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The Authoritarian Playbook
Recognizing and Resisting Patterns of Authoritarian Oppression
As the Trump regime progresses, we are witnessing something both alarming and with eerie historical parallels: the systematic implementation of authoritarian tactics that echo patterns of dictatorial repression from around the world. What’s unfolding isn’t random cruelty or political happenstance — it’s a calculated methodology with recognizable features and predictable trajectories.
The Putin Blueprint
The parallels between current developments in America under the Trump administration and Vladimir Putin’s Russia are striking and deeply concerning. Russia has provided a masterclass in modern authoritarianism draped in the trappings of democracy — what political scientist Timothy Snyder calls “the politics of eternity,” where “time is no longer a line into the future, but a circle that endlessly returns the same threats from the past.”
Masha Gessen, Russian-American journalist and author of “Surviving Autocracy,” observed this pattern years ago: “Autocracy demands from the individual a consistency that is inhuman and an adaptability that is immoral.” This paradoxical state characterizes regimes that prioritize power consolidation over democratic principles.
