Throughout history, totalitarian/ tyrannical regimes have risen because people failed to see warning signs of the ideology or just chose to dismiss warning signs. Here are warning signs you should look out for.
1.)Promoting opinions as facts: Many totalitarian regimes are notorious for promoting opinions as facts. Examples are the 4th wave feminists believing masculinity is toxic and radical liberals believing certain groups are privileged.
2.) Forcing an agenda/indoctrination: When a group of people has to force their agenda, you know their ideology is flawed and will not be welcomed. The more the agenda is forced, the stronger the resistance to the agenda because people do not want totalitarian regime. Examples of forced agenda include using college courses to promote liberal stances rather than teach a course from an unbiased perspective,
3.) Politicizing science: Also known as weaponizing science. This is a major red flag. Once an ideology starts to weaponize science, you know their intentions are not benign in nature. When an ideology politicizes science, it distorts facts in an effort to rationalize their extremist opinions. The most susceptible sciences to politicization are usually behavioral sciences like psychiatry, psychology, sociology etc. it’s very common for the liberal/progressive elements within these fields to attach all sorts of labels to people of opposing political views. It’s also an appeal to authority fallacy.
4.) Attacking religion: Many totalitarian regimes were or are known for persecuting a religion or religion in general. Prior to persecution, it started with vocal hostility towards it. Scapegoating is the common type of hostility towards religion, when people of a certain ideology starts to blame all of the world’s problems on religion.
5.) Scapegoating: When an ideology vilifies a certain group or groups of people, you should know that’s a precursor to persecution. Throughout history, when an ideology scapegoated a group, it usually culminated in persecution. A current example of scapegoating is how the radical liberal/progressives who frequently attach the label of “privileged” to Whites, Asians, males, Christians and conservatives/traditionalists.
6.) Censorship: Censorship is very common amongst totalitarian regimes, it is one of the main methods used to keep the masses under control. Websites like Quora and YouTube are notorious for censoring anything they think is “politically incorrect”. Examples of censorship are how Quora removes conservative content and frequently bans conservative users. YouTube also practices censorship by removing videos and removing the ability to comment on and share certain videos.
7.) Intrusive and domineering: One of the most frightening signs of a totalitarian agenda is when an ideology or social movement starts to intrude and try to control the life of their opponents. They’ll stalk, harass and try to ruin the reputation of anyone who does or says something they don’t agree with. An example of this domineering attitude is when the radical liberals/SJWs take things out of context(strawman) and unjustly label people as “racists”, “Sexists”, “homophobes” in an effort to ruin their reputation and careers.
8.) Violent: This should be obvious, any movement that is violent usually has a totalitarian agenda. Antifa is one of these groups that are violent and will attack anyone that disagrees with them, even groups that are supposed to be their allies.
9.)False dichotomy: Totalitarian regimes have a “You’re either with us or against us” mentality. And it’s also common amongst many ideologies and social movements that only tolerate supporters, nothing else. But it's usually the radical liberals who use false dichotomies to promote their agenda.
10.) Bigotry/intolerance and forced uniformality: The inability to accept differences from different groups, is a very frightening sign of a totalitarian agenda indeed. Every totalitarian country throughout history set mandatory standards that each citizen had to meet. Nowadays, movements like antifa, 4thwave feminism and the Green Party all promote radical standards and vilify anyone who doesn’t adhere to them.
11.) Hypocrisy: Many totalitarian ideologies, are known for being hypocrites for not practicing what they preach, especially communist countries. Nowadays, Antifa and the 4th wave feminist movement frequently show that they don’t practice what preach by doing the same things they claim to be against.
12.) Dividing the masses: divide and conquer has worked throughout history to bring down mighty nations and install new leaderships. Stirring the pot is how certain movements provoke conflict between between various groups. For example, radical liberals in recent years have a tendency to provoke conflict by causing distrust between the sexes and also distrust between the classes. This division puts society at the risk of being taken over by one of the movements.
13.) Clashing with culture: Totalitarian regimes are notorious for suppressing cultural practices they consider to be opposite of the regime’s ideals. Whether it be viewing certain movies, publicly listening to certain songs, publicly practicing certain religions, dressing a certain way in public, heavily restricting what you can buy or sell etc. Totalitarian regimes control all that. Antifa and 4th wave feminism are notorious for their attempts at changing the culture of the countries it’s members reside in.
14.) Misinformation: Biased sources in totalitarian regimes are used to spread misinformation to keep the masses dumbed down. But social movements with totalitarian agendas also use biased sources like Huffington post, CNN and others to misinform the masses as well.
15.) Sycophancy and fanaticism: When people refuse to question their own social movement/ideology, that’s when you know the people in question are under control of the ideology. You often wonder how those people can even support the ideology even when the ideology is doing things that are morally questionable. This is because the people in question have been successfully brainwashed, defeatists and or think they can get special favors in return for their servitude. Examples of sycophants are who suck up to antifa and 4th wave feminism.
16.)bandwagoning/sheeple: When people willingly seek out something just because it’s the cool thing do, those people are known as “sheeple”, a sign that the people in question have bought into the propaganda of the social movement/ideology. And anyone who doesn’t guy into it, gets ostracized.
17.)Trying to change the government: This is perhaps the most obvious sign on the list, when an ideology/social movement tries to change the government, you know they have a totalitarian agenda. Groups like Antifa, Commuinst party USA and 4th wave feminism all desire to change the government in some way and not in a good way.
18.)Opportunism: The way totalitarian regimes take control of countries is taking opportunities when they see them. When an ideology or social movement matches all or most of the signs on this list, you can almost be certain they wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of an opportunity in order to gain power.
19.) Attempting to influence other countries: Much like totalitarian regimes that exported influence outside of their borders, many social movements today like to spread their influence to other countries that have different stances. And if the countries resist the influence, the social movements try to paint the country as being oppressive and evil, which is ironic. Examples of ideologies exporting their influence are Communist expansion during Cold War and how currently radical liberals vilify conservative countries in East Asia and Eastern Europe just for having different ideals.
20.) Conclusion: Totalitarianism is never a good thing, it’s always accompanied by oppression, cruelty, fear, violence, hate, domination and other negative effects. Which is why it is important to speak out against an ideology whenever you see any signs of proto totalitarianism. The best way to stop totalitarianism is to prevent it from gaining power in the first place.
Fortunately most people have finally learned that totalitarianism in any form is evil and thus are standing up to proto totalitarianism by publicly exposing the totalitarian agendas of extremist groups like antifa and it’s allies.
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