Authoritarianism
I watched the corporate media this week, spinning their propaganda as news. Keep in mind that the individuals giving you the report and calling it news, are not journalists. They are political analysts and wannabe actors and what they’re
calling news is in reality nothing more than their opinion, followed by a bad acting job.
That being said, their main subject on all of the channels this week was about how the world’s authoritarianism had grown since the 2019 pandemic had started, and as they gave their reports they acted very concerned with the issue. I could only sit and watch in disgust while they tried to shift the blame for the increase in authoritarianism upon the world’s leaders and elected official’s. These bad actors have used constant propaganda, misinformation, and outright lies that drive the fear factor and ratings up, while at the same time bullying the governing authorities into action and using public shaming to force the population into compliance.
Democracy Now event had creepy sleepy Joe Biden giving a speech about how democratic countries and the people of the world need to push back on authoritarianism. He then spoke about how the world is moving closer and closer to communism, Marxism and socialist dictatorships and how if we didn’t turn it around now, that we were going to have a major uphill fight to restore democracy around the world. After watching his speech I came to the conclusion that, “Creepy Sleepy Joe Biden, Mr. Authoritarian himself,” needs to put the crack pipe down and step away. I don’t know what Joe is smoking in that pipe, but its quite obvious he doesn’t understand that mask and vaccine mandates, along with bureaucratic infringement requiring termination of our employment and infringement upon our livelihood for failure to comply, along with the destruction of the economy by the governing authority are defined as authoritarianism.
The following Information was obtained from the world wide web describing authoritarian governments and explaining how they work;
Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic in nature and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military.
Authoritarian states might contain nominally democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures and elections which are managed to entrench authoritarian rule and can feature fraudulent, non-competitive elections.
Authoritarianism is characterized by highly concentrated and centralized government power maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential challengers. It uses political parties and mass organizations to mobilize people around the goals of the regime.
It has been theorized that “authoritarian equilibrium rests mainly on lies, fear and economic prosperity.”
Authoritarianism also tends to embrace the informal and unregulated exercise of political power, a leadership that is “self-appointed and even if elected cannot be displaced by citizens’ free choice among competitors”, the arbitrary deprivation of civil liberties and little tolerance for meaningful opposition.
Within authoritarian systems, there may be nominally democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures and elections, but they are managed in a way so as to entrench authoritarian regimes. Within democracies, parties serve to coordinate the pursuit of interests for like-minded citizens, whereas in authoritarian systems, they are a way for authoritarian leaders to find capable elites for the regime. In a democracy, a legislature is intended to represent the diversity of interests among citizens, whereas authoritarians use legislatures to signal their own restraint towards other elites as well as to monitor other elites who pose a challenge to the regime.
Fraudulent elections may serve the role of signaling the strength of the regime (to deter elites from challenging the regime) and forcing other elites to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. By contrast, in democracies, free and fair elections are used to select representatives who represent the will of the citizens. Elections may also motivate authoritarian party members to strengthen patron–client and information-gathering networks, which strengthens the authoritarian regime. Elections may also motivate members of the ruling class to provide public goods.
According to a 2018 study, most party-led dictatorships regularly hold popular elections. Prior to the 1990s, most of these elections had no alternative parties or candidates for voters to choose. Since the end of the Cold War, about two-thirds of elections in authoritarian systems allow for some opposition, but the elections are structured in a way to heavily favor the incumbent authoritarian regime.
Hindrances to free and fair elections in authoritarian systems may include:
* Control of the media by the authoritarian incumbents.
* Interference with opposition campaigning.
* Electoral fraud.
* Violence against opposition.
* Large-scale spending by the state in favor of the incumbents.
* Permitting some parties, but not others.
* Prohibitions on opposition parties, but not independent candidates.
* Allowing competition between candidates within the incumbent party, but not those who are not in the incumbent party.
The foundations of stable authoritarian rule are that the authoritarian prevents contestation from the masses and other elites. The authoritarian regime may use co-optation or repression (or carrots and sticks) to prevent revolts. Authoritarian rule entails a balancing act whereby the ruler has to maintain the support of other elites (frequently through the distribution of state and societal resources) and the support of the public (through distribution of the same resources): the authoritarian rule is at risk if the balancing act is lopsided, as it risks a coup by the elites or an uprising by the mass public.
According to a 2019 study by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman, authoritarian regimes have over time become less reliant on violence and mass repression to maintain control. The study shows instead that authoritarians have increasingly resorted to manipulation of information as a means of control. Authoritarians increasingly seek to create an appearance of good performance, conceal state repression, and imitate democracy.
The utilization of power for personal aggrandizement is more evident among authoritarians.
Lacking the binding appeal of ideology, authoritarians support their rule by a mixture of instilling fear and granting rewards to loyal collaborators,
“the authoritarian state still maintains a certain distinction between state and society.” It is only concerned with political power and as long as that is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty.
As you can see our country has been moving the wrong way for some time and its time to turn this boat around and head back to the land of liberty, Justice, and freedom for all.
JDK