How To Spot Authoritarianism — and Choose Democracy | Ian Bassin | TED

If you hear this, think it sounds good...but rings hollow because nothing changes? Please read Lenin.

I understand these struggle sessions are just big tent revivals for stnism, but you projecting onto your enemies over and over as you always do has to wear on you eventually.

Amen!

I love authoritarianism. LMAO. Cry about it.

I think a miscalculation on the part of the speaker is not considering that because of how far to the right in objective terms America's political Overton Window has shifted since 1970 relative to the rest of the world, the subjectively "American Center Right" were already basically far right extremists relative to the rest of the world or any sort of objective scale. So it wasn't so much just right of center opportunists cynically trying to leash a proto-fascists movement for their own gain with the intent to still be in the driver seat and then predictably being the first to die when it became clear they couldn't. There were definitely that sort within the GOP, but so many of them were already far right, reactionary extremists in many ways that Trump and his movement weren't so much a rabid wild animal they thought they could tame; rather Trump and his movement were just the final culmination of so much of the GOP's work for the past 50 years. Trump is the apotheosis of the right wing propaganda and white Christian nationalist oligarchic capture of more and more of our government, the 'center right' cynical opportunists were already a fading light in a GOP increasingly filled with rabid true believers and opportunistic grifters, which is why the ultimately had no power to stop Trump once they let him in the house.

It worked in El Salvador (now safest country in the West) 😊

For example- RFK Jr wanted to run as a Democrat but the party would not let him. In fact, it wouldn't let ANYONE run against Joe Biden. So Joe ran un-opposed and garnered 14 MILLION votes and ALL the delegates. Then when the facts showed Joe wasn't even competent, mentally or physically, they couldn't hide the facade they had been playing since 2020. They put him up in front of the cameras to debate DJT for the world to see he could not run. In essence, they deposed a POTUS. Though EVERY media outlet, the candidate and his administration SWORE to the public they were fit to run and going to run to win on Friday, Sunday delivered the news. The ENTIRE primary process was thrown in the trash as well as 14 MILLION choices. ALL delegates went to Kamala and the treasury with it. NOW WHICH PARTY WHICH CONTROLS AND RUNS THE GOVERNMENT IS DEMOCRATIC? This isn't about America....hasn't been for quite sometime. What this is, is a DC totalitarian regime, ran by elites and the UniParty.

👏👏👏

Funny how only Trump is blamed here...

After watching this video, I remind myself of the last 4 years...

I take back my comments.

I cant believe this Ted talk is exposing the government under Joe Biden.

Thank You for this talk.

Римская империя сдохла и её совсем не жалко.

Democracy is the most ineffective way of running a government. And will always be brought to its knees by corruption, a bloated bureaucracy, and an ignorant/apathetic population.

All of this is about behing humble. Being willing to be humble enough to learn, is how a society thrives.

Sadly, arrogance, and conviction of sold and deep selfishness, is what we are faced with.

Your point is well made. Democracy is all about having choices. Authoritarianism is about not having them.

In Brazil, we had 14 years of that: the government infiltrating institutions and pitting people against people. When that government fell due to corruption scandals and an economic disaster, the country was so polarized, so divided, we couldn't have a decent, democratic approach to elections or democratic activism ever since. Right now, either people pick a side they believe is good while deeming the other as "evil" (while the other side does exactly the same), or try to actually think, understand and debate, while ending up being hated by both sides.

Polarization is, to me, the biggest threat to democracy. People attack people, citizens hate citizens, while governments do whatever they want.

As a Russian, I must confess all that happened with Russia since 24.02.2022 was unexpected for me. I couldn't imagine all these horrible things including destroying Ukraine, of course. My family decided to move abroad and we don't want to observe something like the Russian scenario somewhere else. So, I hope Americans will prevent a catastrophe

Putin won the election in 2000 and for a long time pretended that he was a democrat. So, "Trojan horse" matches here too

One more leftie,they are the dictators!!

" he invites us all to put aside our differences"....

Proceeds to show one side as the problem.

Thank you for this. Really illuminating. 🎉

L to the OG

The electoral college is ruining democracy

And now SCOTUS has pretty much given the President power to be a King of America. We are so screwed. We need to vote blue all the way down. The entire House of Representatives is up for election this year, 2024, we must save our republic and become a true democracy.

"What would happen if a leader chose not to follow the rules?"

If the SYSTEM, by design, does not prevent that, and it relies on the goodness of the ruler to uphold anything, then you don't have a system; your "system" is in the "person." That's like saying I have designed a secure system, and the security of my system relies in users not trying to steal, for if they still, they will break the security of my system.

"...the first thing to understand is how these modern authoritarian movements dismantle democracies"

Dismantle which democracies? First of all, don't confuse "authoritarian" with "autocratic." You are applying "authoritarian" in the wrong context, but we'll not digress into that. Secondly, there is no single democracy in the world. The U.S. is not a democracy, every educated person knows that (learn more on our page), and knows the use of the word "democracy" for America is nothing but propaganda (which the U.S. and its politicians are again, remarkably good at). Most of these "democracies" that have been "dismantled" are in truth autocratic systems (that they copied from the U.S. which told them it was a democracy) which allowed politicians to bully citizens; it literally subverts the needs and development potential of citizens, for parochial party interests (again, an anomaly of the system which founding fathers of the U.S. did not plan for, and most feared). For an already wealthy country, the effect of this is not so strong, but for a struggling economy, it gets to a tipping point. And when citizens lose faith in this system they have been told is a "democracy" that absolutely gives robs them of their opportunities in truth, they look to military leaders to save them from that rigged system; which they do, and subsequently hold on to power too, as their saviors. So they jump from one autocratic (republican system) to another (military or other).

