What are your thoughts on the rise of authoritarianism both in America and globally?

Bogan

The movement was called the "National-Bolshevik Front", and they believed that the only mistake Hitler and Stalin made was not merge their two systems together. Communism alone or national-socialism alone cannot work well - but if you take the features of both and put them together, THEN you will get the ultimate utopia.

Thee merging of  the extreme left and the extreme right is happening in the western world today.      The only difference between fascist totalitarianism and communist totalitarianism is, which demographics within any particular society really do want a totalitarian system, where elites tell the peasantry what to do.     "Elitism" is at the core of every totalitarian system.      While people at the top are generally smarter than the people below them, and having your country run by the smartest people can arguably be a good idea, the fact is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.    Totalitarian systems will always go rotten with the people at the top eventually considering the lower classes as their property to be exploited.     Totalitarian societies can be quite efficient while democracies muddle along rarely being able to make up their minds about anything.    But the one treasured feature of a democracy is, that when their elites get too uppity, they can change their governments without recourse to armed rebellion.   

In China, the merging of the Right and the Left was done by the Left, which kept the Left in firm control.    Big business and he Armed Forces can flourish in China, provided that they remain subject to Leftist control.   THis does not seem to be working, as Leftists simply can not stop interfering in the economic decisions of their business elites.     So the Chinese economy is stagnating as overseas businesses flee China, and the traditional corruption of the Chinese people themselves make doing business with them, and each other, a perilous affair.      Another virtue of Democracy is that Democracies are usually "high trust societies" where there is an expectation of honesty by most people towards each other.  

John_C_87

@Bogan

All criminal law tells everyone what to do......that is authoritarianism. In all three forms of governing each has its own class of people who can and cannot afford to act at liberty of only one type of law, criminal law.

Openminded

Argument Topic: Australia has no constitutional right to free speech in our constitution

@Bogan @Bogan

¨....in sum with respect to free exercise claims no less than free speech claims....
¨Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man´s nose begins.¨
--Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Get over it Bogan. Be civil and kind.

Factfinder

@Openminded

Yes since we voted for authoritarianism in 2016 and 2020 we must be predisposed to it. 

au·thor·i·tar·i·an·ism

/əˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm,ôˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm,äˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm/

noun

1. the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

   "he warned against the intrusion of authoritarianism in various countries"

   • lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.

     "in his authoritarianism he has displayed disrespect for the culture he works in"