i find myself wondering how so many "leaders" have ended up so power hungry. Trump clearly doesn't have the energy to be president, let alone the pope. It's becoming clearer every day that trump ran for president to stay out of jail.
I don't think the courts could have intervened until there was a successful defamation suit regarding false allegations of election fraud. Otherwise I don't see what legal basis there is for a court to order media to say one thing or another. Maybe there should be such a rule but would it run afoul of the First Amendment?
Shouldn't the public expect a certain temperament from a person who proposes to lead? Some amount of modesty and decency? Jerks vite for jerks, in my view, and in some countries, there seem to be too many jerks.
Amen!! I agree that the public should expect a certain temperament from their leaders. It's interesting to me, where I'm reading in The Book of Joy (Archbishop Tutu & the Dalai Lama), where one of them said that if W. hadn't hit back after 9/11 we would be living in a very different world. I definitely agree about too many jerks.
It would be great if more people were allergic to the authoritarian playbook. Disappearances are something nobody should approve. We already have an extensive system of courts and prisons. On the question of what would have happened without a counter-resoonse to 9/11, did they speculate? I must admit that I think Americans would have mainly been furious at a lack of response and in the streets, even violently.
I agree with you about wanting more people to be allergic to the authoritarian playbook. I think what they would have liked to see was something that was not retaliatory, based on everything they've been saying. I don't know exactly what that would have been. I agree that Americans would have been furious at a lack of response, but I don't think that most of us know how to think of a reaction outside of retaliation. I'm thinking right now that going after the masterminds, like Osama bin Laden, is a better solution than war. But all of this is way outside my area of expertise. I'm trying to learn from this book.
HI Raf, Timothy Snyder has said, "“Democracy means the people ruling, and there is only one historical force which is on the side of the people ruling. And that is people who want to rule.” But the question is, Do we rule ourselves INDIVIDUALLY (mind, body, and emotion)), or do we hire someone (dictator) to do it for us? What is the real meaning of "treason"?
In all that’s happened, the lack of “truth” in the media and in society as a whole has crippled humankind more than anything else. “Alternate facts” along with “fake news”, combined with ‘deep fake’ technology makes it harder to determine what is indeed, “real”. I so miss the days of Walter Cronkite, - when “that’s the way it is” meant just that. The courts should have FORCED Fox News to announce the actual truth about the 2020 election INCESSANTLY on their networks, in ADDITION TO the 3/4 billion dollar settlement that FOX had to pay the Dominion ‘voting machine company’. (BTW, what’s happening with all of those other lawsuits against Fox and The “My Pillow Guy”?). Thank God for 60 Minutes, George Stephanopoulous, MSNBC, and the other media outlets and magazines who continue to seek truth and objectivity in ALL of their reporting. The media, law-firms, and the courts must continue to hold fast to “Truth”, morals, and the rule-of-law or else we’re finished. We’re IN the middle of a most crucial time, and TRUTH must prevail or so much more will be lost.
I couldn’t agree more. Although I’m extremely disappointed in the recent fate of 60 Minutes. Dear Walter, please shine a light on us - we miss you terribly.
Being lied to is more than a betrayal to our being. It’s suffocating. Truth can be hidden, but not eliminated. It will always be there, as we hope America will be.
When did this slope get too slippery? Historical knowledge is invaluable, as your wisdom is for such deviant times. Thank you Ruth.
Hey Gordon, thanks for your thoughts. I like this, from Hannah Arendt, on totalism: "This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
gordon. American media was unleashed under Regan with the removal of the fairness doctrine. this is just part of a decades long plan by the Republicans to change the US into an autocratic state with policies favorable to the rentier class. media, banking, political processes, gerrymandering, legitimating greed and a mannerless society, etc. you can name them. remember it has taken 40+ years to get here and much that is destructive is now seen by the public as normal and legit. so change will be long and difficult.
I understand all the points RBG has made about authoritarian techniques and of course I am most upset about leaders who don't consider themselves public servants. I still think military leaders should have carefully and exceptionally weighed in on the apparent soundness of the election results in late 2020, given the immense risk of conspiracy theories. Saying one thinks the results seem okay is not the same as actually supporting one side or another, and that could have been specified. The military was one of the few institutions in the country with bipartisan support. Now instead there are apparently school curricula in some red states that incorporate the Big Lie. The train wreck seemed self evident to me in 2020 given all the warning signs.
