There are no longer any rules

NYT just ran an article today, interviewing academics who study countries that have slid from Democracy into Authoritarianism

Quote from Prof. Sean Westwood :

The most permanent damage, however, is the precedent. With these guardrails shattered, the temptation for a future Democratic administration to launch its own campaign of retribution — using a weakened system for its own ends — becomes immense. This is the grim, iterative nature of democratic backsliding: each transgression lowers the floor for the next, creating a cycle of political revenge that, once started, is nearly impossible to unwind.

please accept this Lemmy Gold

what happened to all the pre Rand Paul libertarians

I was one of them. I was in deep. I’ve met Ron Paul multiple times. I know some of his former staffers.

I will tell you what happened:

• They were right that in fact the Government is spying on everyone, and bald-face lied about it (Clapper)
• They then assumed that the Government can only lie, and that everything official is by definition untrue
• A supermajority of them are religious faithful. They can be super educated but they still believe in Bronze-Age fairy stories and “personal Truth”
• … which made them easy targets for Russian disinfo

It’s so banal. But it’s the truth. I know because I watched my former friends turn into people who intentionally spread COVID, to “show up the hoax”

I am older; my Dad was an older guy when he had me. He fought in WWII.

Growing up he always told me: “I fought the jackboots. One day it will be your turn.”