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The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide
- galimalint 2y ago[flagged]
- fmnxl 2y agoPeople portray everything in terms of the ideological war between "democracy" vs "authoritarianism", fitting everything into that narrative even when it doesn't make sense. It's a nice, simple, easy way to understand what's happening around us, who's good and bad, yet deeply flawed.
- hayst4ck 2y agoThere is the theoretical understanding, and then there is how it meshes with reality. The theoretical understanding is that we are in an ideological war. If you strip away all the nuance and ask for a high level understanding of what is happening right now, that is happening right now. When meshed into reality it is a bit more complicated... neither side of our government is on the side of democracy. One is straight fascist, the other is in favor of a corporate state or oligarchy. Both party's power primarily comes from news media (oligarch owned) and from legalized bribery (the richest have the most power), so neither can challenge oligarchic power, because oligarchic power is where their power comes from. The fascist party is currently in the process of giving themselves power by replacing enforcement institutions with loyalists. Once all the people who enforce the law are loyalists, they can decide what the law is, and then it's no longer people with money who have all the power, but people the enforcers of "law" are loyal to. Neither party can fight oligarchy because to fight oligarchy is to disempower themselves. Bernie and AOC might be the only exceptions.
- teekert 2y agoI think that a right-wing American that reads this can even think it is about the left. They are already that divided. I agree that this is not (or no longer) a place to discuss these things, or play “devils” advocate, or steelmanning the other side, it will be seen as gaslighting. Your post will be buried.
- mjmcau 2y agoYouth is typically left leaning, and hn is a young crowd.
- dragonwriter 2y agoMen are conservative more than liberal at every age band, and HN is an extremely male crowd.
- Freedom2 2y agoAre there any published statistics or measures to back up your claim? Out of curiosity, of course.
- hayst4ck 2y agoThe educated are typically left leaning and that was the most decisive demographic for whether someone voted for trump or not in 2016.
- NegatioN 2y agoI guess I'll take the bait. If it's "pretty clear" that all of these are wins to you, then I think you might be part of the other extreme pole to what you're arguing happens here. Leaving all nuance behind doesn't really help the discussion. For example: I'm excited to see how trade wars with the world turns out for the US, but I'm not sure it's a guaranteed win.
- dralley 2y agoImagine still talking about "Trump Derangement Syndrome" while "The King" goes on rants about invading Greenland and posts AI videos of Saddam-esque gold statues of himself in "Trump Gaza", all while he wrecks every international relationship we have, turns the economy into chaos, and puts Kash Patel and Dan Bongino on charge of the FBI, after which they openly started dropping investigations against politicians (Eric Adams) contingent on their cooperation with his agenda. That is a not even close to exhaustive list of only things that have happened in the past two weeks. And like fuck it's not like recent history is all that counts. January 6th 2021
- galimalint 2y ago[flagged]
- anonzzzies 2y agoIf you think it's ok for a leader of the biggest power in the world to joke and say random things that are lies while blackmailing ex-allies into 'negotiations' and helping russia win an invasion on sovereign territory that US and others promised to protect for not having nukes anymore in 1994, you must be special indeed.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- galimalint 2y agoYou are pretty special indeed if you can't see that Russia and Ukraine are currently in a stalemate that could drag on for years.
- anonzzzies 2y agoSure, but that's not a reason to help the agressor instead of the victim.
- munksbeer 2y ago
- alabastervlog 2y agoThey’re doing the salute (more than just Musk) and the rest aren’t running away from the ones who do. I call them Nazis because they claimed the label, about as unambiguously as possible.
- briandear 2y ago[flagged]
- hayst4ck 2y agoThere's been about 4 different CPAC/prominent conservative figures who have sieg heiled on stages in front of Trump supporters. The most prominent after Elon was likely Steve Bannon, who didn't even put his hand on his heart. He just straight sieg heiled and smirked at the amount of consequences he knows he isn't going to experience.
- CGamesPlay 2y agoThose things may be true, but he also has signed executive orders directly overstepping the judiciary and legislative branches (e.g. 14160 / birthright citizenship reinterprets the text of the constitution; 14159 / suspending illegal alien rights directly overrides a law passed by congress). He also uses his authority to stop criminal investigations into himself and his loyal supporters (sources 1-4), and he uses his supporter base to illegally threaten his enemies (note: he does not do anything illegal, it's the supporters who do), sources 5-7. The policy decisions aren't why Trump is being called a dictator and a nazi. [1] domestic abuse arrest warrant not granted https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/controversy-surrounding-gops-cory-mills-becomes-even-serious-rcna193650 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/controve... [2] corruption investigation dropped https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-jeff-fortenberry-prosecution-dropped-rcna189993 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-je... [3] corruption investigation dropped https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/eric-adams-charges-manhattan-prosecutor-quits-b2697925.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... [4] campaign finance investigation dropped https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/31/andy-ogles-investigation-federal-prosecutors-withdraw-from-case/78094561007/ https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/31/an... [5] "credible death threats" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-congress-political-violence https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-congress-politic... [6] "at least one gentleman who went to prison for making threats" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-trump-threats https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-... [7] "subjected to waves of Maga attacks" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/16/donald-trump-us-senate https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/16/donald...
