1-I’ve seen a version of this argument floating around on Bluesky & hellsite this last week. I’ve also seen “if Trump wins & usher in authoritarianism, we [young folks] would fight it & restore true democracy to America.” Let me tell you why this is absolute bullshit, & you will restore nothing.

"Nach Hitler kommen wir." Ah, the eternal hope of the doomed.

Remember: Trump's minions-in-waiting are planning to have him invoke the Insurrection Act immediately, under the guise of securing the border. But the IA brings a host of powers that enable authoritarianism.

I *haven't* seen this, but I will make the observation that 'fighting Trump to restore democracy' AFTER he's re-elected will be several orders of magnitude more difficult than simply, you know, voting and doing a bit of volunteer work to make sure BIDEN is re-elected.

2-I am not going to cite academic work on authoritarianism nor list theories. I am going to speak as someone who KNOWS what authoritarianism is. I lived it. I saw what it did to my family, friends, & me. If the US fails in the authoritarian grasp of Trump, there is no return. He would use

They sit on their hands with a fascist Supreme Court in power while Polish women very strongly protested the abortion ban which will soon be reversed and the relevant fake judges are sitting worried.

Not to worry.The gun owners will defend us against tyranny. /s

They have no idea, do they?

Considering that our police forces are beehives of fascism, we're half the way there already.

in fascist america: - your friends or family betray you out of fear - the cops brutalize anyone without impunity (ok no diff to now) - your entire live potentially used against you - you will loose any selfrespect,selfworth or hope in the future - there will be no way back without war.

All this, but in communism = my family's experience, and mine. If America does become an autocracy, it will be a vicious and resilient one. And our courts, guns, federal structure? None of them will save us.