(08-05-2020, 09:18 AM)David Horn Wrote: It's interesting that Anne Applebaum is a Republican, or was when she lived in the US. It's also interesting that she looks left to find autocrats, when all the autocrats rising now are on the right. Yes, there are autocrats that originated on the left: mostly Marxist in origin but God knows what they are today. To her credit, she sees the autocrats on the right, acknowledges them as such, and discusses them at length.
Poland is of special interest because her husband is a Polish politician. Here, she has personal knowledge of how this happens and why. That's the essence of the book, as far as I can tell. I have mine on order.
Aside from Raul Castro and Nicolas Maduro, the authoritarians really are on the Right (and in view of China abandoning Marxism and North Korea becoming an absolute monarchy in all but name, I can consider neither on the Left).
People have learned almost everywhere that Marxism-Leninism is a fraud more effective at creating a body count than at improving lives. Fascists have often incorporated Leftist memes as in National Socialism and even National Bolshevism. Adopting the methods and ruthlessness of Marxism-Leninism or Stalinism in the service of a reactionary agenda is fascism.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.