Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin

Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin

👉 Remark: The article is about the U.S. and Europe, despite the title.

    • LibertyLizard ( LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ) English
      15·
      7 months ago

      It’s insane to me that over the past few decades we allowed the state to construct an entirely parallel national police and judicial system subject to total executive authority, and that very few people objected to this in any major way until 2025.

      I mean the underpinnings of this system, even before it was dramatically expanded and abused by Trump seem so blatantly unconstitutional it’s shocking. How can you have a separate judicial system for certain classes of people nested within the executive branch? Is that not a clear violation of separation of powers? How can we arrest and forcibly imprison or deport people without warrants? What happened to the 4th amendment? What the fuck were people thinking? Was it not obvious where this would lead?

      For myself, I can only plead ignorance. I really did not investigate how our immigration system worked until I had cause to, and now that I’ve become educated I’m just incredulous that our elected leaders and judges created such a blatantly authoritarian system. And that no one who knew about it seemed to care for so long. Or at least no one with any power or influence.

  • James R Kirk ( Kirk@startrek.website ) English
    11·
    7 months ago

    This was pretty clear in 2016, glaringly obvious in 2021, and Trump himself explicitly said being a dictator on day one was a goal in 2024.

    But I’m sure another think piece won’t hurt!

      • IratePirate ( IratePirate@feddit.org ) English
        3·
        6 months ago

        Americans did know oppression. First the Native Americans, then the European settlers seeking refuge from all kinds of persecution in Europe. Finally (at least that’s the story they told), the American revolutionaries tried to shake off what they portrayed as oppression by the British.

        But unfortunately, illiberalism, autocracy, fascism and genocide seem to behave on a macro level like viruses behave on the micro level: like them, a society can - by way of surviving a previous infection - acquire a certain level of immunity. But over time, the pathogen can mutate and transform, and the concentration of antibodies in the organism can degrade over time so the defensive response is weakened. I fear this is where we are now: our societies have started to forget or deny the horrors of where this road has led us in the 20th century, and are becoming susceptible to the trappings of autocracy again. Let’s hope we don’t have to go through the natural process of immunisation again - because the pathogen is deadly and has the potential to kill its host.

      • floofloof ( floofloof@lemmy.ca ) English
        1·
        6 months ago

        And yet there’s no shortage of people pursuing fascism today in those European countries that haven’t already gone fascist. For example, you’d expect the UK and Germany to know better, yet they both have popular fascist movements.