[ExI] Autocratisation in the USA

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2026-10-15 06:17, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:

> USA – A DEMOCRATIC BREAKDOWN IN THE MAKING?
> 
> The scale of what is happening in the US is unprecedented and prompts a 
> closer look at what seems to be the fastest evolving episode of 
> autocratisation the USA has been through in modern history. 
> Unfortunately, the just released V-Dem data only cover events until 31 
> December 2024, so we must rely on other sources. Processes of 
> autocratisation during the last 25 years have typically evolved 
> gradually with democratically elected leaders dismantling constraints 
> on executive power by “executive aggrandisement,” and each step 
> becoming the “new normal”. President Trump operates openly and acts 
> rapidly to the extent that even cautious analysts like Professor Steven 
> Levitsky say the regime is now some type of authoritarianism. How close 
> is it to a regime breakdown in the making?


As an American I do not deny the trend because I see it too. Although, 
IMO, it goes far beyond Trump and the USA. It is happening all over the 
world, and I would say that the root cause of it is a global plutocratic 
elite that is led or inspired by Vladimir Putin.

Putin has openly admitted his disdain for liberal democracy in all its 
forms:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-22481-1_55

Begin Excerpt: "“I want to underscore again that their [the liberal 
democracies’] insatiability and determination to preserve their 
unfettered dominance are the real causes of the hybrid war that the 
collective West is waging against Russia. They do not want us to be 
free; they want us to be a colony. They do not want equal cooperation; 
they want to loot. They do not want to see us a free society, but a mass 
of soulless slaves. [...] Let me repeat that the dictatorship of the 
Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western 
countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This complete 
renunciation of what it means to be human, the overthrow of faith and 
traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming to 
resemble a “religion in reverse” – pure Satanism. [...] The world has 
entered a period of a fundamental, revolutionary transformation. New 
centres of power are emerging. [...] The battlefield to which destiny 
and history have called us is a battlefield for our people, for the 
great historical Russia. (Applause.) For the great historical Russia, 
for future generations, our children, grandchildren and 
great-grandchildren. We must protect them against enslavement and 
monstrous experiments that are designed to cripple their minds and 
souls. Today, we are fighting so that it would never occur to anyone 
that Russia, our people, our language, or our culture can be erased from 
history.”

President Vladimir Putin (30 September 2022)

Speech in the Kremlin on the occasion of the annexation of four partly 
conquered Ukrainian provinces"
------------

Putin wants nothing more than for the USA to fragment into separatist 
states. Putin is very influential amongst an international plutocratic 
elite that aspires to achieve a bizarre global form of feudalism with 
numerous individual countries run by their respective dictators. He uses 
covert psyops techniques that he mastered back in the days of his 
running the KGB to influence elections and subvert democratic 
governments all over the world. The paper I have linked shows a great 
map of all the tools he is using to fragment the western democracies 
including the USA.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-22481-1_55/figures/1

What is happening in the USA is the similar to what happened to the EU 
in the run up to Brexit. Vladimir Putin was largely responsible for 
weakening the EU through Brexit.

A recent demonstration of how responsible Putin's Russia is for 
destabilizing liberal democracies happened just a few days ago. When 
Russian data centers were bombed by the Ukraine on October 14th, social 
media platform users noticed that the Internet became much quiter and 
irenic with much less anger and hatred being spewed due to absence of 
Russian bots.

Stuart LaForge