Gosh, Professor, you explain authoritarians so well and make it so clear that we can see trump in what you describe. He is acting out the standard authoritarian playbook. I am in the process of reading Strongmen, which is so good and explains so much. You are able to make this lunacy make sense. Thank you.
There must be more people pulling the strings for Trump behind the scenes than we know of. He seems so "out of it" when you see him staring into space. His word salads are getting worse and he repeats himself often. Something what scares me is that we may not know exactly who is writing up these EO's. I believe that is why, before he signs one, he asks what it is he is signing. He seems to be going along with, I guess, Voigt and Miller, and as long as he can play golf on the weekends and doesn't have to go to jail, he is OK with whatever they do. Of course, he wants all of the grift he is getting. All he is looking for now is fealty and that feeling of power. Maybe that orange die has gotten into his brain. Thank you, Ruth.
Thanks for this perspective, especially the comment concerning “insult suits”. I’ve heard some rumors concerning Trump and his thin skin might go after folks who disagree with his policy. I am sure AG Bondi and FBI Kash would love to go after their critics as well as Donald’s.
Trump’s corruption is wide open. He readily accepts $ in bitcoin form. He sells influence, decisions, and citizenship, openly defies courts, etc. All with support of elected government officials.
It's still limited to his ability to issue bizarre and unconstitutional executive orders, which Congress could overrule through legislation, but of course they won't. And of course, any bill MAGA wants, Congress will pass for the Dear Leader.
Something very interesting. Iowa (presently controlled by one of the most conservative state governments in the country) just passed ANTI-SLAPP legislation. Could that have been a signal of things to come? And to have this bill pushed to completion in Iowa of all places, there's more going on under the surface.
Trump is talking about attaching tariffs to foreign made films. It sounds ridiculous and impossible to actually do, but the first thing I thought of was that he wants to do it as a way to control "outside" cultural influences and which countries will be approved for their films to be shown to American audiences.
Trump, as we know, uses lawsuits as weapons, and now he's using them to attempt to silence news outlets who don't cover him in a flattering way or who broadcast interviews of people who oppose him. He is also trying to destroy universities that don't adhere to his policies by cutting their funding and rescinding their tax exemptions. He is in this sense unique among authoritarians. Money is the commodity he uses as a carrot, or a stick. He has done so all his life.
This is a very insightful and helpful explanation of the modus operandi of autocratic compulsion of obeisance through a symbiosis of mind and bodily control, or repression of dissident thought and action. What might round out the analytical framework would be a deeper probe of the mental pathology that animates fascist leaders and their cult martinets and followers.
As you likely know, forensic and social psychiatrist and violence expert Dr. Bandy X. Lee has spent the last 10 years, along with her eminent psychiatric colleagues, assessing and warning the public of the danger of a severely mentally unfit and highly dangerous person such as Trump in control of unparalleled power in the presidency.
As Trump's shockingly precipitous cognitive decline and mental pathology becomes more publicly visible by the day, the sane and rational democracy-protective oppositions needs more than ever a fusion of your -- along with Timothy Snyder's and Jason Stanley's -- acumen on fascism and its leaders with a clear and cogent presentation to the public of the mentally pathological personality type that Trump represents, before it is too late.
Fascist leaders have tended to be sociopathic (ASPD), Machiavellian, sadistic and have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). This combination is known as the Dark Tetrad. They tend to be covetous, wanting what is not theirs. They have no conscience and have their own version of reality and truth.
Followers of Dark Tetrad/fascist leaders tend to have some or all of the four dark traits. Sadism is commonly seen in the red hat crowd and in tRump.
Sociopaths like tRump are societal parasites, never adding to society, only extracting from it. His followers see nothing wrong with this due to their motivated reasoning of having voted for him.
As I watched the “meet the nation” interview with Trump I realized all of Trump appearances on media are simply new versions of “the apprentice” unless and until a phrase is flashed on the screen every few seconds: “this is not true.“
A Swedish journalist is currently detained in Turkey for his coverage of dissent in Turkey. This week he was convicted of insulting Erdogan as the sentence was deferred. But he stays detained in more serious terror-related charges. Erdogan also crossed swords with Sweden v-a-v its NATO membership process, resulting in concessions by the Swedish government to extradite Turkish Kurds opposed to the Erdogan handling of the question. See https://www.institutkurde.org/en/info/latest/eu-parliament-urges-turkey-to-release-swedish-journalist-13684/ (only English updated site I could locate).
