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Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
@ruthbenghiat
Jun 1 • 4 tweets • 1 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
All In the Family. This is classic authoritarian corruption. From my #Strongmen, 2020: "Strongmen are family men, in their own fashion. The leader’s children may run the official family business, as with Berlusconi and Trump..." 1/
"...or the unofficial family business of drug and arms smuggling or money laundering, as with Gaddafi’s offspring, and Mobutu’s son Kongulu. Sons-in-law have a prominent role in strongman governance. Mussolini made his son-in-law Ciano Foreign Minister..." 2/
"...and then had him executed for voting in 1943 to remove him from power. Orbán’s son-in-law István Tiborcz amassed a net worth of over 100 million euros, but the Hungarian government dropped corruption probes initiated by the European Union against him." 3/
"Jared Kushner pursues private Kushner & Trump family financial interests along with his government assignments." 4/x

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More from @ruthbenghiat

Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Feb 16
Erdogan=another case study of how #Strongmen respond to crises. The priority is always self-preservation. "To deflect attention from his cronyism and incompetence, Erdogan has engaged in favorite autocratic activities: censoring people and locking them up. #TurkeyQuake 1/
The government's Twitter ban in the days following the quake, intended to silence criticism of his regime, made it more difficult for the public to find their loved ones and get advice from disaster management professionals. #turkeyearthquake2023 2/
It is important to crack down on contractors whose shoddy methods cost lives. 100 contractors have been detained across 10 provinces, and the Justice Ministry has established "earthquake crimes investigation units." 3/
Read 5 tweets
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Nov 11, 2022
My latest Lucid essay: Instead of a Red Wave, Historic Firsts. I don't shy away from blunt language in warning Americans what can happen when freedoms are lost. And yet one of my mantras is: Never Underestimate the American People. Another is: Never Give Up Hope. 1/
As I wrote in a May Lucid essay, "Hope is an essential part of anti-authoritarian strategy. It is the antidote to a deadly fatalism." 2/
lucid.substack.com/p/hope-the-sec…
In this spirit, I want to point out the numerous historic firsts produced by these midterms. Each progressive victory rebukes the rising hate politics that is said to define America. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Oct 5, 2022
I'm writing a series of essays for Lucid on myths & falsehoods about Fascism. This one is about far-right attempts to remove associations with Jewish genocide and salvage the rest of the Fascist legacy. 1/ lucid.substack.com/p/to-make-fasc…
Sign up for Lucid: lucid.substack.com/subscribe?
The whitewashing takes many forms, from the Big Lie of Holocaust denial to "memory laws" passed by countries like Poland with far-right governments that need to dissociate themselves from collaboration with genocide. 2/
In Italy, where 1938 anti-Semitic laws culminated in deportation of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps during WW2, neo-Fascists & their allies seek to distance themselves from Il Duce's anti-Semitic policies to rehabilitate *the rest of his Fascist agenda and legacy.* 3/
Read 8 tweets
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Aug 10, 2022
My latest Lucid essay is on Trump's Hitler fantasies and how Gen. Milley and other U.S. commanders who refused to collaborate with his coup were well aware of the devastation that comes to militaries that serve autocrats. 1/ lucid.substack.com/p/trumps-hitle…
Armed forces that serve autocrats often end up demoralized, forced to deeply compromise or abandon their codes of ethics and conduct. An estimated 10-20% of German generals and admirals killed themselves in 1945 (Hitler's suicide was his last middle finger salute to them) 2/
Trump, who has aspirations to be an old-school dictator, told Gen. Kelly that US generals should be as loyal as Hitler's generals, and would not believe Kelly that some had tried to kill Hitler when the war went badly. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Dec 24, 2021
Want to have the most urgent issues regarding democracy protection on your radar months before they feature in the media? Subscribe to Lucid! Subscribing's free (but paying is much appreciated). lucid.substack.com/about?utm_sour…
A 🧵 with 4 examples... 1/
When Exiles Become Targets. Lucid May 2021 & NYT Aug 2021. 2/
Pence in Hungary & CPAC in Budapest 2022. Lucid Sept 28 & NYT Oct 4 3/
Read 5 tweets
Ruth Ben-Ghiat Profile picture
Jul 21, 2021
I'm thinking about cults this week at Lucid, my newsletter about threats to democracy. A 🧵
Cults propagate alternate knowledge bases and flourish when media and political systems are in flux. Weimar Germany and 2016 America both had dynamic media and advertising landscapes. 1/
Authoritarians with such cults often modernize political messaging, using state of the art comms technologies (newsreels, television, Twitter) to cultivate followers who seek new forms of connection as well as new models of leadership. 2/
Language and performance are key to the creation of cult-worlds that immerse adherents in a special community. To convert individuals into believers and restructure their identity, the cult leader love-bombs followers, making them feel they are personally valued and heard. 3/
Read 6 tweets

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