bluesky is largely convincing itself that as soon as he is elected, trump will start drone striking people who say mean things about him online, which i think is great because maybe canalizing into this belief will get the doomerist panic mongers on bsky to stop doomspiraling themselves for a bit
Two Satans Theory in action: 1) Making credible threats online during an (ascendent or actual) authoritarian regime is a bad idea and a legitimate concern, and 2) there is simultaneously a moral panic that everyone is going to get drone striked and blackbagged for every comment they ever made online
Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.
What worries me is most Americans have no idea how resilient authoritarian regimes are. Way too many ppl out here fantasizing about pendulums and tipping points and revolution when they can’t even organize a food coop, much asymmetrical warfare against a surveillance state
Most people setting up authoritarian regimes also don't realize how dependent they are on the authority. Things get weird when the autocrat dies. Every time it's either: Bloody civil war, quick but violent palace coup, or appointee walking in. The third is uncommon at first.
Basically if there's the civil war, the country kills it's own people, foreign agents can weaken it more, and everyone is worse off but with a competent leader (which we know because they won the war).
If it's palace coup then the leader isn't near as good because they haven't really been tested, but they at least can build coalitions which is helpful for a country
If it's an appointee it's generally the weakest leader and if they dodge a palace coup and civil war they'll just muddle along till they die and the next one comes.
They all devolve into the last one eventually because wars and coups are hard. Then the milktoast leader flails along until the country collapses and you get... something new, hope it's good.
