It’s really disturbing how normalized it’s become. People see it in small pieces every day and just shrug, but when you step back it’s glaringly obvious.
zsreport on
A bit from the commentary:
> After decades of documenting state terror, I know how it starts. Governments begin to use words like security, order, deterrence. Every excuse for Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct in Gaza is framed as “security”. ICE agents are trained in a language of order in which violence becomes procedure.
>
> What happens when democratic states adopt the methods of the regimes they once condemned? Terror is not only masked men and arbitrary detention. It also operates through fear. Policies are designed to make people more compliant, more submissive. As the historian Timothy Snyder warned in his 2017 book, On Tyranny, this is how societies slide into danger: people obey in advance.
>
> In Donald Trump’s US, I have watched CEOs, academics, journalists and government officials allow fear to override decency and moral authority. I have seen this pattern before. It begins with claims that certain people are dangerous. That ordinary legal safeguards should not apply to them. It ends with a society diminished – more compliant, more cynical, more brutal. State terror is rarely announced. In my experience, it becomes normalised. It seeps quietly into the machinery of government.
>
> Authoritarian regimes make no serious claim to moral legitimacy. Their violence is explicit.
2HDFloppyDisk on
Trump caused a holocaust survivor to renew their German citizenship and seek refuge in Germany from his tyranny.
Theferael_me on
Maybe it’s more obvious when you’re on the outside looking in. The view from Europe is truly grim.
IRideMoreThanYou on
I mean, no shit.
kittysmiles8 on
When people who’ve studied state violence start drawing parallels, it’s worth listening – even if it’s uncomfortable.
FireAndDesirexX on
Labeling every warning as “hyperbole” is how societies miss the moment when lines are actually being crossed.
playprincess2 on
You don’t have to claim equivalence to acknowledge that normalization of force is a dangerous pattern.
brumac44 on
We’re in Canada wondering where are the crazy Americans calling bullshit on this regime? I can’t believe you’ve fallen so far, so fast.
Overton_Glazier on
This is also why Dems can’t be pro-Israel anymore. It will make the rhetoric about fighting fascism seem hollow.
10 Comments
It’s really disturbing how normalized it’s become. People see it in small pieces every day and just shrug, but when you step back it’s glaringly obvious.
A bit from the commentary:
> After decades of documenting state terror, I know how it starts. Governments begin to use words like security, order, deterrence. Every excuse for Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct in Gaza is framed as “security”. ICE agents are trained in a language of order in which violence becomes procedure.
>
> What happens when democratic states adopt the methods of the regimes they once condemned? Terror is not only masked men and arbitrary detention. It also operates through fear. Policies are designed to make people more compliant, more submissive. As the historian Timothy Snyder warned in his 2017 book, On Tyranny, this is how societies slide into danger: people obey in advance.
>
> In Donald Trump’s US, I have watched CEOs, academics, journalists and government officials allow fear to override decency and moral authority. I have seen this pattern before. It begins with claims that certain people are dangerous. That ordinary legal safeguards should not apply to them. It ends with a society diminished – more compliant, more cynical, more brutal. State terror is rarely announced. In my experience, it becomes normalised. It seeps quietly into the machinery of government.
>
> Authoritarian regimes make no serious claim to moral legitimacy. Their violence is explicit.
Trump caused a holocaust survivor to renew their German citizenship and seek refuge in Germany from his tyranny.
Maybe it’s more obvious when you’re on the outside looking in. The view from Europe is truly grim.
I mean, no shit.
When people who’ve studied state violence start drawing parallels, it’s worth listening – even if it’s uncomfortable.
Labeling every warning as “hyperbole” is how societies miss the moment when lines are actually being crossed.
You don’t have to claim equivalence to acknowledge that normalization of force is a dangerous pattern.
We’re in Canada wondering where are the crazy Americans calling bullshit on this regime? I can’t believe you’ve fallen so far, so fast.
This is also why Dems can’t be pro-Israel anymore. It will make the rhetoric about fighting fascism seem hollow.