For all of us who know bits of history but very little detail, I founbd an article comparing

[napi21]

Chariman Mao's reign in China to DT in 2020. Mao was a lot more radical, but it's astonishing how similar the plans of these "leaders" were in their efforts to establishing total control.

Here's a link to the article:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-cult-of-mao-1966-v-2020_3604850.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-11-1

[Wounded Bear]

1. Authoritarians throughout history have used a similar playbook...

the details differ over the years as technology has changed, but the basics are pretty similar.

History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.

[Hortensis]

12. Umhm. And they have to work from the same list of fascistic tactics to

both get and keep control, RW dictator or socialist central committee. That's why LW and RW populist leaders and followers share so many similarities, in spite of big differences in the ideology and promises made.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Epoch Times is a far-right site that is full of conspiracy theories.

[czarjak]

4. And how!

[napi21]

5. I didn't know that, but I did read the article. There does appear to be a strong similarity

the both guy's MO.

[Mike 03]

8. Yes, but your main point is correct.

[jalan48]

3. The Epoch Times is an extreme right wing newspaper.

Pro-Trump conspiracy theories and disinformation
The Epoch Times has championed President Donald Trump's Spygate conspiracy theory in its news coverage and advertising, and the Epoch Media Group's Edge of Wonder videos on YouTube have spread the far-right, pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory.[18]

The Edge of Wonder hosts, according to The Daily Dot, "embrace QAnon completely" even though "almost nothing QAnon has foretold has actually taken place."[72] An NBC News report found that two of Edge of Wonder's hosts have been a creative director and chief photo editor at The Epoch Times respectively. The newspaper promoted Edge of Wonder videos in dozens of Facebook posts through 2019.[18]

During the February 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucuses, The Epoch Times shared viral disinformation from the conservative group Judicial Watch that falsely alleged inflated voter rolls.[73] The claim, which went viral on Facebook, was debunked by fact checkers and the Iowa secretary of state.[74][75] A Harvard media expert quoted by NBC News said The Epoch Times employed a "classic disinformation tactic" known as "trading up the chain," in which false stories are repackaged and shared.[73]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times#Pro-Trump_conspiracy_theories_and_disinformation

[Mike 03]

6. Putting aside the Epoch Times, your observation is right on.

There's a tremendous book about this which is a historical survey of autocrats from Mussolini right up to Trump I can't recommend highly enough. It's called Strongmen, by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Over the last few days I've been thinking about some similarities between what Trump is doing with the coronavirus and some of the famines that Stalin helped to happen in the 1930s. Not a perfect analogy, but I can't stop thinking about it.

[Hortensis]

13. +1. My thinking about weaponizing pandemic to keep power

also includes the Republican congressional leadership, because they're trying to seize and keep power and because they refused from the beginning to control it. Some of the same people once helped write and pass legislation to make sure we'd be able to take necessary actions to control pandemic disease when it showed up...

Thanks for the reminder about that book. I need to wait for the price to come down, but it's going to take forever...

[marylandblue]

7. The article falsely compares Mao to political correctness.

It compares todays "mobs" to the mobs of the Cultural Revolution, but they are missing a key element. Mao ran a personality cult. Whatever the faults of today's left, we don't have an authoritarian leader to dominate all and crush opposition.

You are right that Trump has some Maoist tactics, but the article doesn't say that.

[Mike 03]

9. For some reason, some people like to compartmentalize Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot

away from other dictators, but someone (maybe Masha Gessen or maybe Timothy Snyder or the new biographer of Stalin?) said it is more constructive not to view them as left/right but rather as two sides of the same coin, so I study both Hitler and Stalin, and Pol Pot and Pinochet. There are similarities and I think it's crazy to make special excuses for far left dictators. One difference is they are already closed systems, so a democracy isn't being wrecked when a new dictator comes to power. They are assuming a power that in theory already belongs to them. (True also of N Korea).

[DeeNice]

10. This. Thank you. /nt

[Wounded Bear]

14. When left or right move to the extremes, there is little to offer between them...

One prime example, the Eastern Front of WWII in Europe. RW Nazis and LW Communists duked it out in the most vicious and sadistic war since Genghis Khan's days. Both sides engaged in senseless cruelties and depredations. The Germans did it to the Soviets when they invaded, and the Soviets returned the favor when they reconquered their own territory and expanded their sphere of influence into Eastern Europe. There were no "good guys" in that theater.

Authoritarians tend to use their authority in evil, ruthless ways.

[beachbumbob]

11. The US is NOT China, so comparisons are mute. The chinese people were bred to be compliant/serfs