for a coup.

Here's your test. Any one wanting to check if someone responding to my post is faking it, can PM me. Just ask me what question to ask them to see if they don't know what they're talking about. That's all. Might take some time replying.

It's know use to tell people what's going on with propaganda these days. It began back in the 1920s. If folks aren't going to read up on it, they are like the Natives when Columbus's ships show up with cannon they can't understand are cannon.

And everything's about entertainment.

I never thought it was going to come down to a war over the minds of couch potatoes for my nephew's futures.




@Mindmaster! Can you tell me what a couch potato is in terms of which media you sequence for a campaign against that group? I keep forgetting these things. Is it Facebook reinforced by pattern viral behavioral across commentary and news?

And is the kick off point those supermarket tabloids for conspiracy theories? Or are we going Soviet style third word nation to launch what well pick up a post that Drudge can link to?

We need more aggregators! They look so innocent when the hook is so deep inside the bait.

Can vet propaganda if you don't know how. Can't even know if I'm talking the truth anymore.

All we know is there have now and been some active on RF.

@Mindmaster? Could you help out? I can't make sense of this ink blot.

 

[oldbadger]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

If you mean 'single party politics only' then 'No'
If you mean 'All following the same legislation' then 'Of course'.

The tip of the authoritarian iceberg has to be theocracies and I think we are leaving those slowly behind. Very slowly.

 

[Sunstone]

Biden screwed up the stimulus.

He needed to get out the $2000 he and the Senate candidates promised the voters. Hopefully he hasn't lost the Senate in 2022. But those people were disparate, and he screwed them. To them that's like kicking a dog.

Besides, the checks were his chance to draw off support from the Trump base.

He screwed it up because he's in politics --- always has been --- to make friends while being a powerful man.

Biden doesn't want to hurt any feelings.


FDR had by now, most of the New Deal in law. He knew how to use power to get things done.

Biden just wants to use it to make friends.

You never take on a job if you just want to make friends, Joe. You go to a therapist.

You cannot be fair to everyone if you are needy for someone's friendship, other than your spouse.

 

[oldbadger]

A lot of countries are becoming more authoritarian lately, and the causes generating this swing to the right are continuing.

The long term effects of the current pandemic remain to be seen, as do the effects of climate change.

Hi.....
You mentioned 'swings to the right'.

I do reckon that swings to the extreme right or extreme left can produce authoritarian states. It's all about extremes, I think.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

If you mean 'single party politics only' then 'No'
If you mean 'All following the same legislation' then 'Of course'.

The tip of the authoritarian iceberg has to be theocracies and I think we are leaving those slowly behind. Very slowly.

But they are being replaced by political ideologies. Which are just as authoritarian but far more insidious. And it seems almost invisible as to what they are becoming to the general populations.

For example, followers of Trump do so I'm much the same way as they would a messianic religious leader. And with just as little critical thought.

 

[oldbadger]

How do you short term 24 hour surveillance on all kinds of frequencies and mediums. Tracking software that put together your movements almost moment to moment through out each day. Voice record software that pick you up peeing.

The UK probably has the most intensive technical surveillance and now we have systems that can record a cigarette being chucked out of a car, 'clock' the vehicle's registration and sent the registered vehicle owner a penalty notice for 'littering', whatever the proper definition for that might be. We've got the first one installed in Canterbury! *preens self proudly* And it can do the same for folks peeing where they shouldn't!

But the good ol' wiki definition of 'authoritarian' focuses upon a lack of democracy rather than a controlled environs.

authoritarianism - Google Search
Authoritarianism - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.

 

[oldbadger]

But they are being replaced by political ideologies. Which are just as authoritarian but far more insidious. And it seems almost invisible as to what they are becoming to the general populations.

For example, followers of Trump do so I'm much the same way as they would a messianic religious leader. And with just as little critical thought.

Ah....... Trump.
President Biden just isn't going to raise up the people high enough to secure democracy in the US, imo.

As a Deist I can only hope that nature will take a hand in the affairs of the world. t's managed before, sometimes, and might do so again. I hope that's no too oblique?

 

[Heyo]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

I fear so. India isn't the only example. Myanmar just had a military coup, Hong Kong just got (illegally) politically annexed by the CP. In Europe we have Poland and Hungary which are drifting into authoritarianism. Turkey is almost a lost case.
Yes, I see authoritarianism on the rise in the short term. But I think it will not beat the long trend of more freedom and democracy in the world.

