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The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

verfassungsblog.de

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Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#131

Post by rahton »

hayst4ck wrote: post #58
rahton wrote: post #31

Why not just leave? I mean for those who can afford. Especially when this is happening in a country with so many firearms. It could quickly be easier to resist from a safe place.

I went to a Town Hall and many of the people had family members being kept alive by Medicaid. Imagine a mother of toddlers in her 30's is dying of some cancer imagining paying for her cancer meds while her children likely won't get state assistance, while grandma is about to be removed from her state assisted old folks home. Imagine having a special needs child about to lose assistance... Right now America is going t…

Just to clarify, I am well aware it is a (very) tough decision to make and that is even harder to put in place... and understand the moral challenge involved. But I am very worried about what will come next too. People will die resisting, there is no doubt about it. Europe isn't a safe heaven but having experienced both sides of the pond in the last ten years, I believe the political situation is still far better here. I may be wrong.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#132

Post by AlecSchueler »

gitaarik wrote: post #124
anonzzzies wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think it's ok for a leader of the biggest power in the world to joke and say random things that are lies while blackmailing ex-allies into 'negotiations' and helping russia win an invasion on sovereign territory that US and others promised to protect for not having nukes anymore in 1994, you must be special indeed.

Come on, every president lies. What does it matter if they're a clown or not. At least with Trump it's obvious, and it's not so hypocritical.

It's not obvious, though, that's the problem. Everything he says he will do is a joke until it's not.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#133

Post by rahton »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #97
rahton wrote: post #31

Why not just leave? I mean for those who can afford. Especially when this is happening in a country with so many firearms. It could quickly be easier to resist from a safe place.

"resist from a safe place?" If you leave, you no longer have any right to any say in the old place. And what if the new place develops it's own problems? Wander the globe forever in hopes of finding a magical place? If your roomate shits in your living room, "you should move out" is the second to last choice. The last choice is stay and live with it. The first and second choices in undecided order are correct the off…

Doesn't History proves this wrong? Hundred of thousands of Huguenots left French persecutions and largely contributed to Protestants culture. Nearly Half a million jews fled Europe before/during ww2. French resistance was largely organized from abroad. There are a good amount of Russian activists outside of the country currently. Just a few examples. As stated bellow, I understand the challenges implied by immigration. But it could quickly escalate in the US, and resisting fascism also comes with some challenges.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#134

Post by atoav »

thinkingemote wrote: post #78
atoav wrote: post #70

Serious question: Why on earth is this flagged? I thought sharing strategies against authoritarianism would be as free speech, open discourse as it gets. Open discourse as promoted here on this site is among the first targets in any authoritarian society. We tech people should be merit based — vuess which form of society prevents exactly this? Suddenly instead of appointing the manager of a nuclear plant based on mer…

In general, have a look at one of the many comments dang has written about why submissions are flagged, particularly lately. https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang Wrt this comment and submission: Maybe people don't like their blood boiling here? I suspect that people are not asking why it's flagged to understand why but rather stating that they disagree with the flagging, but I might be wrong... As the guideli…

I do not disagree that discussing flags is generally uninteresting and it would be intellectually dishonest to exclude this case, just because I happen to differ here.

But I do think discussion of this topic is relevant for our shared (hacker) culture and I explained why, so this isn't just questioning the flagging, it also offers a on topic thought.

And given the current times (not only in the US) this is a relevant topic for every citizen that wants to keep their society non-authoritarian and merit based.

There is a cost to having heated discussions on HN — but there is also a cost to not having them in some cases. I argue that this is one of those.

Rules are important and make this place what it is, but it is more important to act in the spirit of the rules than by the letter.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#135

Post by hayst4ck »

rahton wrote: post #131
hayst4ck wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a Town Hall and many of the people had family members being kept alive by Medicaid. Imagine a mother of toddlers in her 30's is dying of some cancer imagining paying for her cancer meds while her children likely won't get state assistance, while grandma is about to be removed from her state assisted old folks home. Imagine having a special needs child about to lose assistance... Right now America is going t…

Just to clarify, I am well aware it is a (very) tough decision to make and that is even harder to put in place... and understand the moral challenge involved. But I am very worried about what will come next too. People will die resisting, there is no doubt about it. Europe isn't a safe heaven but having experienced both sides of the pond in the last ten years, I believe the political situation is still far better her…

Europe is a still far better, but the root cause in America is a low tax rate on the rich and privatized intelligence/social media companies fueling the society splitting narratives that oligarchs prefer. The end state being societies that are easily divided and conquered.

