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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Levitsky & Ziblatt–How Democracies Die
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246...
Snyder – On Tyranny
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558051...
Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism
archive.org/details/hann...
Reuters & AP Jan 6 coverage
www.reuters.com/world/us/fac...
apnews.com/article/capi...

How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt: 9781524762940 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The urgent and influential guide to the forces that have undermined democracies across the globe—forces running rampant in the United States today—hailed as...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

SOURCES (1/2)

Eco, Ur-Fascism (full text)
sites.evergreen.edu/politicalsha...
Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (Google Books)
books.google.com/books/about/...
USHMM: Gleichschaltung explainer
encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/a...

sites.evergreen.edu

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Authoritarianism never dies; it simply rebrands.
It hides behind patriotism, populism, or “common sense.”
Our defence lies in civic memory — in knowing that democracy is not inherited, but practised.
The past is not past. It’s a warning.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

The pattern is psychological, not chronological.
Authoritarianism thrives where truth is distorted and personality supplants principle.
Each era modernises its propaganda — radio, film, television, social media — yet the emotional architecture remains identical: fear, faith, and belonging.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Trump inherited the language, not the empire.
His rallies were rituals of grievance; the “enemy” was fluid — migrants, journalists, judges.
He transformed disinformation into a political weapon.
January 6, 2021, revealed how a populist myth can breach the democratic heart itself.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Authoritarianism rarely abolishes law — it bends it. Decrees, loyalty oaths, and “emergency powers” hollow out democracy from within. Institutions often die by obedience, not overthrow — legality masking decay, until the rule of law becomes rule by law.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Hitler radicalised Mussolini’s model. Gleichschaltung absorbed parties, unions, and culture; propaganda became total, dissent criminalised. The “machinery of control” turned ideology into genocide — showing how populism, unchecked, mutates into annihilation.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Mussolini rose from Italy’s post-WWI chaos, promising order and pride.
He understood performance: uniforms, salutes, marches, and slogans. The theatre of power made dictatorship appear patriotic.
By turning propaganda into ritual, he normalised authoritarianism through spectacle.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗠: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗦

From Mussolini to Hitler to Trump — three eras, one recurring formula.
This thread isn’t about equating atrocities, but recognising the continuity of method: how fear, myth, and spectacle reappear each time democracy weakens.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Sources:

Reuters → www.reuters.com/world/us/bor...
BBC → www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-6822...
Freedom House → freedomhouse.org/report/freed...
Guardian → www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

#AuthoritarianDrift #CivilLiberties #WesternDemocracy

Border Patrol agents shoot armed woman in Chicago as protesters confront immigration personnel

No law enforcement officers were seriously injured in the incident.

www.reuters.com

Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Authoritarianism today legislates, regulates, and praises its restraint. It doesn’t storm parliaments; it occupies them politely. The threat is not collapse but adaptation — democracy refashioned to serve its captors.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

In the 1930s, liberal democracies believed they could contain extremism through the rule of law. The laws they passed to contain it became the scaffolding that sustained it. History doesn’t repeat itself in spectacle; it rehearses in silence, through small compromises mistaken for prudence.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

This isn’t a coup but a drift — nationalism fused with technocratic control. Populist rhetoric sustains the illusion of democracy while executive power deepens beneath it. Modern authoritarianism doesn’t need ideology; it thrives on anxiety, apathy, and a quiet surrender of civic imagination.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Most restrictions arrive as “temporary emergency measures.” Yet, history shows that emergency powers have the longest lifespans. Once codified, they linger, rebranded and repurposed — converting what should be exceptional state powers into permanent administrative habits.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Paramilitary policing, predictive surveillance, and algorithmic censorship are packaged as defences against chaos. Each creates dependency on the systems that restrict freedom. Once fear is operationalised, power rarely relinquishes it; it expands from borders into homes, workplaces, and speech.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

From Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” to Britain’s anti-protest laws, governments increasingly use war metaphors to police their own populations. The justification is identical everywhere — to preserve public order. Yet order maintained by fear becomes state property, not a public good.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗡𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠.

It now appears behind podiums, quoting “order” and “security” while tightening control through fear. The performance has changed, but the goal remains the same: to domesticate dissent under the guise of governance.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

📎 Sources:
Reuters → reuters.com/world/middle...
Guardian → theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Al Jazeera → aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/...

#Gaza #ForeignPolicy #PeaceOrPowerplay

reuters.com

Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Post 4 (Conclusion)

Call it what it is: an unelected foreign committee deciding Gaza’s future under the language of “stability” and “transition.”
Even if others join later, the foundation is exclusion, not peace.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Post 3 (Critique)

That’s not a board — it’s a Washington-led power bloc dressed up as diplomacy.
No elected Palestinians.
No regional consensus.
No transparency.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Post 2 (Reveal)

The plan creates an “International Board of Peace” to run a temporary Gaza administration. Sounds noble, doesn’t it?
In reality, only two names have been confirmed: Donald Trump (Chair) and Tony Blair (Member).

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Post 1

𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬?
The White House’s “Gaza peace plan” looks diplomatic on paper — but peel back the label and you see something very different.

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

Freedom of speech and peaceful assembly are not privileges. They’re legal rights under the Human Rights Act 1998.
Article 11 exists precisely to stop governments from criminalising opposition.

Source: Human Rights Act 1998, Article 11
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/4...

Human Rights Act 1998

An Act to give further effect to rights and freedoms guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights; to make provision with respect to holders of certain judicial offices who become judges o...

www.legislation.gov.uk

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Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

No government has the mandate to rewrite the meaning of democracy.
Those who stay silent now will regret it when silence itself becomes law.

#RightToProtest #StarmersBritain #DefendDemocracy

Billy G @billirubins.bsky.social · 19d

When a government manufactures fear to suppress dissent, it isn’t protecting democracy — it’s dismantling it.
Using tragedy as a means to fuel political agendas is one of the oldest authoritarian tricks in the book.

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