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is the exception"

Again, American propaganda. The U.S. has a vague conception of democracy, an illusionary goodness, that means everything and nothing, that allows it to apply it to anything it supports, and gives it permission to fight it's wars. Russia's attack on Ukraine is labeled as "an attack on democracy" to stir support from its citizens because it draws them in as parties to it, while ignoring the real factors and causes. Whether Ukraine is a democracy or not is a question of its constitution. Don't confuse attacking a country with "attacking democracy;" see how the word is applied for propaganda. Ukraine is no democracy and neither is the U.S. or any other country. You don't know what a true democracy looks like, structurally.

It would take far too much time to correct every single error in that presentation but its chock full of it.

Biden administration is definitely guilty of all 7 steps.

what step is abusing the legal system to prosecute your only political competition?

He almost started to make sense untill he started using Trump as an example of authoritarianism..😂😂 Guess he hasnt heard about Joe Biden!

Thats why we brazilians chose to face authoritarianism by electing Lula again and we're still fighting to protect our rights from the remaining efects of the prevoius thyrany and its consequences here...

Great speech.

Every high school student needs to see this before November. American, Russian, Hungarian, Venezuelan or Chinese.

I was hoping for a bipartisan Ted talk about authoritarianism. Instead I got trump this trump that. There’s no side that’s better than the other.
Both modern day democrats and modern day republicans are cancerous. The way I see it, the nation dug itself into a massive hole you or I cannot get out of. It’s going to be a long time before we can get to bipartisan consensus. Making this video shows me that you want to be the team who wins in November. Sad

Eloquent and restorative. Donald Trump and the damage he has done are not going away without a fight and those who support his idea of America are legion, powerful and dangerous behind his media smokescreen and cowardly bullies when they are exposed. We must expose them.

Profound awakened slap. Thank you.

They also destroy places of learning eg india most educational institutions being run by right wing people

Amazing talk! 🎉

Authoritarianism is to listen to Sam and democracy is having to make a choice but only between biden or trump, no one else in the 300,000,000 americans.

Respect the nation's majority vote in 2024 please.

Excellent speech, very important; for anyone wanting a good book on this subject, Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen here", old book, but very relevant to today's American political landscape.

Interesting that all the main points and indicators are all about Biden and his authoritarianism. (most executive orders ever as a dictator. Jailing his opposition etc). Yet this guy turns it into Trump 😂. What a clown. Karl Marx said call your enemy what you really are in order to create confusion. That’s happened over and over - everything that Biden said about Trump was really about himself. Everything. And the lies about the laptop being Russian disinformation, factual proof of Biden being the racist - factual proof about Obama/ Biden being the ones to put the kids in cages. Biden is certainly using the authoritarian playbook of dismantling the system from within. He is pitting people against each other. They incited violence a few years ago with our cities burning.. Banning this and that incl gas stoves snd banning dissent through threat and intimidation. A simple fact - socialist and marxists throughout history have destroyed “democracies” / countries. All you have to do is see who is the socialist - andvwho is engaging in these activities and it’s clearly Joe Biden. The famous George Orwell quote is quite appropriate. Use your ears and eyes to see what’s going on and don’t get duped by thr propaganda.

Kendell roy omg

The power to choose is being taken away by locking people into an untrue reality and hijacking their vote. Fox "News" is a major player in achieving this, and they know it.

How to spot authoritarianism: Look at either main American political party

How to choose democracy: Vote Kennedy

Trump wants you to make him a dictator. Don't. Yes, our system is messed up, we have political theatre instead of gov by the people. A real gov by the people would have everyday people making decisions in something like a citizen's assembly. But that would not get the clicks trump and his chaotic insanity gets, and it wouldn't have the money of billionaires behind it. It would just be serious government, and not entertainment.

Mexico is one step away from completing the playbook after our latest elections.

We can do direct democracy today, with AI to manage, internet to connect, Reddit could be individualized caucuses for various groups of citizens where we debate the issues on the merits. I feels, though we the people may form the government as said in the constitution, but it certainly feels like the government is this bureaucratic business thing that operates with a political class. What if the ideas directly came from the people. So many times these days you have the candidates being like here’s what I think, but the job is public service… why do they not solely answer to the people and Inact their will…


Like I think most people have smart phones today and a lot of people know about VPN…. Could we not just vote on proposals from our phone? Like a push notification that requires a VPn connection

AI로 국정원 하나회 친일쿠테타사이비 다 청산할수 있는 시대입니다 국외 도피한 ‘계엄 문건’ 조현천, 월 450만원 연금 받는다계엄문건 공개 직후 가족과 연락 끊어
합수단 “상당한 실력의 법률전문가 조언 받는듯”
12·12 가담 헌병감 캐나다로 도주 23년간이나 은신 전례