The world is being assaulted by a new wave of authoritarianism.
au·thor·i·tar·i·an·ism
ôˌTHäriˈterēənizəm/Submit
noun
the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.
lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.
Trump(USA), Putin(Russia), Maduro(Venezuela), Duterte(The Philipines), Jinping(China), Duda(Poland), Rouhani(Iran), ai-Assad(Syria), Kim Jong-un(North Korea), and many more. These tyrants all have things in common. They suppress the vote, are against freedom of the press, against individual rights, demand a weird loyalty, have massive egos, lie through their teeth pathologically and basically have no sense of law and justice. They use populace nationalism (a NAZI tactic) to promote their brand of tyranny.
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"Rouhani(Iran)"
Really? I am not from ME nor I am a Shia, but Rouhani, how?
I thought he is the meekest in the whole ME. Maybe you have different criteria in setting this "Authoritarianism"? Please share it with us.
Rouhani represents an oppressive government. The elections are rigged. Journalists are jailed tortured and murdered.
https://cpj.org/2010/02/with-47-journalists-in-jail-iran-sets-notorious-...
There is no freedom of speech, No freedom of movement. Religion is mandatory upon penalty of arrest torture and death.
Rouhani Just 2 days ago was inaugurated for his second term after winning 57% of the vote. Therefore he was in power starting 4 years ago. Before him was the guy name Ahmadinejad who declared that Israel must be remove from the map (remember him?). Than Natanyahu went to the UN and drew the famous "Red line" is crossed, literally he did that in the UN. In response Mahmud increased the centrifuge speed four fold to say "Screw you, Nat". And the sweating Natanyahu ask the US to do something serious, and the agreement was finally reached to halt the enrichment, and Rouhani was not there when it was boiling.
The agreement still stay today which was signed when Rouhani in power. That is why I got confused seeing him in the list, not that mean so much in the discussion forum.
And Just for addition, I believe Iran has 10 nuclear reactors, hence the agreement.
@zwalja
I should have included Netanyahu to the list. He is definitely authoritarian. Yes, the previous Iranian president was a tyrant as well.
What the US and Israel did was to infiltrate a bot into the centrifuge controls that destroyed some two dozen. That is why the Iranians came to the negotiating table. Muhamed didn't speed up the speed. He increased production, but he didn't increase the centrifuge speed.
But Rouhani is an authoritarian. He increased more media controls. Clamped down of protest. Arrested innocent tourist claiming them to be spies. He murdered an American tourist just this past year. He executed a rape victim claiming that she caused the gang rape in the first place.
Trump called Kim Jong Un a "pretty smart cookie" for the way he consolidated power. I thought that was very revealing of Trumps character. He could have condemned the North Korean tyrant but instead reveals an admiration for his tactics.
Don't worry, I'm sure Jesus will return and save the day.............
Authoritarianism has been around as long as sapiens have gathered into groups.
Yes, CyberLN but it has raised its ugly head again.
It's never lowered it!
I am just pointing out that it has become larger and more pervasive in recent years. It has also become bolder. We haven't seen this much tyranny or a demonstrative level of tyranny since the NAZIs! Our own Constitution is at risk as well as freedom across the world.
I haven't seen any increase in authoritarianism in recent years, just a continuum of nastiness with new faces. The problem is that the major powers, America, the UK, France, Russia, China, etc., will make friends with any regime, however horrible, provided that it aligns with their strategic interests. Korea and Vietnam had governments so horrible and oppressive that they made communism look like a good idea, but the free world went to war on their behalf. Idi Amin and Manuel Noriega had plenty of friends, even when they were eating people. North Korea is an evil, criminal regime, yet they have been backed by first by the Soviet Union, and now by China.
Maybe the world will start to improve when the big powers show a bit of concern about what their friends are doing, as well as their enemies.
A million people oppressed and enslaved is a statistic. One person oppressed and enslaved is a crime and tragedy. Politicians only think about the statistics.
I would agree with you except that authoritarianism hasn't been so prevalent in the major industrialized democracies before. Yes the major powers have played footsie with 3rd world nations fighting proxy wars, exploiting the resources of the 3rd world at the expense of the people of those nations, and yes that hasn't changed, but freedom and individual rights are being attacked with total abandonment in the major democracies of the world as well.
If you want to experience authoritarianism in an industrialized democracy, try getting on the wrong side of the tax authorities. They are the judge, jury, and executioners, and you're guilty till proven innocent. What's worse is that the tax laws are so complex that everyone's guilty of something. And of course, the taxmen pay the wages of the politicians, police, and the judges. That's a recipe for tyranny. And it's been happening for a long time.