- galimalint 2y agoAnd yet in many cases, his orders have been struck down by the courts. Where's the dictatorship? Biden pardoned his entire family. Is he a dictator?
- CGamesPlay 2y agoBiden pardoning his own family may be unethical, but it wasn't illegal. Similarly, Trump directing his DoJ not to prosecute his political allies is (probably) legal, but I hope we can both agree that it is unethical. Pardoning is a legal power given to the presidents. The executive orders are being stuck down by the courts because they are found to be illegal.
- metacritic12 2y agoIs this really an authoritarian regime survival guide or a not-too-hidden jab at the Trump presidency? Like I don't see too many of the items applying to classically authoritarian regimes like China. Let's apply the guide's own advice: > Always think critically, fact-check and point out the truth, expose ignorance with facts. The guide after all is written by Eastern / Europeans, the people is getting expropriated the most by Trump, in January 2017, right as Trump got elected and the democratic "resistance" movement was all the range. (Surprisingly, Trump 2 is even more extreme, and no more talk of resistance).
- DiscourseFan 2y agoYeah, I mean the supreme court already knocked down Trump's whole USAID thing. The US is very far from authoritarianism, the institutions seem quite strong and thats something I believe Americans recognized when they voted for him, that it was just a bit of a risk but it was unlikely he would actually be successful in toppling the government.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- outer_web 2y agoI read that SCOTUS told the administration to pay for completed work. Considering USAID has been essentially dissolved, I wouldn't say they knocked down "the whole USAID thing". Unless I missed some news.
- alabastervlog 2y agoAmazingly, four of five justices said the President should be able to refuse to pay contractors for completed work from funds Congress had already allocated. WTF. Or maybe it’s more amazing it wasn’t six of them saying that. One really lovely part is how this would permanently make every government contract more expensive, if they got their way. Just great.
- 2y ago
- sz4kerto 2y agoEvery single of these is happening in Hungary today. Literally.
- saxonww 2y agoI didn't read them all, but I read enough to think they were lying about it being tweets from 2017. It reads like someone asked ChatGPT to summarize current political news in the US.
- taneliv 2y agoThe article is from 2018. Here's Internet Archive's first copy of the article: https://web.archive.org/web/20180326213902/https://verfassungsblog.de/the-authoritarian-regime-survival-guide/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180326213902/https://verfassun... .
- Terr_ 2y agoHistory may not repeat, but it absolutely rhymes. If had a nickel for every time I heard about a government proposing to round up and deport thousands of people to a special island just so that their normal Constitution rules wouldn't apply, I'd have two nickels--which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.
- mschuster91 2y agoUnfortunately, remote detention camps to "keep the homeland clean" are nothing new, they are tried and tested. Here in Europe, we have had the UK and Italy actively pursuing rounding up migrants and deporting them to Ruanda/Albania until their claims are processed, and Australia has been doing this for decades now on Nauru and other places.
- roenxi 2y agoPossibly the migrants could enter the country using the approved legal process instead of just wandering in? It isn't reasonable to expect countries to have a generous welfare system, accept all arrivals and exist on the same planet at the billion-odd people who live on a few dollars a day. Something has to give. I vote the welfare system but keep getting overruled; so one of the other two has to go. And we don't have the space tech to pick option 3.
- evrimoztamur 2y agoOn the flipside of this: To understand how to establish, retain, and fail in running your authoritarian regime, I found The Dictator's Handbook by Alastair Smith and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita a very fun read. Although repetitive at times (as history often does so itself), it gives a systems-oriented framework of how power concentrates as it does, and various outcomes we get out of it. Definitely in line with the way of thinking most HNers appreciate.
- hayst4ck 2y agoCGP Grey did a video on this that is very much worth watching for anyone interested in politics: https://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/rules-for-rulers https://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/rules-for-rulers On youtube there is also another video where he talks about making this video that I found more interesting than the video itself. One of the more interesting points he made is that in order to get into power you generally have to be given that power, but to be given that power, you must show loyalty to the power structure. Loyality is corruption and corruption is loyalty, at least when that loyalty is to a person. So corruptibility/loyalty is intrinsically related to being in a position of power. The summary of all of that is the only time good things happen is when you yourself get into a position of power and choose to use it for good, rather than for purely selfish reasons.
