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The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling (www.thebulwark.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by admin@lemmy.haley.io to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago

These guys can hear the music. They’ve seen the sides being chosen: Elon Musk and Peter Theil assembling with Trump’s gangster government in waiting. They see Mark Zuckerberg praising Trump as a “badass.” And now they see Bezos getting in line, too.

What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t have to arrest Bezos to secure his compliance. Trump didn’t even have to win the election. Just the fact that he has an even-money chance to become president was threat enough.

Or maybe that’s not remarkable. One of Timothy Snyder’s rules for resisting authoritarians is that “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” People surrender preemptively much more often than you might expect.

Two weeks ago, Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter wrote what might be the most prophetic essay of the year. They warned about “anticipatory obedience” in the media.

Seventeen days later, Bezos made his demonstration.

To think most of this power is largely based on everyone not deleting an app.

this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024

239 points (98.0% liked)

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