Tyranny is an important phenomenon that operates by principles by which it can be recognized in its early emerging stages, and, if the people are vigilant, prepared, and committed to liberty, countered before it becomes entrenched. The methods used to overthrow a constitutional order and establish a tyranny are well-known. However, despite this awareness, it is surprising how those who have no intention of perpetrating a tyranny can slip into these methods and bring about a tyranny despite their best intentions. Tyranny does not have to be deliberate. Tyrants can fool themselves as thoroughly as they fool everyone else. Here are the top 16 signs that you are living in a tyranny or heading that way. Many thanks to Jon Roland for submitting this list (the original of which is here).
1. Control of public information and opinion: It begins with withholding information, and leads to putting out false or misleading information. A government can develop ministries of propaganda under many guises. They typically call it “public information” or “marketing”.
2. Vote fraud used to prevent the election of reformers: It doesn’t matter which of the two major party candidates are elected if no real reformer can get nominated, and when news services start knowing the outcomes of elections before it is possible for them to know, then the votes are not being honestly counted.
3. Undue official influence on trials and juries: Nonrandom selection of jury panels, exclusion of those opposed to the law, exclusion of the jury from hearing argument on the law, exclusion of private prosecutors from access to the grand jury, and prevention of parties and their counsels from making effective arguments or challenging the government.
4. Usurpation of undelegated powers: This is usually done with popular support for solving some problem, or to redistribute wealth to the advantage of the supporters of the dominant faction, but it soon leads to the deprivation of rights of minorities and individuals.
5. Seeking a government monopoly on the capability and use of armed force: The first signs are efforts to register or restrict the possession and use of firearms, initially under the guise of “protecting” the public, which, when it actually results in increased crime, provides a basis for further disarmament efforts affecting more people and more weapons.
6. Militarization of law enforcement: Declaring a “war on crime” that becomes a war on civil liberties. Preparation of military forces for internal policing duties.
7. Infiltration and subversion of citizen groups that could be forces for reform: Internal spying and surveillance is the beginning. A sign is false prosecutions of their leaders.
8. Suppression of investigators and whistleblowers: When people who try to uncover high level wrongdoing are threatened, that is a sign the system is not only riddled with corruption, but that the corruption has passed the threshold into active tyranny.
9. Use of the law for competition suppression: It begins with the dominant faction winning support by paying off their supporters and suppressing their supporters’ competitors, but leads to public officials themselves engaging in illegal activities and using the law to suppress independent competitors. A good example of this is narcotics trafficking.
10. Subversion of internal checks and balances: This involves the appointment to key positions of persons who can be controlled by their sponsors, and who are then induced to do illegal things. The worst way in which this occurs is in the appointment of judges that will go along with unconstitutional acts by the other branches.
11. Creation of a class of officials who are above the law: This is indicated by dismissal of charges for wrongdoing against persons who are “following orders”.
12. Increasing dependency of the people on government: The classic approach to domination of the people is to first take everything they have away from them, then make them compliant with the demands of the rulers to get anything back again.
13. Increasing public ignorance of their civic duties and reluctance to perform them: When the people avoid doing things like voting and serving in militias and juries, tyranny is not far behind.
14. Use of staged events to produce popular support: Acts of terrorism, blamed on political opponents, followed immediately with well-prepared proposals for increased powers and budgets for suppressive agencies. Sometimes called a Reichstag plot.
15. Conversion of rights into privileges: Requiring licenses and permits for doing things that the government does not have the delegated power to restrict, except by due process in which the burden of proof is on the petitioner.
16. Political correctness: Many if not most people are susceptible to being recruited to engage in repressive actions against disfavored views or behaviors, and led to pave the way for the dominance of tyrannical government.
Contributor: Jon_Roland
Holy crap, I beleive that all of these things are happening in the U.S. to a certain degree. These are the sort of things that I think that the government has or is doing and thats such a horrible feeling. One of the things that has been bothering me here lately is the damn news. Every time you turn on CNN (I dont mean to be insensitive but) that little girl (Kaylie I think is her name) that was killed over a freakin year ago is still being talked about. I mean isnt their a hell of alot bigger problems than what happened to one child. It just makes me so mad, all the people that have died for us overseas and that die in much worse ways, they end up only get a 30 second spot (if even that!) on the news in between two 15 min spots about a little girl that died over a year ago and what a retarded celebrity is wearing!!!! There is no way that the news corperations seriously find these ensignificant things as big enough stories that they have been broadcasting this bull instead of what we really need to know. It deffinately is some form of gov suppression. I understand that to a certain point things should be kept quiet to keep lesser minded people from flipping out but when news is tottally suppressed and then we are fed lies and bull&*#% to keep us blinded. No wonder people end up in the looney bin yammering on about the government and how they control everything. They pretty much do control everything. What we watch, what we learn and what we do with our money, to a certain point. And on top of all this I swear the younger the generation of kids their are the dumber they get, it makes me feel like I'm livin in the movie Idiocracy.