Jonathan Swift summed up how the tax laws work.
"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
So did John Lennon.
Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me (Taxman!)
Algebe,
All money belongs to the government. We only get to use it under government rules.
Our constitution has been at risk for quite some time myckob, examples:
George Washington creating the Bank of the United States
The alien and sedition acts
The Selective Service Act
The Federal Reserve Act
The espionage act
FDR putting hundreds of thousands of Japanese people in internment camps
Eisenhower's attempt at nationalizing the steel industry
The Patriot Act
The Affordable Care Act
Obamas jailing of whistleblowers
What whistle blowers did Obama unconstitutionally jail? That is a bald faced lie.
The Affordable Care Act IS constitutional.
Washington didn't create the Bank of the United States. Congress did which BTW saved this nation and took this nation out of debt.
The biggest constitutional violation was the case concerning Citizens United. This decision created super PACs!
The Federal Reserve is also constitutional!
I have been saying this for a while, and it is becoming increasingly true about Donald Trump, who recently put sanctions on Russia and fined Exxon 2 million for not complying. This is textbook fascism- trying to restrict trade and economic activity. It was enough we had to deal with those war mongering commie yards (I.e. trump protesters), but now Drumf himself is acting like a war mongering commietard.
He also increased spending, and is continuing to rank up the national debt. So much for 'limited government.'
On the bright side though, he is reducing carbon regulations and killing ISIS, but all things consodered, he may actually end up doing more harm than good pretty soon.
"the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others."
I guess most politicians are authoritarians by that definition, especially Bernie- his policies were textbook national socialism.
Harry, you are brainwashed.
1) Congress put sanctions on Russia for interfering in our elections. A very valid reason. Trump didn't want to sign the bill.
2) Exxon violated sanctions and committed several felonies. They deserve to be disbanded not just fined.
3) None of those actions are at all textbook fascism.
4) He isn't killing ISIL.
The only action that Trump can actually take credit for is his SCOTUS nomination. That's it!
He has tried to act like a classic fascist like trying to direct the justice department to act like racist gestapos!
5) reducing carbon emissions regulation doesn't create business but it does pollute the planet and prevent clean energy companies from growing in the USA. It is actually killing American jobs!
Bernie is NOT authoritarian. He is the antithesis!
Myckob, I'm not brainwashed for not accepting unfounded bullshit, which relies entirely on the unfounded claims of an old hag who was mad she lost an election? The Russians didn't set up a private email server in Hillary's basement, and they didn't make her a terrible person- that was all Hillary's fault.
" reducing carbon emissions regulation doesn't create business but it does pollute the planet and prevent clean energy companies from growing in the USA. It is actually killing American jobs!"
That 'clean energy' companies cannot compete with fossil fuels, doesn't mean it is killing jobs- anymore than real doctors are killing jobs because people aren't going to some voodoo witch doctor anymore.
"Bernie is NOT authoritarian. He is the antithesis!"
Look again at your definition of authoritarianism- the suppression of I dividual liberties, in favor of a respect for authority, and a disregard of the will of others. I.e. gun regulations, single payer, free college, and so on.
The opposite of an authoritarian is one who values individual freedom over authority, and has eegar for the will of others, as opposed to forcing them into submission- which sounds more like me.
What you say about Hillary is simply not true and the product of FOX NOISE propaganda.
The reason clean energy cannot compete is because oil and coal not only get tax breaks but actually get subsidies. They are NEVER held accountable for their crimes. Even when they get caught red handed they rarely if ever pay for those crimes.
You still don't accept the fact that Russia interfered with the election. Suck it up Harry it is a fact.
Regulations are not in themselves authoritarianism or a practice of it. Regulations are a safety and fairness mechanism and nothing more. Single payer is a use of supply and demand. a single payer motivates health insurers to price fairly. You think that supply and demand should always be in the favor of large corrupt corporations. That is YOUR problem!
BTW it isn't my definition, it is the universally accepted definition. I took the definition directly from Merrium Webster.
Individual freedom has a cost that YOU have never had to pay yet. It is a responsibility. I could go on but I am actually exhausted given my workload.
2 million dollar fine to Exxon, is like a 2 cents fine to you. They make 10's of billions in profits, even while crude oil hovers around $50 a barrel.
Good to see while tRumps support declines, you too follow the trend.
ISIS is strong as ever, and muslim dissent with US is at all time highs, in much part thanks to the rhetoric tRump spews out with muslim travel bands etc. Thankfully the states and courts have been fairly effective at stopping tRump's nonsense.
Socialist education and health policy sounds damn good to me.