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I'm not all that worried about authoritarianism in America, for this reason: America is a big country full of lazy, entitled fucks who hate their jobs. And our police are the most lazy / entitled / job-hating of them all.
You are never, ever going to get the number of dedicated spies / censors / secret police you would need to pull off authoritarianism in America; they'll absolutely cut taxes and cut social services, fuck up the economy seven ways to Sunday, and let overseas strongmen run roughshod over smaller countries, but that's what they're about. Even on the limited occasions where Americans do dabble in policing thoughtcrime - the recent spate of book censorship for example - it's half-assed and sloppy and only ever meant as a means to some other end (in the case of book bans, destroying public schools), never something people are actually that excited about in its own right.
So yes, we certainly have to worry about Republicans winning things because they're going to make everybody's lives miserable in a hundred different ways if they do, but authoritarianism is beyond their power to pull off.
Do you have any idea the level of big brother spying already going on in the U.S.? Not to mention the propaganda here is so good you don't even realize you're consuming it.
I've lived in China and I can assure you that by comparison our domestic spying and propaganda are as laughable as our attempts at manufacturing consumer electronics. (and indeed the reasons for our failures at both of those things are somewhat related)
I've been to China, their spying is different and more blatant. But, if you think it isn't happening here, and we're all a bunch of lazy idiots, then you've been duped hard core.
I'm honestly kind of shocked that you could visit China and come back with the conclusion that we aren't a bunch of lazy idiots.
You can paint everyone broad strokes all you want, doesn't make it true. Sure, a sizeable portion of our country has a cult of moron dickheads following trumps every word. That doesn't make the entire country lazy.