I study authoritarianism for a living, so I do not say this...
Sam Greene@samagreene
11 views
Jan 09, 2026
~4 min read
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I study authoritarianism for a living, so I do not say this lightly: America isn't facing an authoritarian future. America is living an authoritarian present.
(A long 🧵)
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(A long 🧵)
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Hollywood would have us believe that authoritarianism wins when Voldemort takes over Hogwarts or Sauron conquers Gondor. But that's wrong. There are no pitched battles between good and evil. Democracy dies in banality and plain daylight, not glory and darkness.
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Power is a process, not a thing someone holds. Authoritarian power is thus a process in which we decide not to defend ourselves -- because it's risky, uncertain, or just inconvenient.
Authoritarianism wins every day citizens decide not to fight. To wait. To watch.
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Authoritarianism wins every day citizens decide not to fight. To wait. To watch.
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Authoritarianism wins every day citizens believe that they can't win, because the deck is stacked against them -- and so authoritarians bluster.
That they can't win, because they don't have enough allies -- and so authoritarians atomize.
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That they can't win, because they don't have enough allies -- and so authoritarians atomize.
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Authoritarianism wins every day citizens believe that they don't need to fight, because things aren't that bad -- and so authoritarians lie.
That they don't need to fight, because the fight doesn't concern them -- ad so authoritarians divide.
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That they don't need to fight, because the fight doesn't concern them -- ad so authoritarians divide.
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Authoritarianism wins every day decide to wait until the moment is right -- and so authoritarians hedge and feint.
Authoritarianism wins every day citizens take a day off -- and so authoritarians never rest.
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Authoritarianism wins every day citizens take a day off -- and so authoritarians never rest.
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Authoritarians don't win because they control the guns or the media or the courts or the streets.
Authoritarians win because they control imaginations. Because they make it impossible for citizens to imagine solidarity. To imagine justice. To imagine victory.
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Authoritarians win because they control imaginations. Because they make it impossible for citizens to imagine solidarity. To imagine justice. To imagine victory.
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When an authoritarian lays siege to institutions or universities or the streets of our cities, those are not his targets. He's laying siege to our imaginations.
He's teaching us that no place is safe.
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He's teaching us that no place is safe.
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When an authoritarian runs roughshod over Congress or the Courts, those are not his targets. He's running roughshod over our imaginations.
He's teaching us that we cannot withstand.
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He's teaching us that we cannot withstand.
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When an authoritarian excoriates his opponents as radicals and extremists, those are not his targets. He's excoriating our imaginations.
He's teaching us that we are alone.
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He's teaching us that we are alone.
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But the authoritarian is not the architect of authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism is forged by his acolytes, who sacrifice autonomy in the name of power.
It is forged by his opponents, who hedge in the name of prudence.
It is forged by his citizens, who cower.
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Authoritarianism is forged by his acolytes, who sacrifice autonomy in the name of power.
It is forged by his opponents, who hedge in the name of prudence.
It is forged by his citizens, who cower.
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There is no power in supplication. No opposition in prudence. No citizenship in cowering. There is no safe resistance, no part-time rebellion. Alas, these lessons are generally learned late.
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Once authoritarianism takes root, it is extraordinarily hard to dislodge -- not because it corrodes institutions, but because it corrodes imaginations. People forget with remarkable speed that another kind of life was possible. And they cease to seek it.
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Authoritarians persist in power not because they are loved, or even because they are feared, but because people stop believing that a better alternative is possible. Once lost, that belief is very hard to rekindle.
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I'll be honest with you: I'm not sure that belief exists in America right now. Americans, by and large, stopped resisting long before Minneapolis. There was no real movement to protect reproductive rights. BLM fell well short of making Black lives really matter.
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I don't mean to denigrate the people who have been protesting ICE for months, or who risked their lives for BLM. Their dedication is beyond question.
I do, however, mean to denigrate the hundreds of millions of other people--myself included, honestly--who did not stand up.
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I do, however, mean to denigrate the hundreds of millions of other people--myself included, honestly--who did not stand up.
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America's government has claimed the right to ignore its own laws. To invade neighborhoods with military force. To prosecute its opponents. To dehumanize. To kill.
Anger without action is not resistance.
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Anger without action is not resistance.
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Resistance *is* possible. We're seeing it right now in Iran. Even in states where authoritarian violence and control are much greater than in America, people can paralyze a system and reengineer the process of power. But resistance requires risk.
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Resistance requires putting yourself in harm's way. Taking an economic hit. Making a real sacrifice to demonstrate solidarity to someone who has no other reason to trust you. Resistance isn't protest. It's persistent disruption and non-compliance. And it's imagination.
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Americans have tremendous advantages: Decentralized elections. A diverse media. Independent civil society. Resistance requires recognizing that these are vestiges of a system that needs to be rebuilt, rather than insurance against an authoritarianism that is already here.
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So, no, authoritarianism isn't on the brink of winning in America. It won yesterday. It won today. Unless something changes, it will win tomorrow.
But it doesn't have to.
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But it doesn't have to.
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