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The Strongman Fantasy

And Dictatorship in Real Life

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-strongman-fantasy

> Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done?

<snip>

> Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.

#strongman #fantasy #democracy #election

#democracy #Election #fantasy #strongman

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in reply to Florida Ted

Florida Ted
Florida Ted
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> In a dictatorship, parents no longer say what they think to their children, because they fear that their children will repeat it in public. And once parents no longer speak their minds at home, they can no longer create a trusting family. Even parents who give up on honesty have to fear that their children will one day learn the truth, take action, and get imprisoned.
>
> Once this process begins, it is hard to stop. At the present stage of the strongman fantasy, people imagine an exciting experiment. If they don't like strongman rule, they think, they can just elect someone else the next time. This misses the point. If you help a strongman come to power, you are eliminating democracy. You burn that bridge behind you. The strongman fantasy dissolves, and real dictatorship remains.
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