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Yeah, "no one wants to outright explain what happened" is called "chilling effects" and is one of the explicit goals of an authoritarian regime like the one we
by sanderjd 2y ago
Yeah, "no one wants to outright explain what happened" is called "chilling effects" and is one of the explicit goals of an authoritarian regime like the one we have in the US now.
Nobody wants to get fired and get death threats just for speaking plainly, so most people don't. Every once in awhile someone will decide it's worth the cost, but most people most of the time will decide it isn't.
- winrid 2y agoBiden signed 162 executive orders. Is Trump somehow different here?
- justsid 2y agoWithout any value judgement on the actual orders, Trump signed 89 since taking office this year. Biden signed 77 in his first year in office. There certainly seems to be a difference unless this is comin to a stop relatively quickly.
- sanderjd 2y agoYes.
- campl3r 2y agoIs this just rage bait or a serious question? If it's the latter please explain how you see these two the same. The numbers don't match.
- winrid 2y agoExecutive orders in general are pretty authoritarian IMO.
- philwelch 2y agoYes, because it’s actually him signing the executive order and not the autopen.
- nailer 2y ago> authoritarian regime There was an election. Someone won. Someone lost. HN is not a place for baseless conspiracy theories. You’ve been here long enough to know better.
- sanderjd 2y ago"Authoritarian" is a philosophy of how to govern. It is orthogonal to whether the government was fairly elected. (It's true that many authoritarian regimes seek to eliminate or corrupt elections, but being fairly elected is compatible with being authoritarian.)
- nailer 2y ago[flagged]
- scryers_bloom 2y agoI'm not sure if he's arguing that they were not fairly elected.
- sanderjd 2y agoI'm definitely not! That was a weird leap by your parent commenter that has nothing to do with what I said.
- 1shooner 2y agoThis is an interesting misconception, I had never considered one would think authoritarians can't be fairly elected. Is the thinking that the electorate would just never elect an authoritarian?
- nailer 2y agoThe term was 'authoritarian regime', which is generally used for autocratic leaders. Although 'authoritarian' is also false - political freedoms for the general population are exactly where they were prior to the election, as I'm sure you are aware.
- MiiMe19 2y ago>authoritarian is when the government does thing I don't like
- AcerbicZero 2y agoLook as long as they keep being this salty about authoritarianism when a guy with a different letter next to his name shows up and does it, I'm fine with it. My concern is that many won't.
- sanderjd 2y agoFunny how all the replies to me are pure defensiveness about the word "authoritarian", rather than the point of my post (the chilling effects on speech).
- johndhi 2y agoPart of the irony here is that Elon Musk himself seems to be "speaking plainly" and receiving death threats for doing so. But I assume you'd prefer he didn't speak plainly...?
- wcfields 2y agoI mean, if someone is saying plainly "I'm going to ruin your life and critically endanger your health." then one should expect some pushback.
- johndhi 2y ago"Pushback" being death threats, yes? In what ways is Elon ruining lives and critically endangering health?
- sanderjd 2y agoOh this is an easy one! Ruining lives by firing lots of people while destroying the economy, and endangering health by doing things like eliminating Ebola prevention funding and totally screwing up the NIH health research structure.
- sanderjd 2y agoFunny how the richest person in the world feels less of a chilling effect than career staff at federal agencies! What makes you think I'd prefer that he not speak plainly? I'd certainly prefer that he: 1. Not break a bunch of laws while running the government (while having a totally unclear official role?). 2. Not use his control of twitter's algorithm to push his own political priorities. 3. Not use his wealth and bully pulpit to intimidate people (like judges) who don't just bow to whatever he wants. But beyond that, I have absolutely no issue with him speaking plainly. And I think death threats are bad, always.
- johndhi 2y agoThanks for clarifying. I totally understand that you would feel that way and have those preferences.