In case anybody still wonders what is really going on in North America (particularly what is going on in California right now) and what the end game is, consider the following:

I gave the AI this prompt: “Provide for me a list of the strategies that historically have been used by political leaders with the ambition of fascist, dictatorial power. Provide strategies deployed in a democratic society to undermine constitutional and democratic safeguards and increase centralized power for the would-be dictator.”

Here is the response (unedited). Notice the historical examples cited at the end:

“Throughout history, would-be authoritarians in democratic societies have often followed a recognizable pattern of strategies to erode democratic institutions and consolidate power. While the specific context and tactics vary, the overarching strategies share remarkable consistency across time and geography. Below is a comprehensive list of these strategies, illustrated by historical examples where appropriate.

 1. Undermining Trust in Democratic Institutions
Goal: Discredit checks and balances that limit executive power.
• Attack the judiciary (e.g., claiming courts are biased or corrupt).
• Undermine the press by labeling critical media as “fake news” or “enemies of the people” (e.g., Hitler, Trump, Orbán).
• Vilify the legislature as ineffective or corrupt to justify executive overreach.
• Delegitimize elections before and after voting takes place (e.g., Bolsonaro, Trump, Putin).
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 2. Weaponizing Nationalism and Identity Politics
Goal: Create an “us vs. them” narrative to justify exceptional powers.
• Promote ethnic, religious, or racial nationalism (e.g., Mussolini’s Italian nationalism, Modi’s Hindu nationalism).
• Use scapegoats (immigrants, minorities, political opponents) to rally support and distract from failures.
• Cast dissent as treason or disloyalty to the nation.
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 3. Militarization of Civil Society and Law Enforcement
Goal: Cultivate a loyal enforcement arm outside traditional democratic oversight.
• Create paramilitary groups or private militias (e.g., the Brownshirts in Nazi Germany).
• Increase police powers and reduce oversight.
• Normalize military presence in civilian contexts, including protests and political events.
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 4. Electoral Manipulation
Goal: Maintain the appearance of democracy while undermining its substance.
• Gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics.
• Controlling electoral commissions or judiciary oversight bodies.
• Spreading disinformation or foreign interference to manipulate voters (e.g., Russia, Turkey).
• Extend term limits or eliminate them altogether (e.g., Chávez, Putin, Erdoğan).
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 5. Erosion of the Rule of Law
Goal: Make laws a tool of the regime, not a constraint on it.
• Undermine judicial independence through court packing or defunding.
• Use selective enforcement of laws against political opponents.
• Promote legal impunity for loyalists and security forces.
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 6. Crippling Civil Society
Goal: Eliminate sources of organized opposition.
• Harass NGOs, labor unions, universities, and religious groups.
• Cut funding, impose legal restrictions, or require onerous registration for civil society groups (e.g., Hungary’s attacks on NGOs).
• Target activist leaders with surveillance, arrests, or smear campaigns.
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 7. Capturing or Controlling the Media
Goal: Monopolize the narrative and prevent dissenting voices.
• Take over state media and convert it into a propaganda arm.
• Encourage or coerce private media consolidation under regime-friendly owners.
• Use regulatory threats or advertising dollars to silence critics.
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 8. Co-opting Elites
Goal: Neutralize potential rivals by incorporating them.
• Offer corruption-friendly deals or impunity in exchange for loyalty.
• Weaken opposition parties through divide-and-conquer tactics.
• Co-opt business elites, religious leaders, and military officers.
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 9. Psychological and Information Warfare
Goal: Confuse the public and exhaust resistance.
• Engage in constant disinformation, contradiction, and conspiracy theories.
• Use “whataboutism” to deflect criticism and avoid accountability.
• Normalize authoritarian behavior through repetition and denial (the “Overton window” shift).
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 10. Crisis Exploitation
Goal: Use emergencies to justify exceptional powers.
• Declare states of emergency and extend them indefinitely (e.g., post-Reichstag fire, 9/11, pandemics).
• Capitalize on economic collapse, war, or terrorism to expand surveillance and curtail freedoms.
• Present themselves as the only capable savior in times of chaos.
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 11. Weakening or Eliminating Political Opposition
Goal: Ensure uncontested rule.
• Criminalize or outlaw opposition parties.
• Engage in politically motivated prosecutions.
• Intimidate or imprison opposition leaders (e.g., Navalny in Russia, opposition MPs in Turkey).
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 12. Cult of Personality
Goal: Center power and legitimacy around a single leader.
• Encourage hero worship and the belief that only the leader can “fix” things.
• Rewrite history to glorify the leader and vilify opponents.
• Suppress satire or criticism of the leader as dangerous or immoral.
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 Historical Examples of These Strategies in Practice:
• Adolf Hitler (Germany): Used the Reichstag fire to suspend civil liberties and passed the Enabling Act to assume dictatorial power.
• Benito Mussolini (Italy): Exploited nationalist fervor, used Blackshirts to intimidate opponents, and centralized power through legal manipulation.
• Viktor Orbán (Hungary): Consolidated media ownership, gerrymandered elections, and rewrote the constitution.
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey): After a failed coup, purged tens of thousands, shut down universities, and imprisoned journalists and judges.
• Donald Trump (USA): Repeatedly undermined elections, delegitimized courts and media, and encouraged militia-style groups—though stopped short of full institutional breakdown.
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These strategies often operate gradually and incrementally, cloaked in the language of legality, national security, or even democratic reform. As the historian Timothy Snyder has warned in On Tyranny, “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions — even when that is exactly what they have announced.”