Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“He might be the most well-read person I know. He’s a scholar who has studied authoritarianism for decades, but he’s also an activist who has provided aid and support for dissident movements fighting authoritarian governments dating back to the Cold War — at times at some risk to himself. Because of that work, he’s seen the abuses of authoritarian states firsthand. So he’s been scornful over the years when Americans have hyperbolically likened their political opponents to Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pinochet, or some other totalitarian figure. I suspect that once you’ve seen real authoritarianism on the ground, that sort of posturing probably seems insulting. In other words, I’ve always found him to be a sober realist about these things. So at the conference I asked him straight up, on a scale of one to ten, how worried he is about what’s happening in the U.S. right now.” (08/26/25)