this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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That's the issue. Crashing won't stop them. Infinite enabling of authoritarians does not lead to authoritarians suddenly losing all popularity and being overwhelmed by a tide of democratic sentiment. It leads to fucking North Korea. There is no level of suffering or oppression people are not willing to buckle under, given sufficient perceived strength of the oppressors.
For that matter, there is no level of suffering great enough to shake people of their convictions. The vast majority of people will return to their convictions as soon as they're able to. Inflicting suffering, or letting fascist regimes inflict suffering, will not 'cure' a population of it. Half of the German population in the 1950s still regarded Hitler as a good leader, even after taking Germany from the second most powerful country in Europe to the fifth most powerful in Berlin, and reducing the country to fucking rubble in service to one of the worst causes mankind has ever known.
Don't welcome a Vichy Regime under the delusion that it will begin the Resistance. Understand that the fall of the Third Republic means that the only route to defeat the fucking fascists becomes narrower, harder, and will lead to a less 'pure' political resolution if successful.
OK that's not what I meant at all though. Maybe I was too self-deprecating. Or maybe I saw more sarcasm in the meme than there is.
What I meant is that there is no point at which giving ground to authoritarians makes them so nakedly brutal and vile that the population turns against them. My point is that "Things are bad now, but if they get worse, then things will REALLY crash and the population will THEN finally see!" is just not viable, no matter how bad it gets. Every inch given to authoritarians makes them stronger; it will not sap their popularity or lay the groundwork for a successful reaction against them.
Of course not. I guess I misread the meme. Mea culpa.