What are your primary metrics for identifying an authoritarian?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by modernpaladin, Jan 3, 2021.

  1. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Here's mine:

    1- when someone advocates for restrictions on The People to access and/or trade weaponry that won't also apply to certain groups like private bodyguards and police

    2- when someone advocates for restrictions on The People to access and/or trade certain resources (like marijuana) that won't also apply to certain groups like big business who can afford a permit

    3- when someone advocates for restrictions on the free access of information ('fake news', fairness doctrine) that is neither proprietary in nature nor strategically valuable to enemy foreign powers
     
  2. Coachac

    Coachac Well-Known Member

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    His last name ends with Trump.
     
  3. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There are 25,000 census records available for the last name 'Trump'

    Is that really your metric or are you just virtue signalling in my thread because you don't want to come up with a real answer?
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
  4. Kranes56

    Kranes56 Banned

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    How would you measure that?
     
  5. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Who are you talking to and in reference to what?
     
  6. Kranes56

    Kranes56 Banned

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    To you, and your way of determining whether or not someone is authoritarian.
     
  7. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I provided my three primary metrics in the OP. Did you read it, or did you just read the title?

    If you read the OP and still don't understand my metric, can you specify which part is unclear?
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
  8. Coachac

    Coachac Well-Known Member

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    virtue signaling? Good one, I had to Google it. Not easy to keep up with everything these days.

    As far as how many Trumps there are? Donald right now is the poster boy of an authoritarian, who seems hell bent, by any means necessary to keep his authority. Considering what he is doing to the Country at this time, no other definition seems important to me at this time.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
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  9. Kranes56

    Kranes56 Banned

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    I read it. Thought it was dumb, but I want to know. How do you measure it. What counts as in favor of giving "permits to corporations who can afford it" but not society as a whole? Is there a scale? What about other drugs? Does that count? Why guns? Would a person who advocates for a male only police force say that only men can have guns not count as authoritarian, etc.

    You have lots of problems with your questions that don't actually get at what authoritarianism is.
     
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  10. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    IIUC, you're saying you identify an authoritarian as someone who is unwilling to give up their authority. Thats a good metric. You should've just started with that :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
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  11. Coachac

    Coachac Well-Known Member

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    Don’t hate me cause I’m cute :D
     
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  12. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Example: The farm down the road may grow 20 acres of marijuana, and I may buy marijuana from them, but I may not grow or sell any of my own.

    Not sure what you mean by 'scale'. Yes, other drugs count too. What have we gained by allowing pharmaceutical corporations a monopoly on the distribution of opioids? Certainly not a reduction in addicts...

    I specified 'weaponry' with the emphasis on the caveat "that won't also apply to certain groups like private bodyguards and police" because I don't view all restrictions on weaponry and/or guns as authoritarian in nature, but specifically I view restrictions that apply to me but not others as authoritarian in nature. If you want to restrict everyone from certain weaponry, thats a different debate. But if you want me and most other individuals to not be able to protect ourselves from the criminal and/or elite class who can be demonstrated to regularly engage in and get away with crime, its pretty likely that you at least condone that activity or at worst are intent on engaging in it yourself.

    That would be restricting guns to one group but not another, so that would definitely qualify as authoritarianism.

    The title of this thread is "What are your primary metrics for identifying an authoritarian?". Feel free to clarify what your primary metrics for identifying an authoritarian are...
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
  13. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't hate anyone that doesn't wish me harm. I just can't stand trying to 'debate' with subjectivity. Its like trying to chitchat with a recording... utterly pointless.
     
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  14. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    It is the arbitrary use of political power.
     
  15. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I associate authoritarianism with a flagrant disregard for the rights of the people.

    I associate totalitarianism with state control of almost every area of life, without necessarily violating rights.

    Eg: London's CCTV set up is totalitatian, but not authoritatian.
     
  16. Patricio Da Silva

    Patricio Da Silva Well-Known Member Donor

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    The metric for authoritarianism has to do with rule of men, as opposed to rule of law.

    If someone advocates and votes, and thus gets enacted, a law you find restrictive, that's a law enacted by elected politicians, which is via 'consent of the governed'.

    that's not authoritarianism.

    But, if a president oversteps his authority and calls for the arrest of citizens, directs the DOJ to do so, THAT is authoritarianism.
     
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  17. Idahojunebug77

    Idahojunebug77 Well-Known Member

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    Anyone that supports and advocates the authority of a strong central government.
     
  18. God & Country

    God & Country Well-Known Member

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    1. Illegally seizes power. 2. Immediately declares nation's laws null and declares that they are now the law. 3. Their definition of law is whatever they say it is. 4. They maintain power by terrorizing the populace by controlling goods, services and food. 5. Rarely violent themselves, they depend on pitting citizens against one another. 6. Supports lawlessness and only punishes those who act against them.
     
  19. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Controlled/compelled speech is a biggie.

    Welfare State is another.
     
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  20. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    For me it is usually word choice. People can support or oppose whatever they want for whatever reason they want and not be really an authoritarian. When they choose to use any of the following words in connection with their advocacy, I tend to say they are an authoritarian: force, make, deny, compel, defeat, punish, use. There are others, but those are the more common ones (and they are usually accompanied by holier than thou rhetoric toward anyone who doesn't agree with them 100%).

    On message boards, it seems like authoritarians have a 60-40 democratic lean compared to a republican one. (really more like 3-1 but I was feeling generous).
     
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  21. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    There's a difference between job requirements and because you want one.
     
  22. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    There are two classes of authoritarian. The first wants to control others. The second wants to be controlled by others. They both tread the path of elitism, one knowingly, the other mostly unknowingly, to arrive at the same destination—authoritarianism.
     
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  23. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    so what do you call it when the majority votes to oppress the rights a minority?
     
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  24. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Whats the difference?
     
  25. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    Whether or not you need one.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021

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