Rise of American Authoritarianism

[grumbler]

Mao's Cultural Revolution was an authoritarian social revolution.

To me that fits the pattern, in that the Cultural Revolution was a move towards authoritarianism accompanied by less tolerance for social differences.

I guess it depends what we mean by "social conservatism". I take it to mean "less tolerance of divergence from the established ideal social norms" rather than "adherence to a specific set of social values" (i.e. small c- conservative protestant nuclear family); you can be a socially conservative polygamous matriarchal heathen, for example, if that's the baseline values of your society and if you support using social and political power to pressure others into conform to polygamous matriarchal heathen behaviour and punish those who diverge from it.

I don't understand your argument.  The Cultural Revolution was authoritarian and was a radical break from the "Four Olds" that created the established, existing social norms.  If you are arguing that Mao was imposing authoritarianism to reinforce the exiisting social norms, I'd say it is pretty clear that you are barking up the wrong tree.  If your overall point is to acknowledge that there can be authoritarian leftist movements like the Cultural Revolution or  Cambodia's Year Zero Program, then I agree.

[Razgovory]

I don't understand your argument. 

You could save us all a lot of time if you were just honest and kept yours posts like this.

[Berkut]

[viper37]

It's not a bad article, but there some things I'm curious about.  There has to be people with authoritarian tendencies in the Democratic party.  How does that manifest?

Far away from any leadership position, for now.
Even if I don't like Sanders, if he started moving on the authoritarian scale too fast, he would be slammed down by his own party. 

Castro revolution style is passé, Chavez style is the new way to go for the left.  These people are part of the Democratic Party because it is the leftmost political vector in the US currently, just like all the racists support the Republican party because it's the most socially rightwing party for now.  It seems extremely difficult to push for more than 2 parties in the US, but maybe Trump will achieve it by forcing a split of the GOP, I don't really know.

[Norgy]

Chavez style is the new way for the left?
Where do you even find any evidence of that? The left can't win an election, much less stage a coup most places.

[viper37]

Chavez style is the new way for the left?
Where do you even find any evidence of that? The left can't win an election, much less stage a coup most places.

Morales is in the same style as Chavez, trying to build his base of power and establishing "reforms" that keep him in power.
Before the Honduras coup, the left was pretty much at it too.
In Quebec, it is clear that far left Québec Solidaire, while promoting anarchy, will turn that way once in power (hopefully, never, but they're climbing a few % each election, so who knows).

You just don't see paramilitary guerrilleros of the left anymore, really.  The FARCs are no longer a big threat to Columbia's security, without Venezuela's support.