I'd like to suggest reading Alexander Reid Ross' book from 2017 entitled, 'Against the Fascist Creep'. It's quite extensive in its history and corollaries. Here is an excellent talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvetJxHWs8U) given a while back but very much poignant in relative, if not direct, understanding of our excruciating moment! Perhaps we can persuade Ruth to have him on as a guest???
Autocrats project that they see things others don't, that they know things others don't. It makes it easier to dismiss that others don't see things or know things. It makes it easier because the autocrats believe it and are great at getting people to believe they are right. I think for many the belief of superior knowledge and vision alongside great presence makes people believe that the autocrat knows more and can fix (whatever) the problem (s). Emphasis on (s). As the autocrat proves their "superior vision" by identifying multiple problems (and amplifying them to use anger to create connection through anger and contempt) which builds coalitions. It makes sense to then discredit the people who might burst the bubble around the autocrats' self-perceived superiority and vision. They are great playing and using fear and demonstrating they are right. At some point when I win the lottery, I'd love to take the autocrats, starting with Ruth's book, Strongmen, and figure out their enneagram type. My guess is that autocrats are almost always in three of the nine types, and even then more likely in one type.
There is information about the personality types seen in autocrats and it is not a pretty picture. Franco of Spain is thought to have been a psychopath. Stalin was known as a paranoid sociopath. Mussolini was a sociopath. Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was a sociopath. Ceausescu of Romania was a psychopath. There are many others I could have included but you get the idea. Sociopathy and psychopathy are not clinically used terms but they both fit into the modern classification of ASPD, antisocial personality disorder seen in DSM-5. These are deeply disturbed and dangerous people. tRump of course has ASPD, NPD, sadism and Machiavellianism.
True, but given that any enneagram type can be a sociopath or psycopath, I'm intrigued by how each autocrat's type influenced how they viewed the world and then manipulated it. Mussolini is labeled as an 8, Hitler a 6. But I'd be intrigued to take modern day autocrats and learn more.
i find myself wondering how so many "leaders" have ended up so power hungry. Trump clearly doesn't have the energy to be president, let alone the pope. It's becoming clearer every day that trump ran for president to stay out of jail.
I don't think the courts could have intervened until there was a successful defamation suit regarding false allegations of election fraud. Otherwise I don't see what legal basis there is for a court to order media to say one thing or another. Maybe there should be such a rule but would it run afoul of the First Amendment?
Shouldn't the public expect a certain temperament from a person who proposes to lead? Some amount of modesty and decency? Jerks vite for jerks, in my view, and in some countries, there seem to be too many jerks.
Amen!! I agree that the public should expect a certain temperament from their leaders. It's interesting to me, where I'm reading in The Book of Joy (Archbishop Tutu & the Dalai Lama), where one of them said that if W. hadn't hit back after 9/11 we would be living in a very different world. I definitely agree about too many jerks.
It would be great if more people were allergic to the authoritarian playbook. Disappearances are something nobody should approve. We already have an extensive system of courts and prisons. On the question of what would have happened without a counter-resoonse to 9/11, did they speculate? I must admit that I think Americans would have mainly been furious at a lack of response and in the streets, even violently.
I agree with you about wanting more people to be allergic to the authoritarian playbook. I think what they would have liked to see was something that was not retaliatory, based on everything they've been saying. I don't know exactly what that would have been. I agree that Americans would have been furious at a lack of response, but I don't think that most of us know how to think of a reaction outside of retaliation. I'm thinking right now that going after the masterminds, like Osama bin Laden, is a better solution than war. But all of this is way outside my area of expertise. I'm trying to learn from this book.
HI Raf, Timothy Snyder has said, "“Democracy means the people ruling, and there is only one historical force which is on the side of the people ruling. And that is people who want to rule.” But the question is, Do we rule ourselves INDIVIDUALLY (mind, body, and emotion)), or do we hire someone (dictator) to do it for us? What is the real meaning of "treason"?
