The silent coup is working.

Video Description

Tyrants are getting sneakier, and I want to show you their secrets. Help us make more videos by grabbing a poster, tee, or coffee mug: https://shop.spectacles.news — Support us on Patreon: https://spectacles.link/patreon Watch this video uncensored and ad-free: https://spectacles.link/nebula Hang out on our Discord: https://spectacles.link/discord Review our script: https://www.spectacles.news/so-this-is-how-democracy-dies/ For citations, turn on CC. Sources below ↓ — About us: Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world. — KEY SOURCES - Francis Ludwig Carsten, The Rise of Fascism, United Kingdom: Batsford Academic and Educational, 1980. - Ozan O. Varol, “Stealth Authoritarianism,” in Iowa Law Review 100 (2015) - Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg, “How to Lose a Constitutional Democracy,” in UCLA Law Review 78 (2018). — ALL SOURCES [not all could fit within YouTube's description word count limit. for sources AA-AJ, please visit the link above for our script] A. Stephen S. Large, “Nationalist Extremism in Early Shōwa Japan: Inoue Nisshō and the Blood Pledge Corps Incident, 1932,” Modern Asian Studies, 35.3 (July 2005): 533-564 B. Richard Sakwa, “Politics in Russia,” in Developments in Russian Politics 9 (eds. Richard Sakwa, Henry E. Hale, and Stephen White), (Red Globe Press: 2019). C. Alexandra Odynova, “Putin signs law allowing him to serve 2 more terms as Russia's president,” CBS News, 5 April 2021. D. Stanley G. Paine, A History of Fascism, 1914-45 (Routledge: 1995). E. Attila Agh, “Bumpy Road of the Hungarian Administrative Reforms: From Political Over-Centralization to Public Policy Failures,” in Politika i Uprava (2014). F. Patrick Kingsley and Benjamin Novak, "The Website That Shows How a Free Press Can Die,” in The New York Times, 24 November 2018. G. Kim Lane Scheppele, “Not Your Father’s Authoritarianism: The Creation of the ‘Frankenstate,’” APSA Newsletter (Winter 2013), 5-9. H. Michal Stambulski, “Constitutional Populism and the Rule of Law in Poland,” in Anti-Constitutional Populism (eds. Martin Krygier, Adam Czarnota, and Wojciech Sadurski), (Cmabridge University Press, 2022). I. Nicholas Mulder, “The revolt against liberalism: what’s driving Poland and Hungary’s nativist turn?,” in The Guardian, 24 June 2021. J. Donald J. Trump, “Inaugural Address,” 20 January 2017. K. Donald J. Trump, “2016 RNC Speech,” 21 July 2016. L. V-Dem, “Multiparty Elections,” 2025. M. Ginger Gibson, “Trump says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’ Biden campaign likens comments to Hitler,” NBC News, 17 December 2023. N. Human Rights Watch, “Russia: Criminal Libel Law a Blow to Free Expression,” 16 July 2012. O. Adam Easton, “Retirement age: Poland broke EU law with ruling on judges,” BBC 5 November 2019. P. Eric Bradner, “Here’s what happened when Senate Republicans refused to vote on Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination,” CNN, 19 September 2020. Q. Trump v. United States 23 US 939 (2024). R. Exec. Order No. 13957, 2020 (Amended 2025). S. Peter Stone, “The authoritarian playbook’: Trump targets judges, lawyers … and law itself,” The Guardian, 25 March 2025. T. Melissa Quinn, “Judge finds Elon Musk and DOGE's shutdown of USAID likely unconstitutional,” CBS News, 19 March 2025. U. Troy Closson, “Columbia Agrees to Trump’s Demands After Federal Funds Are Stripped,” The New York Times, 21 March 2025. V. Edward Wong, Charlie Savage, Hamed Aleaziz, and Luis Ferré-Sadurní, “Trump Administration Seeks to Expel a Green-Card Holder Over Student Protests, The New York Times, 10 March 2025. W. Alan Feuer and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “Justice Department Stonewalls Federal Judge Over Deportation Flights,” The New York Times, 17 March 2025. X. Alexandra Villareal, “What is US birthright citizenship and what does Trump’s executive order do?” The Guardian, 23 January 2025. Y. Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). Z. Harukata Takenata, Failed Democratization in Prewar Japan: Breakdown of a Hybrid Regime, (Stanford University Press, 2014). — 00:00 INTRO 02:54 I - LEVIATHONIA 08:58 II - FASCISM 12:59 III - EVOLUTION 17:57 IV - AMERICA 24:20 V - CONCLUSION — Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images