So Europe might have better data protection laws, but I'm not sure that prevents A/B testing algorithmic feeds, and I think France tried to tax the rich and they just moved out.

In terms of position, velocity, and acceleration, Europe has a clearly better position, arguably the same velocity (towards nationalism/right wing), and it's very hard to tell the level of acceleration, but America's blunder definitely gave other countries a momentary reprieve.

So there is nothing structurally preventing Europe from the same fate, if you think so, that's just exceptionalism... Exceptionalism feels good when others are doing poorly, but it doesn't in any way prevent you from the same fate.

People ran away from despotism to America, but those people were unable to fight despotism in their own countries. If everyone runs, then there will be no place left to run.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#136

Post by g-b-r »

dragonwriter wrote: post #130
fmnxl wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I'm trying to say. You judge based on the denomination first, like how protestants use to think all catholics are inherrently evil. That was the ideological war of the 16th century, and looking bad do you see how pointless it was? Sure the Pope and the catholic clergy were corrupt, but they weren't bad because they're catholics or authoritarian. Corruption was the issue, not catholicism itself nor authori…

> You judge based on the denomination first “Authoritarian” isn't, and isn’t analogous to, a religious denomination like “Catholic" or “Protestant”. > Corruption was the issue, not catholicism itself nor authoritarianism “Authoritarian” as a descriptor is more like “corrupt” than it is like “Catholic”. Not that the claim that being Catholic—or, for those positively inclined toward Catholicism, Protestant or Muslim or…

Who downvoted this?

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#138

Post by senectus1 »

throw94040 wrote: post #24

Most importantly: 1) authoritarian regime takes your guns and ability to defend yourself 2) it will criminalise normal behavior, so it can prosecute anyone at will (everyone has to break laws) 3) it tries to destroy family

>1) authoritarian regime takes your guns and ability to defend yourself

Curious to see how this is going to go in the US where they repress the poorest and least educated right to vote, while at the same time making it super easy for those same people to buy guns and ammunition.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#139

Post by skinkestek »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #118
skinkestek wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is what is called the strawman argument? Pretending I only care about one thing and then pointing out that it is stupid to only care about one thing?

> one side tries to pretend it isn't a problem It's referred to as a "strawman argument" because it's like arguing with a person made out of straw (evoking images of a person fighting against a straw man for training); such a person is not a difficult opponent and one is not required to put in effort for a fight against them. One might consider who you are arguing against when you say "one side tries to pretend it is…

Exactly.

Re: The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

#140

Post by bobalob »

mschuster91 wrote: post #98
bobalob wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And how often has the latter actually happened? Often enough to demonstrate that incarcerating males in women's prisons on the basis of self-declared "gender identity" is harmful policy that needs to be removed and cancelled everywhere it's been implemented. It's worth keeping in mind that the reason we have sex-segregated prisons in the first place is because mixed-sex prisons were so demonstrably harmful to femal…

> It's worth keeping in mind that the reason we have sex-segregated prisons in the first place is because mixed-sex prisons were so demonstrably harmful to female inmates, who were subjected to physical violence, sexual assault, rape, impregnation by male prisoners. The problem then are male prisoners, are they not? In fact, trans women are 13 times more likely to be assaulted in prison [1] than cis-male ones. The so…

The problem is male prisoners, yes. Which is why segregating prisoners by sex is an essential component of safeguarding. And then further separation of vulnerable prisoners within each prison. If, in a male prison, there are inmates who desire to be women and are deemed to be at risk based on this, they should be separated from the general prison population, like other vulnerable prisoners are. Not transferred to a female prison.

Regarding the female category of sports, a sample of cells taken via a cheek swab can be used for karyotype testing, which would be sufficient for screening female athletes. This is much less intrusive than the anti-doping tests - which involve having blood taken and being observed urinating - that for many athletes is a requirement to compete. In the unusual case that the athlete has something other than 46,XX sex chromosomes, further analysis could be done - with the athlete's permission - to understand the underlying condition and, from this, determine eligibility to compete in this category.

No-one is advocating for all female athletes, including children, to undergo genital inspections. It isn't necessary and it's not being asked for.

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