In all that’s happened, the lack of “truth” in the media and in society as a whole has crippled humankind more than anything else. “Alternate facts” along with “fake news”, combined with ‘deep fake’ technology makes it harder to determine what is indeed, “real”. I so miss the days of Walter Cronkite, - when “that’s the way it is” meant just that. The courts should have FORCED Fox News to announce the actual truth about the 2020 election INCESSANTLY on their networks, in ADDITION TO the 3/4 billion dollar settlement that FOX had to pay the Dominion ‘voting machine company’. (BTW, what’s happening with all of those other lawsuits against Fox and The “My Pillow Guy”?). Thank God for 60 Minutes, George Stephanopoulous, MSNBC, and the other media outlets and magazines who continue to seek truth and objectivity in ALL of their reporting. The media, law-firms, and the courts must continue to hold fast to “Truth”, morals, and the rule-of-law or else we’re finished. We’re IN the middle of a most crucial time, and TRUTH must prevail or so much more will be lost.
I couldn’t agree more. Although I’m extremely disappointed in the recent fate of 60 Minutes. Dear Walter, please shine a light on us - we miss you terribly.
Being lied to is more than a betrayal to our being. It’s suffocating. Truth can be hidden, but not eliminated. It will always be there, as we hope America will be.
When did this slope get too slippery? Historical knowledge is invaluable, as your wisdom is for such deviant times. Thank you Ruth.
From Winston Churchill: ‘Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.’
I always appreciate Winston Churchill’s quotes. Thanks.
Hey Gordon, thanks for your thoughts. I like this, from Hannah Arendt, on totalism: "This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
gordon. American media was unleashed under Regan with the removal of the fairness doctrine. this is just part of a decades long plan by the Republicans to change the US into an autocratic state with policies favorable to the rentier class. media, banking, political processes, gerrymandering, legitimating greed and a mannerless society, etc. you can name them. remember it has taken 40+ years to get here and much that is destructive is now seen by the public as normal and legit. so change will be long and difficult.
I understand all the points RBG has made about authoritarian techniques and of course I am most upset about leaders who don't consider themselves public servants. I still think military leaders should have carefully and exceptionally weighed in on the apparent soundness of the election results in late 2020, given the immense risk of conspiracy theories. Saying one thinks the results seem okay is not the same as actually supporting one side or another, and that could have been specified. The military was one of the few institutions in the country with bipartisan support. Now instead there are apparently school curricula in some red states that incorporate the Big Lie. The train wreck seemed self evident to me in 2020 given all the warning signs.
Gosh, Professor, you explain authoritarians so well and make it so clear that we can see trump in what you describe. He is acting out the standard authoritarian playbook. I am in the process of reading Strongmen, which is so good and explains so much. You are able to make this lunacy make sense. Thank you.
There must be more people pulling the strings for Trump behind the scenes than we know of. He seems so "out of it" when you see him staring into space. His word salads are getting worse and he repeats himself often. Something what scares me is that we may not know exactly who is writing up these EO's. I believe that is why, before he signs one, he asks what it is he is signing. He seems to be going along with, I guess, Voigt and Miller, and as long as he can play golf on the weekends and doesn't have to go to jail, he is OK with whatever they do. Of course, he wants all of the grift he is getting. All he is looking for now is fealty and that feeling of power. Maybe that orange die has gotten into his brain. Thank you, Ruth.
Thanks for this perspective, especially the comment concerning “insult suits”. I’ve heard some rumors concerning Trump and his thin skin might go after folks who disagree with his policy. I am sure AG Bondi and FBI Kash would love to go after their critics as well as Donald’s.
Trump’s corruption is wide open. He readily accepts $ in bitcoin form. He sells influence, decisions, and citizenship, openly defies courts, etc. All with support of elected government officials.
It is because the Supreme Court made him into a king.
Yeah, as soon as the SCOTUS gave him ultimate power, we moved from anocracy to authoritarianism.
It's still limited to his ability to issue bizarre and unconstitutional executive orders, which Congress could overrule through legislation, but of course they won't. And of course, any bill MAGA wants, Congress will pass for the Dear Leader.
Something very interesting. Iowa (presently controlled by one of the most conservative state governments in the country) just passed ANTI-SLAPP legislation. Could that have been a signal of things to come? And to have this bill pushed to completion in Iowa of all places, there's more going on under the surface.
Trump is talking about attaching tariffs to foreign made films. It sounds ridiculous and impossible to actually do, but the first thing I thought of was that he wants to do it as a way to control "outside" cultural influences and which countries will be approved for their films to be shown to American audiences.
Trump, as we know, uses lawsuits as weapons, and now he's using them to attempt to silence news outlets who don't cover him in a flattering way or who broadcast interviews of people who oppose him. He is also trying to destroy universities that don't adhere to his policies by cutting their funding and rescinding their tax exemptions. He is in this sense unique among authoritarians. Money is the commodity he uses as a carrot, or a stick. He has done so all his life.
