Authoritarian tactics of control via crisis, fear, uncertainty and misinformation (mar 1, 1960 – jan 1, 2020)

Description:

Crises and times of insecurity are conducive to the rise of authoritarian leaders.

Authoritarians use a set of tactics and language to appeal to the fears and latent anger of their audience... blaming outsider groups and minorities, attacking basic precepts like diversity, pluralism, education, a free media, rights of expression and publication, democracy, and voting rights as signs of "weakness"... promising a "firm hand", "supporting our people", and "making us great again".
Intentional maintenance of a state of crisis (outlined in Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine) as in wartime or economic downturns is another factor that maintains a population in a state of reactivity. War, and crisis can sometimes be utilized to unite a population or distract them from actual, local causes of unease, like low wages. More recently, immigration has come back to the top as a topic of distraction. In Germany, xenophobia has a long history and it was a major factor in the popular rise of Adolf Hitler, leading to mass executions and ethnic cleansing of Jews, principally, and other minorities.

These are followed by militant solutions, restrictive laws and selective enforcement against outsider groups. Among these militant acts are banning and attacking outsider groups and their neighborhoods and places of worship.

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