Enrique Dans
…, home to some of the world’s finest universities and research centers, has fallen prey to a collective delusion dragging it decades backward in public health, environmental policy, science, energy and technology. …But the regression isn’t limited to climate. In public health, the picture is just as grim. The United States is suffering its worst measles outbreak in decades, with cases surpassing 500 in Texas and rising in Kansas and other states. The culprit? Anti-vaccine rhetoric that has gone from the fringes of conspiracy theory to the heart of public policy, …
On the environmental front, Trump used his first 100 days to roll back dozens of policies: scrapping anti-pollution regulations, incentivizing gas-guzzlers over electric vehicles, weakening safeguards for national parks, and axing energy efficiency standards for appliances.
What’s truly baffling isn’t just that a government would propose such destructive measures — authoritarian populism is nothing new — but that millions of people blindly defend it. That in the 21st century, with all the world’s knowledge at their fingertips, a significant portion of the US population rejects science, embraces climate denialism, shuns vaccines and actively votes to dismantle the very institutions upholding their quality of life. …
As Harvard climatologist Daniel Schrag put it this week: “It’s insane for a government to impose its ideology on basic science.” Indeed, it is. But that’s exactly what’s happening. Populism as democracy’s cancer. …
It could be a hell of a lot worse right now.
But, certainly the future is dark as midnight for liberal democracy.
And where is there light? What will replace liberal democracy?
Sealing the Third Reich’s Downfall: Adolf Hitler’s “Nero Decree”
Faced with his regime’s collapse, Adolf Hitler chose to destroy Germany’s infrastructure.
March 18, 2020
Even as the Third Reich he had once prophesied would last a thousand years crumbled all around him, Adolf Hitler desperately clung to his racist vision of the world.In March 1945, Allied forces poured over the Rhine River after the Americans captured the Ludendorff Bridge on March 7. On March 16, the German army’s last offensive of the war, Operation Spring Awakening in Hungary against the Red Army, collapsed.
For the FĂĽhrer the impending defeat proved that Germans were simply neither strong nor ruthless enough to do what was necessary to achieve victory.
Deeming Germany a failure of a nation, Hitler prepared a decree that would seal the country’s collapse with catastrophic finality. …
Nothing was to be spared that might potentially aid the Allies. “Our nation’s struggle for existence forces us to utilize all means,” Hitler proclaimed, “to inflict lasting damage on the striking power of the enemy.”
The order applied to all production, communication, and transportation facilities. Railroads, bridges, communication lines, docks, public utilities, factories and mines were to be demolished.
Hitler entrusted to the military commanders as well as to the Reich Defense Commissars and Gauleiter, Nazi Party administrative officials known for their fanaticism, the task of carrying out this draconian edict. There were to be no exceptions.
In trump’s moronic zeal, he’s decided he’ll first work on destroying American - then create his Fourth Reich in the ashes. But some think this is a beautiful plan and love waving their Amerikan flag. You seem to love it Guy, but you know that makes you a traitor to America.
I don’t know what will replace liberal democracy, but it will be the opposite of everything you believe in.
Lucky for you, you won’t have to live in it.
Trump is too dumb and careless to be the next Hitler.
A big problem for people like you is you aren’t mentally stable enough to realize that.
Normally, you would say “lucky you won’t have to live in it”, if it was something bad. I don’t “believe” in liberal democracy, it’s what we call the world I live in. If whatever it is you are talking about, which apparently you can’t name or describe, is better, then I’d be happy to live in it.
I’ve been around here long enough to know you’re in favor of liberal democracy. I’m not in favor of it, so whatever comes next might be good for me, but not for someone like you.
Liberal democracy is the worst of the systems, excepting any other.
Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried" - Winston Churchill
I would love you tell us which one do you propose.
I’m in favor of whatever is good for more people. That’s my priority. You are making the choice for a political ideology sound the same as rooting for a football team
I’m in favor of what’s good for most people also. Obviously, we have totally different ideas about what is good.
I disagree with Churchill. Both Democracy and Liberalism are extremely overrated. I want less of both.
That’s not an answer.
If you are not for liberal democracy, are you for anarchism, for fascism, for theocracy?
Even if you don’t like labels, you should be able to give us an idea of the system you are advocating.
1 Like
I think you quoted the wrong response, but I want more authoritarianism.
If it were obvious, I wouldn’t ask. Sorry if you think I’m asking leading questions. I’m not. Any political leader has to promise bread, some freedoms, a chance for children to thrive, and even if they are talking about war, they have to say it’s because it will lead to peace.
My problem with Democrats over the decades has been that they are so bad at acknowledging the difficulties of white working-class people, and instead focus on minorities and social issues. Republicans speak to their pain but then propose solutions that cause more problems or blame subsets of the workers instead of themselves, the owners. They also use the cultural issues as wedges instead of addressing them.
1 Like
This is more or less correct, but it’s too late to do anything about that. The system itself is worn out. These problems are not just in America, but in every Liberal Democracy. Which means something bigger than our home grown issues is going on.
Authoritarianism has never been a solution.
Enlightened dictators are a myth.
At the worst, you get totalitarianism, at the best, the end of civil and civic freedoms, arbitrary, and corruption.
A dictator works for himself and his supporters.
Trump is not yet a dictator, but i cringe he becomes one.
The way he pardons evil doers who support him and threaten people who disagree, the way he gives money to the rich, at the point of risking a state bankrupt, and so gives an idea.
Yes, dark times are here.
1 Like
That’s the biggest difference between you and me