Thread by @jenmercieca

Fascism Watch 2024: Conditions are right for fascism, we have all the ingredients for fascism, but fascism is not pre-determined—we can still stop it. I wrote up a thing about the signs of an autocratic takeover. 🧵

1. Media intimidation and restrictions (autocrats intimidate the media, so that they won’t try to hold the autocrat accountable to the rule of law).

2. Identification of crises or political paralysis to justify emergency measures (autocrats take advantage of crisis/make up crises in order to seize the opportunity as a “state of exception” to use dictatorial powers. Sometimes they use “nothing's been done” as a similar excuse)

3. Attacks on minorities; scapegoating foreigners (autocrats try to activate Right-Wing Authoritarians with fear appeals about “impure” foreigners, using “disgust” words like “vermin” and treating people as “hate-objects” to create a climate of nationalistic “us” versus “them).

4. Closing spaces for civil society (autocrats seek to close off “third spaces” or spaces where people gather together and form bridging social capital. Bridging social capital builds trust among people and autocracy thrives on distrust).

5. Rhetorical rejection of current political system; discourse shift (autocrats denigrate American values like democracy and the rule or law or begin to change the meanings of the key terms of national values).

6. Expanding the size of courts or other bodies to stack it with partisan judges/officials (creating a set of loyalist judicial officials who will follow the autocrat’s will rather than the Constitution or the rule of law).

7. Modifying rules to impose or eliminate term limits on officials, especially election officials (autocrats game elections with gerrymandering, voter qualifications, changing election laws, contesting election results, installing loyalists as election officials, intimidation)

8. Weakening the legislature/intimidating legislators (autocrats prevent checks & balances from holding them accountable to the rule of law or the Constitution by weakening legislative power, installing compliant loyalists in the legislature & purging non-compliant people).

9. Silencing political opposition (autocrats use communication as a weapon with threats of force or intimidation, public shaming, overwhelming the public sphere with lies or distractions, controlling the networks of public communication).

10. Significant increase of internal security forces (using paramilitary organizations, gangs, militia, or police for the autocrat’s purposes rather than the common good).

This is how autocrats take over governments. You might think the signs of democratic backsliding would be very obvious, but scholars explain that if you’re looking for American democracy to end with a big bang, like a violent coup, then you’re looking for the wrong signs.

Know the signs of an autocratic takeover: Fascism Watch via @resolutesquareresolutesquare.com/articles/3JeW3…

In the piece I link to academic research that explains all of these things. Folks who are warning about authoritarianism aren't making it up. Scholars (& the US government) have been studying democratic erosion for decades.

As these things happen (they've been happening already, of course) it will be presented as <reasons> that make them seem like common sense. That's normalization at work. They'll seem like little things in isolation, but they're small steps in an autocratic takeover.