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Professor slams US authoritarianism and spells out how to resist it

King’s College London professor Sam Greene researches authoritarianism. And he has just written about how the US is “living an authoritarian present” under Trump. At the same time, he describes what steps are necessary to change that.

He stresses that:

authoritarianism isn’t on the brink of winning in America. It won yesterday. It won today. Unless something changes, it will win tomorrow.

And strong words of regret or opposition can’t stop it. Instead, “resistance requires risk“, he insists:

Resistance requires putting yourself in harm’s way. Taking an economic hit. Making a real sacrifice to demonstrate solidarity to someone who has no other reason to trust you. Resistance isn’t protest. It’s persistent disruption and non-compliance. And it’s imagination.

He adds:

There is no safe resistance, no part-time rebellion.

It’s not just warning lights. We’re already there, Trump even said it.

If the US role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza or long history of global terror hadn’t already convinced the world of Washington’s disinterest in humanity and the rule of law, the first days of 2026 have. Because:

Regarding his unapologetic violation of international norms in Venezuela, Trump clearly stated:

We can do it again… Nobody can stop us.

The only limitation on his lawlessness, he admitted, is:

My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me… I don’t need international law.

Accordingly, he has gone on to threaten a number of other countries:

Recognise and dump the enablers

Hundreds of health professionals had already called out Trump’s “malignant narcissism” and antisocial personality disorder — the characteristics that really set him apart from previous caretakers of the US empire. But out of misanthropic self-interest, similarly problematic billionaires rocketed him into his second presidency regardless.

Billionaires and the voters they managed to bring along for the ride weren’t the only ones responsible for nurturing Trump’s regime into open authoritarianism, though. Establishment journalists and politicians around the world have enabled it too.

So-called journalists have inexplicably described US acts of war as “self-defense” while still playing into the warped idea that the US is somehow ‘the good guy’ and everyone else are ‘the bad guys’. And even reporters outside the US have consciously toned down their framing as much as possible.

Establishment Democrats also enabled Trump’s unaccountability by nurturing unaccountability themselves (with a few virtue-signalling sprinkles, of course). And in opposition, they’ve been near invisible. Their spineless international allies, meanwhile, have thrown little more than toothless statements at Trump:

In the UK, Trump bootlicker Keir Starmer has bent over backwards to emulate Trump as much as possible. The government’s stance that we can’t stand up to Trump because we need the US is not the “masterclass” some journalists call it. Instead, it’s committing the UK to joining the US on its descent further into authoritarianism.

Other European countries, meanwhile, are happy to jump off the cliff too:

The key to fighting back

The first step to fighting back is to speak truth fearlessly. Authoritarians like Trump won’t stop if we just speak about them nicely. But society absolutely will be less prepared to fight back if we water down our words. So we need to insist on speaking about all this more directly:

Part of that is making it completely clear to everyone that the attacks on international law don’t just affect people in faraway countries. They absolutely will affect us too, as the increasing repression of dissent in the UK has shown. So we need an international approach of solidarity to fight back.

When dealing with a narcissist like Trump, meanwhile, clinical psychologist Jocelyn Sze says we need to “break out of reactivity” (like responding to every vile act with a protest or statement). Instead, we need to work out and enforce collective:

Boundaries, civic mobilization and long-haul strategy

With genocidal powers like the US, Israel, and their enablers, only real consequences will make them think twice before acting:

As Sam Greene said, there isn’t just a danger of authoritarianism in the US. It’s already here. Right now. And if we want to stop it, we need to get serious, fast.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.