I agree with you that the New Yorker's classification of authoritarianism is lazy and I think it nullifies its credibility. I also agree that some powerful peop

I agree with you that the New Yorker's classification of authoritarianism is lazy and I think it nullifies its credibility. I also agree that some powerful people have it in their best interest to hide the costs of democracy because they have the means to influence voters through emotion. But you lose a lot credibility when you talk about Trump (I think?) using "authoritarian" as a defining term (the guy relatively easily could've taken on so many emergency powers during the pandemic but largely left it up to the states), as if Obama and literally every other president didn't also have mostly authoritarianism in their policies. Also, most so-called democratic societies don't value democracy at all costs. E.g. courts with appointed judges are less democratic than mob justice.