Carl Sagan wrote in 1995:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance

While there were always idiots, they often lacked the capacity to engage or equip themselves with such a sophisticated web of lies to prop up their beliefs. As such, Joe Schmoe from Bumfuck, Alabama had a limited platform and so could go on his blissfully ignorant way without much harm beyond his county line.

These days? They all communicate together and domestic and foreign operatives can reach them all the same to stoke division.

Crazy to watch.

"Democratic collapse nowadays isn’t a matter of abolishing elections and declaring oneself dictator, but rather stealthily hollowing out a democratic system so it’s harder and harder for the opposition to win. This strategy requires full control over the state and the bureaucracy: That means having the right staff in the right places who can use their power to erode democracy’s core functions."

The establishment Dems and Reps have been doing this for decades. Trump is just the last straw. He's walking away with the monster they created and he's probably going to let it off the leash.

The only question I have is whether the oligarchy wants him to do that. Imo they weren't ready for it last time. They built the monster for someone controllable like Clinton or Jeb!, and I think they were actually surprised when Trump won the first time. This time they made him a nice little play book, and they've had some time to learn how to at least keep him pointed in the right direction, if not controlled. They might be ready to release the monster they created. Everyone will blame Trump too, instead of the oligarchy... Bonus.

We live in an era where democracies once considered “consolidated” — meaning so secure that they couldn’t collapse into authoritarianism — have started to buckle and even collapse.

Literally everytime a society acts like authoritarianism isn't a threat...

You'll never guess what shows up.

It's a constant fight, it will literally never be over. But over and over, all it takes is 2 or 3 generations for people to think it was really over last time.

A huge part of the issue is writing them all off as evil monsters. The leaders always are. But their supporters are almost always desperate people who think they're doing the right thing.

To truly keep it at bay, we need a society where everyone has enough to live comfortably so they're not desperate and looking for scapegoats to blame. It would solve the vast amount of local crime as well. We focus on making prison worse than poverty, but no one would choose prison over a comfortable life.

Reported as a duplicate from 3 weeks ago:

https://lemmy.world/post/21605389

Allowing this for now as the discussion following a Trump win has a different context than hypotheticals from before a Trump win.

For example:

Before the election Trump was still claiming he knew nothing of Project 2025.

AFTER the election, his nominee to run the FCC is the guy who WROTE the FCC chapter of Project 2025.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-brendan-carr-federal-communications-commission-rcna180567

Meh, it died long ago for marginalized people, it's just catching up to white people now.

Nations rise and fall. Its fine. Eventually dictatorships fall. The climate, however...

Theres no time...

This is written as if the election were still in the future. We're going in, and it's going to be hell. This is the loadout selection screen before the match starts. We need to be thinking of ways we can bolster our communities and defend ourselves.

That headline though. My inner pedant just cannot leave it alone. Democracy is like Nature. It does not care about you or me or Trump. It will continue to exist as an idea no matter what he does. Other countries will even continue to use it.