Post AvCy0otPMTQWrvokWe by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) More posts by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) Post #AvCy0otPMTQWrvokWe by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-06-17T03:01:29Z
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#GiftArticleThe Tyrant TestA leader who uses #military force to #suppress his political opposition ought to lose the right to govern.By Adam Serwer“For as long as I’ve been alive, American presidents have defined tyrants by their willingness to use military force against their own people in reprisal for political opposition. This was a staple of Cold War presidential rhetoric, & it survived long into the War on Terror era.”#authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/trump-military-force-protests/683198/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxeJVpyAVTc6jhJwDEd7rPvQ
(DIR) Post #AvCyIb0bihyV1Nf3k8 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-06-17T03:04:42Z
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Ronald #Reagan declared in 1981 that “it is#dictatorships, not #democracies, that need militarism to control their own people & impose their system on others.” His successor, George H. W. #Bush, did the same in 1992, talking about American presidents confronting the Warsaw Pact, which had been “lashed together by #occupation #troops & quisling governments &, when all else failed, the use of tanks against its own people.”#authoritarianism #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
(DIR) Post #AvCyXRbcxiEeCc3cAq by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-06-17T03:07:23Z
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Bill #Clinton, when justifying strikes against the Iraqi #dictator Saddam Hussein in 1998, emphasized that Hussein had used his arsenal “against #civilians, against a foreign adversary, & even against his own people.”GeorgeW. #Bush repeated that…when invading Iraq in 2003, saying that Hussein’s govt “practices #terror against its own people.”Barack #Obama, when intervening in Libya on behalf of rebels fighting Muammar Qaddafi, warned Qaddafi had said “he would show ‘no mercy’ to his own people.”
(DIR) Post #AvCyiFxmac3lHLZlj6 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-06-17T03:09:20Z
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It would be absurd to say that American presidents have always been principled defenders of #freedom & #democracy, but their long-shared, bipartisan definition of #tyrant is one who oppresses his own. So it’s striking that these warnings about tyrants in distant lands, who were supposedly the opposite of the kind of legitimate, democratic leaders elected in the United States of America, now apply to the sitting #US president, Donald #Trump.#authoritarianism #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
(DIR) Post #AvCymM5hkTJpRTEgL2 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-06-17T03:10:05Z
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It is a simple but morally powerful formulation: A leader who uses #military #force to suppress their political opposition forfeits the right to #govern. You could call this the “tyrant test,” & #Trump is already failing it.#authoritarianism #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
(DIR) Post #AvDSIzX1XfI7hbvd20 by RecoveredExpert@mastodon.social
2025-06-17T08:40:03Z
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@Nonilex Yet they and others (like GWB) took part in paving the way and shaping the GOP in a way that lead to where things are today. There were many seemingly unimportant moments like Regans „I‘m paying for this microphone“ and some more noticeable steps on the path to today like GWB‘s election and him creating DHS & ICE.Some warned about the risk of these things, but most didn’t b/c the road to racism is lined with people telling everybody not to overreact.
(DIR) Post #AvDpuQQ8pWkMl1WnhY by ChrisHolladay@mastodon.social
2025-06-17T13:05:23Z
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@Nonilex Well fuck....he failed the human test along time ago.The Bene Gesserit in Dune would have had him killed by their gom jabbar for failing the human test .