09 February 18
s tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:- Demand personal loyalty from all appointees.
- Organize military parades and other choreographed shows of force.
- Threaten to fire independent prosecutors who get too close to the truth.
- Spread conspiracy theories about "deep state" forces seeking to oust the tyrant.
- Refer to top-ranking military leaders as "my" generals.
- Threaten to jail political opponents.
- Claim to have won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.
- Stoke tensions abroad, even the specter of nuclear war, to distract from the tyrant's efforts to consolidate power at home.
- Circumvent the independent press and communicate directly with followers.
- Vilify legislators and judges who are critical of the regime.
- Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
- Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize the regime, calling them “deceitful” and “scum.”
- Repeatedly tell big lies, causing the public to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
- Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and hatred against them.
- Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.
- Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
- Appoint family members to high positions of authority.
- Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.
- Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward leaders of democracies.
- Maintain a powerful propaganda arm that claims to be "fair and balanced" but only amplifies the tyrant's lies and accusations.
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