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motoboi 13 hours ago

> "How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might.

The experts, people that have dedicated their lives to understand authoritarianism have already given the alarm. Well, a specialist has even moved to Canada for god's sake.

And well, criticizing democracy is fashionable again. High profile figures started saying out loud that "maybe democracies are overrated. maybe democracies cannot deal with the world as it is now". Just listen to what people are actually saying instead of what you think they meant when they say it and you'll hear they saying that an authoritarian leader is what america needs now.

ants_everywhere 12 hours ago | parent [-]

> And well, criticizing democracy is fashionable again.

Yup. I've see it a few times a week on HN at this point

padjo 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

By all means criticise the implementation but definitely don’t criticise the idea! America’s democracy would be greatly improved by being made more representative through electoral reform.

motoboi 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah, but this is not what they are saying. They are saying that debate stiffle innovation. They are saying that we should get rid of all this mess and let the wise man govern.

ants_everywhere 10 hours ago | parent [-]

I think about least 3/4 of the anti-democracy rhetoric I've seen here has been from people opposed to this administration.

So I wouldn't conflate opposition to democracy/embracing authoritarianism with one particular man if that is what you mean by "let the wise man govern."

It's broader than that and more worrying because there are multiple authoritarian factions who agree mainly on democracy being the enemy.

In that sense it's a similar sort of set up heading into WWII

UncleMeat 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No surprise that HN was one of moldbugs targets in the beginning.