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Thug-o-cracy
Amidst the distraction, the real danger
You can say a lot of things about the commutation of sentences of the January 6th rioters. How the release of these 1600 violent individuals sets an amoral precedent for our children to whom we strive to impart the lesson that negative actions have real consequences; how it may unmoor January 6th, an unprecedentedly well documented moment of history, from the memories of a world of witnesses; how it undermines our global reputation as a nation based on the rule of law. Yes you can say all these things. But at these early moments as a regime emerges, what is far more urgent to say is that these pardons are the first filaments that might weave themselves together into a thug-o-cracy.
What exactly is a thug-o-cracy?
It is a government born out of an impatience with rules. One that might lose a rational, word-based or electoral argument but then choose to say that, actually, because of the force available at hand, the argument has been decided to the contrary.
1600 newly liberated accomplices — about a battalion-and-a-half worth of radicalized individuals who owe a favor to a leader
Thug-o-cracies have been born as much out of the left as out of the right. Lenin, when he…