 

[Valjean]

Hi.....
You mentioned 'swings to the right'.

I do reckon that swings to the extreme right or extreme left can produce authoritarian states. It's all about extremes, I think.

Good point -- but what constitutes "extreme?" The Republican party today is characterizing anyone left-of-center as radical and extreme, but look back at history and it wasn't that long ago that the Republican conservatives held positions that make Bernie Sanders look conservative. Middle-of-the-road seems to vary quite a lot.

So... historically, what political or economic situations resemble today's? What approaches produced what results?
Past is prologue.

 

[exchemist]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

Yes, it is. China and Russia of course, but also former democracies are wobbling a bit: India, Poland, Hungary, Philippines, Brazil..... Even the USA was heading into the same category until Trump was excreted - here in the UK we have a government that is refusing to abide by the rules and breaks international law with abandon.

There's a dangerous rediscovery of aggressive populism abroad, fuelled by the internet.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

I think authoritarianism is inevitable and is not going to go away. In this ever evolving high tech environment, where ai and machine only continues to get more efficient and precise, there is no doubt that it's being weaponized more and more to a point where control and subjugation will be as simple as a press of a button.

We have a chance at fighting authoritarianism as flesh and blood, but with elites arming themselves with more and more tech and hardware, they will essentially become untouchable at some point in the future.

 

[exchemist]

I think authoritarianism is inevitable and is not going to go away. In this ever evolving high tech environment, where ai and machine only continues to get more efficient and precise, there is no doubt that it's being weaponized more and more to a point where control and subjugation will be as simple as a press of a button.

We have a chance at fighting authoritarianism as flesh and blood, but with elites arming themselves with more and more tech and hardware, they will essentially become untouchable at some point in the future.

That's ironic.

It's not so much these "elites", whoever they may be - nobody ever seems able to say who they are - but the populists that invoke them, in order to whip up hatred and suspicion of the systems and controls of democracy.

Public figures that inveigh against "elites" are often undermining democracy.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Hi,
I was reading this article about authoritarianism today;
Freedom House downgrades India to ‘partly free’

And it got me thinking, is the world overall sliding into authoritarianism in the short term?

Your not imagining it. The entire world is far less free than it has ever been. I'm flabbergasted at how much the free world has givin up in exchange for this so called safety and security.

 

[exchemist]

Your not imagining it. The entire world is far less free than it has ever been. I'm flabbergasted at how much the free world has givin up in exchange for this so called safety and security.

...............and all because you have to a wear a mask in the supermarket...

 

[Twilight Hue]

That's ironic.

It's not so much these "elites", whoever they may be - nobody ever seems able to say who they are - but the populists that invoke them, in order to whip up hatred and suspicion of the systems and controls of democracy.

Public figures that inveigh against "elites" are often undermining democracy.

I'm starting to wonder if the illuminati are really around now. That there is something more to that myth, that legend. A bit of truth to the stories.

The most powerful and wealthiest people calling the shots with those deemed above the law globally.

 

[Twilight Hue]

...............and all because you have to a wear a mask in the supermarket...

Wait till the tracking software gets its teeth and claws, and the drones fly overhead.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I fear so. India isn't the only example. Myanmar just had a military coup, Hong Kong just got (illegally) politically annexed by the CP. In Europe we have Poland and Hungary which are drifting into authoritarianism. Turkey is almost a lost case.
Yes, I see authoritarianism on the rise in the short term. But I think it will not beat the long trend of more freedom and democracy in the world.

Freedom all over the world is dying for people. At best we will live in a guilded cage for a bit untill things get more dark.

 

[Sunstone]

The UK probably has the most intensive technical surveillance and now we have systems that can record a cigarette being chucked out of a car, 'clock' the vehicle's registration and sent the registered vehicle owner a penalty notice for 'littering', whatever the proper definition for that might be. We've got the first one installed in Canterbury! *preens self proudly* And it can do the same for folks peeing where they shouldn't!

But the good ol' wiki definition of 'authoritarian' focuses upon a lack of democracy rather than a controlled environs.

authoritarianism - Google Search
Authoritarianism - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.

Exactly. The way you attack a society today is you mess with its head first. And one of the things you do, is dislocate it's community take on things. So they don't see what's coming because they're watching what's happening in the past.

"Generals always prepare for the last war" That's a US War War College proverb. Reminds them to pay attention.

The news media in America has no awareness of propaganda as news. But intelligence agencies keep track of it like it was the weather, right alongside cyber-attacks.