- disqard 2y ago> to be given that power, you must show loyalty to the power structure. This is a gem! Thank you for sharing it. It also ties in with Venkatesh's "Gervais Principle", where, as we ascend the corporate hierarchy, we see "losers" --> "clueless" --> "sociopaths". The highest echelons of corporate structure are indeed occupied by the kinds of people who are comfortable swearing allegiance to the corporation itself, not to its customers, its employees, its founding values, or some "greater good for society". Thus do we arrive at a world where these corps are headed by people who truly believe in "maximizing shareholder value".
- hayst4ck 2y agoIf you like that, you will also like Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy: https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html
- huijzer 2y ago> They will distort the truth, deny facts and blatantly lie. They will try to make you forget what facts are, sedate your need to find the truth. They will feed “post-truths” and “alternative facts”, replace knowledge and logic with emotions and fiction. Having followed the news/social media for a while while also having read a lot about electric cars, this statement is true already. Most articles or posts about EVs “distort the truth, deny facts and blatantly lie”. Sometimes with some basic knowledge and math you can easily spot the flaws in the article, but the articles are often so drenched in emotion that it’s hard to keep rational.
- october8140 2y agoI've seen a few of these kinds of posts. They are good but is there a "definitive" source that is published or something?
- fmnxl 2y agoThis worldview where one side is evil/authoritarian and the other is good/free/liberal is the root of a lot of suffering in the world. It's a flawed worldview that made Americans end up with dysfunctional politicians, because you reward ideological rhetoric more than real, pragmatic long-term planing.
- g-b-r 2y agoUhm yeah everyone is authoritarian so let's embrace dictators right? :facepalm:
- alabastervlog 2y agoThe shift from “the President should surrender control of his peanut farm to avoid conflicts of interest” to “eh, this (gestures broadly) is fine, what are you complaining about?” has been really damn fast.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y agoThe shift from "The president can't partly forgive some student loans without congressional approval" to "The president's unelected tech support guy can fire entire government agencies without it" took a month or two. Roughly the same time, but clearly not held to the same standard. That seems a lot like the "permission to cross legal boundaries" that the original article mentions.
- fmnxl 2y agoNo, my point is Trump isn't bad because he's "authoritarian". He's bad because he's completely mismanaging the country, and putting oligarchs in charge of the government. Even for "authoritarian regime", that'd be a horrible way to run a country. It's not like the democrats aren't full of oligarchs themselves, like the likes of Pelosi.
- dragonwriter 2y ago> No, my point is Trump isn't bad because he's "authoritarian". But, you're wrong, he is wrong for that reason. > He's bad because he's completely mismanaging the country He's also wrong for that reason, which is also not completely unrelated to the former reason. > and putting oligarchs in charge of the government. And for thet reason, which is mostly a rephrasing and slightly more specific form of the first reason. > Even for "authoritarian regime", that'd be a horrible way to run a country. Actually, its pretty typical of authoritarian regimes to (1) have a narrow elite (oligarchs) making decisions with no effective accountability for their own benefit, and (2) for this to, from any other perspective but the immediate perceived self-interest of those decision-makers to be complete mismanagement. (It’s also pretty typical for it to be mismanagement from any reasonable view of the elites actual interests, and paranoia driven by fear of being displaced either by outsiders or other members of the elite leads to suboptimal elite decision-making, because authoritarianism does not support conflict resolution processes that enable trust, and makes losing intra-elite disputes very high stakes.)
- throw94040 2y agoMost importantly: 1) authoritarian regime takes your guns and ability to defend yourself 2) it will criminalise normal behavior, so it can prosecute anyone at will (everyone has to break laws) 3) it tries to destroy family
- bratbag 2y agoThose three things are just part of point 4 in the article. An authoritarian leader will tell you those things are under threat and that only they can protect them, to create a feeling of threat that will persuade the gullible to give up their freedom.
- misja111 2y ago3) it tries to destroy family This point is nonsense, most authoritarian regimes do exactly the opposite, they promote traditional family values. Take for example the regimes of Putin, Hitler, Orban.
- MrBuddyCasino 2y ago[flagged]
- relaxing 2y agoWell, if you’re the right sort of family. If you’re part of the out groups they will not hesitate to destroy family.
- 2y ago
- rahton 2y agoWhy not just leave? I mean for those who can afford. Especially when this is happening in a country with so many firearms. It could quickly be easier to resist from a safe place.
- rented_mule 2y agoBecause I have many loved ones that I don't want to be too far from. It's worth enduring a lot to be around them.
