20 Signs of Tyranny

Friends,

I wrote the following more than seven years ago, on February 8, 2018. It pains me to read it.

If I were to write it today, I’d change the title from “20 Signs of Impending Tyranny” to “20 Signs of Tyranny.”

We are in a deepening national emergency.

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20 Signs of Impending Tyranny

As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:

1. Demand personal loyalty from all appointees.

2. Organize military parades and other choreographed shows of force.

3. Threaten to fire independent prosecutors who get too close to the truth.

4. Spread conspiracy theories about “deep state” forces seeking to oust the tyrant.

5. Refer to top-ranking military leaders as “my” generals.

6. Threaten to jail political opponents.

7. Claim to have won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.

8. Stoke tensions abroad, even the specter of nuclear war, to distract from the tyrant’s efforts to consolidate power at home.

9. Circumvent the independent press and communicate directly with followers.

10. Vilify legislators and judges who are critical of the regime.

11. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.

12. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize the regime, calling them “deceitful” and “scum.”

13. Repeatedly tell big lies, causing the public to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrant’s goals.

14. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and hatred against them.

15. Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.

16. Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.

17. Appoint family members to high positions of authority.

18. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.

19. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward leaders of democracies.

20. Maintain a powerful propaganda arm that claims to be “fair and balanced” but only amplifies the tyrant’s lies and accusations.