this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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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.

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[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The difference is Europe had kings before.

[–] Pip@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

You point out something crucial. Americans have no sense for autocracy or fascism like Europeans do.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 57 minutes 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.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 3 points 1 day 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.

[–] pulsey@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago

Europe also goes the wrong direction, just with some delay

[–] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

America had a king before too... Kinda why we are the way we are.