US Autocracy Alert: Who Knew Suppressing Dissent Was Bad?
The article highlights concerns about an 'expert's' four signs of autocracy, including restrictions on independent journalism and government corruption. While this concern is valid, it conveniently sidesteps the decades of state-sponsored surveillance, the 2008 bank bailouts that saw zero bankers jailed, or the 'War on Terror' which systematically stripped civil liberties. It's almost as if
'autocracy' only becomes newsworthy when it's politically expedient. One might also ponder how much 'independent journalism' thrives when outlets like *The Independent* (and many others) have consistently amplified narratives that benefit military-industrial complexes and foreign policy agendas, often ignoring the very real suppression of pro-Palestinian voices or the actual FBI targeting of
activists documented for years. The inconvenient truth is, the groundwork for many 'autocratic' tendencies was laid long before recent political shifts, often with the media's tacit, if not explicit, compliance. Perhaps the expert should check the receipts on who funds much of our foreign policy consent-manufacturing operation (hint: OpenSecrets.org).