To a certain degree, yes, the government is controlling the news. However, we have the freeEST news in the world. There are some government filters but not as many as there easily could be. Anyways, the reason they keep showing those stupid celebrity stories is because they want people to watch. Celebrities get the most internet hits on search websites like Google, Bing, etc., so the news companies go on and on about them. If people started thinking differently and didn’t care so much, there would be more coverage on other things like the war instead. However, this would take a massive social reform, and I don’t personally think that is going to happen.
its weird how some of this is real in the uk
And in the U.S., but only to a certain extent in both countries.
cool list!
SOUNDS A LOT LIKE MEXICO!!!
There is much tyranny amongst us even in this day and age. It is certainly sad to see.
1. Very interesting and insightful list…a lot seems familiar. Anyways its a very well written list on an important and familiar subject.
Is there this kind of situation in USA?
sounds a lot like north korea…..
About No.14, whatever else you want to say about Hitler, you’ve got to admit that he did a good job gaining complete control of Germany. Yeah, conquering Western Europe is pretty amazing, but gaining control of a country that you were previously jailed in for a failed coup, that’s a pretty decent effort IMO
This is a very thought provoking list.
Some of the points are necessary to a degree in any government. It is the scale that judges whether it is a true tyranny.
Public information dissemination is a duty of all governments. A free press is required to keep it in check. Press freedom cannot be absolute. Crime informant identities for example.
The freedom to have arms is a hot debate. It is not viewed as necessary by the people in many societies.
Military intervention is sometimes required when the police do not have sufficient resources. LA riots. It is a slippery slope though.
Internal spying is needed to combat terrorism. Al-Qaeda is a force for social reform. It is right that it is spied upon. Again, its about degrees.
Reminds me of a David Icke talk. History repeats itself, we will soon be living in a Hitler fascist state.
I think I just had a nightmare! I was in the United States, and it was 2002……
“Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman.”
HAHAHAHA i was right all you gun banning bastards are for tyranny. Carlos you are right you never hear anything on the major news channels that has anything to do with the state of the world unless it makes the head official look good.
Biscuit you ass:
“Internal spying is needed to combat terrorism. Al-Qaeda is a force for social reform. It is right that it is spied upon. Again, its about degrees.”
this is such utter bullcrap I won’t even take the time telling you about it. Get some sense dude
“5. Seeking a government monopoly on the capability and use of armed force: The first signs are efforts to register or restrict the possession and use of firearms, initially under the guise of “protecting” the public, which, when it actually results in increased crime, provides a basis for further disarmament efforts affecting more people and more weapons.”
Wow, a broad, sweeping generalization of a hotly contested debate. There is no evidence at all that restriction of firearms increases crime at all. The Australian experience has seen a dramatic decrease in gun-related crime since the gun buyback in the 90s; check out the Australian Bureau of Statistics website for the stats on that. This is not a sign you live in a tyranny at all; it is merely a sign that the government recognises that the only purpose of a gun is to kill, and that therefore the less guns, the better.
Broux
I would appreciate it if you would spare the time to explain to me why it is crap. What about the IRA, or actively working communist sympathisers during the cold war?
Top 20! first time. wow.
I live in Italy and you can believe me: we live in a Tyranny. All 16 signs do apply to our country…
Absolutely true. No joke
Very large depictions of the president in every public place.
For those of you who are privileged enough not to live in tyranny, and have always thought one way or another of Chavez (just because he was against Bush and the USA in general), read this list!
Most items have already been used in Venezuela by Chavez’ Revolution. He is a tyrant whether you believe it or not.
(Yes, first hand knowledge, I was born and raised in Venezuela and I still reside in the country – 29 y.o.).
Who would question that Chavez is a tyrannical son of a *****? I am sad that anyone could confuse him for anything else.
