[SilverElfin]

I don’t like most of the content from this guy, but he’s right about this one. If you can abuse your political position to turn private corporations into your slaves to abuse others, our political system is broken. Especially when you outsource actions that the government would itself be restricted from.

[senko]

> our political system is broken

I mean, I agree with you, but if you've only realized that now, you've missed out on some really weird stuff going on for the past couple of years.

[scottLobster]

Welcome to the return of history. This is hardly the first time or industry where the US government has forced compliance that wasn't necessarily in the public interest.

And the corporations won't fight this. They're in it for the money and they're willing to bring actual gold bars to White House to ensure it keeps rolling in. They know what they're doing is corrosive and debasing, the more conscientious of them probably want to vomit on the inside. But they mostly suck it up and do it anyway, for their investors will discipline them if they don't.

Either people run candidates and vote for the ones that campaign on stopping this, or it happens.

[inigyou]

> for their investors will discipline them

Worse: they'll be sacked and replaced with someone who will.

Like Trump's FCC chair was saying he'll revoke the license of stations that make republicans look bad. Those stations will then be replaced with more copies of Newsmax. CBS either toes the line or it gets shut down and replaced by a station that will.

[mmooss]

CBS is owned by Trump supporters. They aren't being forced against their will, they are acting on their own political motivation.

[mmooss]

> the return of history

The idea that somehow the current actions are 'real' history and what people were doing before is fake just feeds the claim of inevitabiility, a basic psyops maneuver - you can't win; our victory is inevitable.

People have made history for centuries of Enlightenment - the whole idea is that we can control our fates as individuals through reason and compassion (humanism), and we have done it. We have transformed the world. The only problem is people giving up - despite the incredible success of this idea over centuries - and accepting that they can't control their fate. Certainly MAGA-ish conservatives believe they can make history.

[scottLobster]

"The End of History and the Last Man" was a book written in 1992 about the end of the Cold War and how previous historical patterns no longer applied, and Western liberal democracy would sweep the world and usher in a world of peace.

The "return of history" is snarkily pointing out how historical trends have been reasserting themselves, and Fukuyama (the author) was, at best, overly optimistic

[mmooss]

Fair enough, but,

> historical trends have been reasserting themselves

Western liberalism is an historical trend, just like the others.

[harimau777]

The parent was likely referencing the idea that the end of the Cold War represented "the end of history".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_history

[tmountain]

It’s not the type of behavior that you find in nations operating based on the rule of law. It’s emblematic of where the things are heading for the United States. A rapid descent into fascism (call it what it is).

[inigyou]

At what point can we declare the Rubicon has been crossed?

[ajb]

At some point, they will start using violence to discipline their own side. Today, the people currently dismantling the rule of law, still in their heads imagine that they can do that and retain the benefits themselves. That's why the footsoldiers can still to some extent be intimidated into backing down by citizen opposition - they don't actually fear their own captains more.

After they use violence to discipline their own side, everything gets much more serious. But it's also a point of risk for them, because it might break their coalition. So it's important to defend the rights even of those who are on the side of autocracy . Because if they are successful in establishing violence as their right over even their own allies and followers, there may be no way back without civil war.

[orwin]

Yeah, they started with minorities, but they going against socialists/communists as loyalty tests, to close rank, and you will likely see violence against their own side shortly after they start putting political opponent in jail.

At first jail, where they release them after a day or two, then in warehouses converted into jail-hospitals, where people stay weeks, get treated, sometime lose teeth. Almost always syndicalists and KPD supporters, sometimes SPD local leaders, it was often political?

Oh sorry, you talked about the US?

[fzeroracer]

I would say the rubicon was crossed a little over a month ago when the government started using a paramilitary group to kill American citizens but people's definition of 'rubicon' is going to vary wildly depending on how much of the boot they're deep throating. And unfortunately, the majority of the tech industry has it pretty deep.

[insin]

The brownshirts are already on the streets

[AnimalMuppet]

January 6, 2021 (and the events leading up to it) was certainly a line, but maybe not the line.

I would say, when the administration openly refuses to follow a court decision. (And in practice, it's going to have to be a Supreme Court decision, because the administration seems to appeal every lower court decision that is against them.) Or, when they openly and blatantly interfere in the 2026 election (either by cancelling it via martial law or state of emergency, or interfere in it via troops or ICE in the streets or state of emergency, or after the fact refusing to accept the results because of some claim of invalidity).

[inigyou]

Then the Rubicon was crossed in April 2025. https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-defies-supreme-...

[spicymaki]

The tech crowd is so complicit these days the rubicon can only be crossed the moment the paramilitaries are at their door and press the Ring doorbell.

[harimau777]

IMHO, the Rubicon was crossed when COINTELPRO was started.

[tmountain]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/america-fascism-tr...

[InexSquirrel]

Definitively, if Trump gets voted in for a third term.

[some_random]

Serious question, do you think that the government shouldn't have authority over corporations in its jurisdiction? Not that this is necessarily the right way to do it, but this is rhetoric that would make a devout libertarian blush. Ultimately the government is threatening to nationalize what is new a key wartime industry in preparation for war, that does not seem to me like an abuse of power.

[harimau777]

Its an abuse of power because it's a need they made up for a war they instigated.

[antonvs]

This seems like a classic case of "the boy who cried wolf". Almost everything Gary Marcus says has been trivially dismissable, and often soon proven wrong.

If someone like that wants to be in a position to warn society of actual harms, they'd have to behave differently.