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U.S. historian Robert Kagan: "We are watching a country fall under dictatorship almost without resistance" (www.spiegel.de)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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The Cold War? Child's play compared to what lies ahead, according to U.S. historian Robert Kagan. Trump, he says, is leading the world into the most dangerous era since 1945.

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[-] ClownStatue@piefed.social 17 points 6 months ago

There are a couple of factors that play into the "lack of resistance."

Healthcare and employment are intertwined in the US. Also, healthcare is more expensive in the US than just about anywhere else in the world.
Employment in most states is "at will," meaning employees can be fired without cause. For most employees, there is also no employment contract. Unions in the US are very weak for the most part.
Most people in the US live paycheck to paycheck, and don't own their primary residence.

These are the ingredients of a captive population. They can hate something all they want, but objecting to it is a risk of losing everything they have. And that's not hyperbole. There have already been reports of people being fired for social media posts, and ICE collecting info on "anti-ICE" social media content. Unfortunately, this is going to have to get to a point where enough people are willing to die to oppose this. When the economy starts hurting the upper-middle class, things might change, but I don't know.

There is and has been resistance, and it's resulted in American deaths. There just hasn't been the craziness of, e.g., Jan 6 (irony intended)!

[-] ClownStatue@piefed.social 9 points 6 months ago

Also, it's important to remember, if resistance gets to the level of Jan 6, this president likely won't hesitate in implementing the Insurrection Act. That would effectively start either a mass slaughter of civilians and/or a civil war.

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 months ago

a mass slaughter of civilians and/or a civil war would be counterproductive to der Führer. historically those are last resort attempts to hold together a failing regime and usually speed up rejection

this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026

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