In my last post, I started discussing the author and the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century and discussed that I would be going into further detail on the lessons found in the book.

With the “switching sides” of various “left-wing” media companies and their pundits, I figured this would be the best time to discuss lesson 1 from the book and how it relates to current events.

Lesson One: Do Not Obey in Advance

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. – Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

We see this with how various political pundits are “bending the knee” to the MAGA and Trump administration. While it can be said that Joe Scarborough was never truly a liberal or whatever due to his political affiliation with the republican party and he held the same seat for Florida’s 1st Congressional district that Matt Gaetz has resigned from, for the last several years he had identified as an independent and was featured with his wife on MSNBC’s show Morning Joe and has gone as far as to compare Trump to Hitler.

In a September 2023 segment on Morning Joe, he says “This is not a reach, I can go back and talk about Nazi Germany and I do it without any concerns whatsoever. And if people can’t start drawing the parallels, well, you’re just stupid, you have your head in the sand, or you’re one of them.”

He has also compared Trump to Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who has some takes. Orban believes in an “illiberal democracy,” if you have taken political science classes or read the article by Fareed Zakaria in Foreign Affairs, you will know that “illiberal democracy” raises some red flags.

What is an Illiberal democracy?

An “illiberal democracy” was first coined by Fareed Zakaria in 1997 in an issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. This is sometimes called “illiberalism” and is a concept in social sciences that doesn’t have a set definition. However, the key points of illiberalism/illiberal democracies can be seen throughout history when you know what to look for.

• Elections without liberal freedoms. These freedoms are cut from the society in which a leader may be democratically elected but once elected they pull the rug out from under their constituents. This includes civil liberties, suppression of political opposition, or undermining of judicial independence.
• Authoritarian tendencies. That is, a populist leader gains the appeal of the masses while claiming to be the “true” voice of the people… however, once elected the leaders then use their position to centralize their power and reduce the checks on their branch of government.
• Erosion of Liberal Principles. Within Zakaria’s writing, he pressed the importance of the rule of laws, independent courts, and protection of civil rights – such as those listed in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution – for a functioning democracy to thrive. In an illiberal democracy, these norms are completely ignored, even if there are still elections being held. You can look at Russia as an example of this – Alexander Litvinenko was a journalist who was very critical of Putin and was poisoned in the UK, which the UK has come out and tied to Putin.
• Consequences for Democratic Development. While democratic on the surface, many of these “democracies” are actually just authoritarianism. This means that specific civil liberties once stripped of the government under these democracies are prone to become “elective dictatorships” where the leaders are “legitimate” but undermine the foundations of a normal democracy. Such as, without the freedom of the press or assembly, there is a chance that there will be elections similar to Russia’s elections where Putin received over 75% of the vote in the last 2 elections.

Anticipatory Obedience

Well, with the turn of “liberal” pundits towards MAGA and Trumpism-branded Republicans, we will see more lip service towards the incoming president Trump. After all, we do not want to make the Dictator-in-Chief angry since he wants to imprison his detractors. But, lest us not forget the lessons we learned in history classes (at least I learned these) about appeasement in the 1920s-1940s when a mustachioed man took over Germany in a violent coup called the Night of Long Knives.

Anticipatory obedience is the term Synder uses for the people of Hungary and Germany to give the rising governments power over them. They extended their services to the new regimes.

By 1938, Hitler was secure in his power as Chancellor and now Fuhrer (power consolidating the positions of President and Chancellor) after the death of then-president von Hindenburg. He set his eyes on Austria, where he was born. The chancellor of Austria conceded and this led to the domino effect of the people sealing the fate of all the Austrian Jews there. They were forced to clean the symbols of independent Austria off the streets and, eventually, rounded up into cattle cars to be shipped off to the concentration or death camps of the Nazi’s choosing – this was in 1939.

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale, tested out his theory on how the people who were willing to give in to authority. So he devised a plan to have some students and some New Haven residents give a series of shocks to a few subjects. Now, these subjects were in on it so the electricity wasn’t on, but what was such a shock to Milgram was the fact that these people continued to shock the subjects (even when they were pounding on the glass and screaming in pain). After this, some of those who administered shocks did not even ask how the subjects were – even those who “died.”

What can we learn here?

Simple: that giving in to a dictator, authoritarian, or fascist is not going to help our society in any way. It will make it worse.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s meeting with Trump in Mar-A-Lago has had some devastating effect on their ratings. Now, there is a small sect of political viewers who think it may be because MSNBC is being sold and if that is the case, Joe and Mika may need to find a new network to pay their $8-10M a year salaries (maybe FoxNews?).

After they kowtowed to Trump in Florida, their ratings dropped by 50 percent. This is odd as their program Morning Joe often gets more viewership in the second half of their allotted two hours. This is probably because MSBNC has pretty much always been the “left” news source. Some feelings probably got hurt that Mika and Joe called Trump “Hitler” and then after the election ran down to Florida to schmooze.

Recently, David Frum wrote an article about an experience on Morning Joe where a producer told him to “tone down” his commentary on Pete Hegseth and the alleged drinking issue he may have. It seems like a flippant and petty comment about a guy who is underqualified to be the Secretary of Defense. Also, if he was drinking on the job at FoxNews, I have a feeling that his drinking as SecDef would be an issue.

According to Frum, he was dismissed from the chair and Mika came on to apologize on his behalf, stating:

A little bit earlier in this block there was a comment made about Fox News, in our coverage about Pete Hegseth and the growing number of allegations about his behavior over the years and possible addiction to alcohol or issues with alcohol. The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we’re in. We just want to make that comment as well. We want to make that clear. We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that’s a good debate that we should have often, but right now I just want to say there’s a lot of good people who work at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we will want to leave it at that.

Sure, there are good people at FoxNews, I am sure. I don’t believe being an addict makes you a bad person. It means that you have a mental illness and should seek treatment. There is the issue that according to Frum, at least 10 people have spoken to him about Hegseth and this alleged drinking problem. Alcohol lowers inhibitions and can cause many issues in the long term, especially if that person is the leader of the Department of Defense. For those who may not be familiar, the SecDef is the leader of the military after the President. Essentially the Defense Minister in other nations.

This is all to say: Obiedence at the threat of fear is abuse. It is no different than that of a child fearing their parents for hitting them.

Before I was a communications major, before I was a psych major – I was a journalism major. It is during this time that I learned the importance of speaking up and speaking out against oppressive regimes – especially with all the downfalls of governments I have seen since 2012 (Libya’s civil War happened as soon as I got into college the first time). Syria has been at war since 2011 and it actually kick-started Arab Spring which would lead to the Libyan Civil War and the deposition of Gaddafi.

Terry Pratchett, co-author of Good Omens, is attributed to the following quote:

Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grows in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground

That is to say that currently, we in the US are staring down the barrel of an authoritarian regime that we have never seen before. Historians and historical enthusiasts say that this could be because empires only have a lifespan of 250 years and America is supposed to turn 250 in 2026.

As of the election in Nov 2024, many fear for those around them and they may look to partaking in anticipatory obedience as a way to circumvent any retribution to be doled out by those in the MAGA movement. However, as history has been one to show, that is not how to fight authoritarianism. Moving underground, and looking at how similar things have happened in other places, are all ways that can show you how to act against the regime that will want to press.

After all, history does not repeat, but it does instruct.