I almost hate to know, but what is SLAPP? Or ANTI-SLAPP? 🦟
Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation
This is a very insightful and helpful explanation of the modus operandi of autocratic compulsion of obeisance through a symbiosis of mind and bodily control, or repression of dissident thought and action. What might round out the analytical framework would be a deeper probe of the mental pathology that animates fascist leaders and their cult martinets and followers.
As you likely know, forensic and social psychiatrist and violence expert Dr. Bandy X. Lee has spent the last 10 years, along with her eminent psychiatric colleagues, assessing and warning the public of the danger of a severely mentally unfit and highly dangerous person such as Trump in control of unparalleled power in the presidency.
As Trump's shockingly precipitous cognitive decline and mental pathology becomes more publicly visible by the day, the sane and rational democracy-protective oppositions needs more than ever a fusion of your -- along with Timothy Snyder's and Jason Stanley's -- acumen on fascism and its leaders with a clear and cogent presentation to the public of the mentally pathological personality type that Trump represents, before it is too late.
Fascist leaders have tended to be sociopathic (ASPD), Machiavellian, sadistic and have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). This combination is known as the Dark Tetrad. They tend to be covetous, wanting what is not theirs. They have no conscience and have their own version of reality and truth.
Followers of Dark Tetrad/fascist leaders tend to have some or all of the four dark traits. Sadism is commonly seen in the red hat crowd and in tRump.
Sociopaths like tRump are societal parasites, never adding to society, only extracting from it. His followers see nothing wrong with this due to their motivated reasoning of having voted for him.
As I watched the “meet the nation” interview with Trump I realized all of Trump appearances on media are simply new versions of “the apprentice” unless and until a phrase is flashed on the screen every few seconds: “this is not true.“
A Swedish journalist is currently detained in Turkey for his coverage of dissent in Turkey. This week he was convicted of insulting Erdogan as the sentence was deferred. But he stays detained in more serious terror-related charges. Erdogan also crossed swords with Sweden v-a-v its NATO membership process, resulting in concessions by the Swedish government to extradite Turkish Kurds opposed to the Erdogan handling of the question. See https://www.institutkurde.org/en/info/latest/eu-parliament-urges-turkey-to-release-swedish-journalist-13684/ (only English updated site I could locate).
I'd like to suggest reading Alexander Reid Ross' book from 2017 entitled, 'Against the Fascist Creep'. It's quite extensive in its history and corollaries. Here is an excellent talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvetJxHWs8U) given a while back but very much poignant in relative, if not direct, understanding of our excruciating moment! Perhaps we can persuade Ruth to have him on as a guest???
Autocrats project that they see things others don't, that they know things others don't. It makes it easier to dismiss that others don't see things or know things. It makes it easier because the autocrats believe it and are great at getting people to believe they are right. I think for many the belief of superior knowledge and vision alongside great presence makes people believe that the autocrat knows more and can fix (whatever) the problem (s). Emphasis on (s). As the autocrat proves their "superior vision" by identifying multiple problems (and amplifying them to use anger to create connection through anger and contempt) which builds coalitions. It makes sense to then discredit the people who might burst the bubble around the autocrats' self-perceived superiority and vision. They are great playing and using fear and demonstrating they are right. At some point when I win the lottery, I'd love to take the autocrats, starting with Ruth's book, Strongmen, and figure out their enneagram type. My guess is that autocrats are almost always in three of the nine types, and even then more likely in one type.
There is information about the personality types seen in autocrats and it is not a pretty picture. Franco of Spain is thought to have been a psychopath. Stalin was known as a paranoid sociopath. Mussolini was a sociopath. Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was a sociopath. Ceausescu of Romania was a psychopath. There are many others I could have included but you get the idea. Sociopathy and psychopathy are not clinically used terms but they both fit into the modern classification of ASPD, antisocial personality disorder seen in DSM-5. These are deeply disturbed and dangerous people. tRump of course has ASPD, NPD, sadism and Machiavellianism.
True, but given that any enneagram type can be a sociopath or psycopath, I'm intrigued by how each autocrat's type influenced how they viewed the world and then manipulated it. Mussolini is labeled as an 8, Hitler a 6. But I'd be intrigued to take modern day autocrats and learn more.
What do you see as our opportunity in this situation? How can we reclaim the narrative and dis-empower the wannabe dictator?