- throw-the-towel 2y agoAs someone who did leave his country over politics, and doesn't regret it, I assure you it's not something you "just" do. Emigration is hard.
- hayst4ck 2y agoI went to a Town Hall and many of the people had family members being kept alive by Medicaid. Imagine a mother of toddlers in her 30's is dying of some cancer imagining paying for her cancer meds while her children likely won't get state assistance, while grandma is about to be removed from her state assisted old folks home. Imagine having a special needs child about to lose assistance... Right now America is going through the stages of grief. We are between Shock and Denial, many of us are in deep Depression. This is literally traumatizing if you are paying attention and understand what is going on. People who want to resist this are going to end up dead or in jail and that's a truth that's very hard to accept. Also there's the greater problem. Leave to where? America isn't exceptional. What can happen here can happen in other places. Canada, France, the UK, and Germany are all struggling with far right movements, none of them have a clear answer for fighting oligarchy, they are only reluctantly taking America's warning for how bad it can be. America is generally a fairly well educated country, and if we can't pull off a return to democracy here, I don't see democracy rising anywhere else, just the opposite, I would expect rampant nationalism and resource protection.
- rahton 2y agoJust to clarify, I am well aware it is a (very) tough decision to make and that is even harder to put in place... and understand the moral challenge involved. But I am very worried about what will come next too. People will die resisting, there is no doubt about it. Europe isn't a safe heaven but having experienced both sides of the pond in the last ten years, I believe the political situation is still far better here. I may be wrong.
- hayst4ck 2y agoTimothy Snyder wrote a book on resisting authoritarian regimes: On Tyranny. He also did a reading of each chapter on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhZxrogyToZsllfRqQllyuFNbT-ER7TAu https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhZxrogyToZsllfRqQlly...
- atoav 2y agoSerious question: Why on earth is this flagged? I thought sharing strategies against authoritarianism would be as free speech, open discourse as it gets. Open discourse as promoted here on this site is among the first targets in any authoritarian society. We tech people should be merit based — vuess which form of society prevents exactly this? Suddenly instead of appointing the manager of a nuclear plant based on merit, they are appointed based on their loyalty to the regime. This may have huge impact for us tech people. I am aware that some in the US may see anti-authoritarianism as "partisan", but if you immediately think the people whose line you tow are meant when someone mentions how to deal with $BADTHING, the thing boiling your blood shouldn't be them mentioning $BADTHING, the thing boiling your blood should be that those whose line you tow got you to defend $BADTHING. And you know it is bad, because otherwise you wouldn't try to shoot the messenger. Edit: If you disagree or think the flag is deserved, I'd be curious to hear your perspective
- thinkingemote 2y agoIn general, have a look at one of the many comments dang has written about why submissions are flagged, particularly lately. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang Wrt this comment and submission: Maybe people don't like their blood boiling here? I suspect that people are not asking why it's flagged to understand why but rather stating that they disagree with the flagging, but I might be wrong... As the guidelines say, comments about downvotes and flagging are to be avoided generally. I'm commenting because it's already flagged and only few will see the negative impact of my boring comment! I hope it leads some to more understanding and away from fear anyhow. Given there are many questions about flagging by invested users, answering them would be indeed tedious!
- atoav 2y agoI do not disagree that discussing flags is generally uninteresting and it would be intellectually dishonest to exclude this case, just because I happen to differ here. But I do think discussion of this topic is relevant for our shared (hacker) culture and I explained why, so this isn't just questioning the flagging, it also offers a on topic thought. And given the current times (not only in the US) this is a relevant topic for every citizen that wants to keep their society non-authoritarian and merit based. There is a cost to having heated discussions on HN — but there is also a cost to not having them in some cases. I argue that this is one of those. Rules are important and make this place what it is, but it is more important to act in the spirit of the rules than by the letter.
- lippihom 2y agoThis was nice to read through - not sure why it's flagged. Doesn't seem to qualify as rage bait like other stuff dang has pointed at recently.
- ivxvm 2y ago3-7 and 9-12 is everyday life in Ukraine.
- jfengel 2y agoDon’t let them divide you – remember you’re one People, one Nation, with one common good. No, we aren't. We had a war about that. In the wake of that war, we tried really hard to pretend otherwise. We made a "Pledge of Allegiance", which reminded us that we are "one nation indivisible". And that lasted for a few decades. Then they literally divided that: "one nation, under God, indivisible". It deliberately excluded a lot of Americans who disagree about God, and obscured the meaning of the phrase. The authoritarians are not an outside force, or a small minority. They are a huge fraction of the country who considers the rest of us Not Real Americans. We can't not be divided from them -- unless, perhaps, by joining them as authoritarians ourselves. If they'd even have us.