Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Summary of the more obvious similarities between Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, Donald Trump, & Viktor Orbán, who have all:

Revealed their contempt for democratic institutions & playing by the rules

Shamelessly used divisive populist nationalist rhetoric

Shown sociopathic tendencies through lying & gaslighting: they don’t care if voters know they are contradicting evidence, & it doesn’t bother them when voters know they are lying - they will just lie again, & voters might even believe them because they say it with such conviction

Demonised judges & lawyers, & weakened the judiciary’s capacity to hold them & their governments to account

Taken measures to marginalise or silence critical news media, & instilled supporters to media regulatory & oversight bodies

Ignored long-established Codes of Conduct

Disregarded decisions of bodies which regulate conduct in public office

Allowed Govt politicians to engage in paid advocacy

Overseen an increase in domestic far-right/nationalist terrorism

Engaged in divisive culture war rhetoric

Failed to prioritise or address tax avoidance & evasion

Removed worker, consumer, & environmental protections

Removed basic human rights

Scapegoated & demonised certain minorities, migrants, & the Left

Used 'law & order' rhetoric while their Govts & Ministers act unlawfully

Handled #COVID19 catastrophically

Exaggerated incidences of voter fraud

Weakening or removed independent oversight of elections

Favoured & given privileged access to supportive & highly partisan news media

Allowed Govt Ministers to spread disinformation without consequence

Secured support from a global network of well funded free-market think tanks which aim to lower taxes for the rich, continue the use of fossil fuels, & remove regulations which help keep people & nature healthy & safe from exploitation

Allowed use of tax havens & shell companies

Embraced neoliberal policies eg reducing public services, increasing outsourcing, privatisation & precarious employment, & deregulating the financial sector

Taken increasingly antidemocratic & authoritarian measures, such as limiting protest & increasing sentences for protesters

Advocated free speech while limiting journalistic & academic freedom, & interfering in school curricula

Engaged in state capture, where narrow interest groups take control of the institutions & processes that make public policy, buying influence to both disregard & rewrite rules

Demonstrated #neofascist tendencies.

Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, who lived in Mussolini’s Italy, added to Aristotle’s three forms of government: democracy, oligarchy & tyranny, suggesting a fourth - #onagrocrazia, which literally translated means ‘government by asses’.