OH NOEZ
This sounds a lot like where i live… ENGLAND!
heh… sounds like almost everything in this list is happening in the Philippines :p
I couldnt help but think the list was molded in a way to draw parallels to the US, most of which seemed to stretch the meaning of the list.
For example #2 talks about the 2 party system being flawed. It seems to me that its aimed at the current american system. But the US system uses coalitions and deal breaking to get to this, it isnt as cut throat as it sounds and historically has had influencial 3rd parties.
Also about knowing the count ahead of time:
In the US they project a winner in certain states LONG before it even gets to 30% of the total vote. However, this doesnt mean its set in stone. On occasion, the projection is overturned due to new data. The projection is solely (it seems to me) for the benefit of the public. For example in the 2000 election, Florida was overturned 3 times before it finally went to Bush.
Just a thought
“5. Seeking a government monopoly on the capability and use of armed force: The first signs are efforts to register or restrict the possession and use of firearms, initially under the guise of “protecting” the public, which, when it actually results in increased crime, provides a basis for further disarmament efforts affecting more people and more weapons.”
WRONG WRONG WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS
Let me educate you savages. restricting the posession of firearms is NOT a sign you’re living in a Tyranny, and does NOT result in increased crimerates. you need to check your facts. Seriously. I now see how brainwashed you Americans really are.
Savages? No, we just have more rights than you.
Corrupt bastards have taken weapons of all types for a very long time to disarm the populace and keep them living in perpetual fear. One of the most recent examples was when the Nazis took up everyone's weapons all throughout where the conquered; registered firearms are taken, villages were massacred, and there was very little anyone could do about it.
Any time someone makes grand generalizing statements like "you Americans," everything else they say looks like a bunch of uneducated gibberish, primarily uttered by people who (gasp) have never been to America. There are restrictions on firearms in America, like acquiring a concealed carry license (which not every state even has), age requirement, your criminal record, et cetera…stipulations.
Is knowing your rights and exercising them the same thing as being brainwashed? We have every right to be suspicious of those in power and prevent them from saying who can and can't have weapons. Our guns are no more the government's business than missile codes and nuclear secrets are the general public's. Apparently you are not well versed in American history and the ideas which turned this country from a dream, into a reality.
An unarmed citizen is a subject.
It may be a genralisation yes, and not everyone with a gun goes out on shooting sprees (your canadian cousins for example) but guns are weapons made to kill people. You can cover it up by saying it’s a deterrent for crime, and sure I wouldn’t want to mug someone waving a handgun around, but as long as the forbidden fruit is within reach someone somewhere is going to take a bite. Being able to kill with a flex of your finger is a power no man should have. Police, citizen, no one
So basically every one from other countries feels like this is happening in their country too. Hmmm, their needs to be a show where people can internationally speak with people from other countries about this sort of stuff since most people are too lazy to get on the net and find people to talk to about this kind of stuff. I pray for the day that people wise up, stand and speak for them selves to every one every where and something is actually done about these things because we all stood together. There are too many over paid A-holes controlling the world. They all need to be removed from their positions in society and or government and be replaced with some one whose representation of the people is real, is not dumbed down and is truly what the people need.
15. McSquida
What was that they say about great minds thinking alike?
@maximuz04. I think your missing the point. You think because “in the 2000 election, Florida was overturned 3 times before it finally went to Bush” that that makes it uncontrolled? The point was that they can make things do and look like what ever they want them to. Just because you witness something doesnt make it real.
I was interested by the last one, political correctness, a term that seems to have dominated our speech, and though political correctness is not enforced by the law (for the most part) it’s rules are bound by social law, which is almost as powerful.
My problem with political correctness is that in the apparent attempt to keep everyone’s feelings from being hurt, political correctness makes more things offensive to more people.
I am not saying by any means that things like the N-word are okay, but we all do need to stop this slippery slope of deciding what is and is not appropriate for people to say or think.
@Morono and Mcsquida. I agree that the ristriction of the right to have or buy firearms does not result in increased crimerates. But when their taking away the right for us to have the fire power to protect our selves (Right to bare arms) to me is def. a means of tyranical control. By the way Morono pretty big jump state that all Americans are brainwashed just from the statment of one or a few people, not appreciated.
@Aaron. Damn straight!!
You left out the most important sign.
17. When the guy who wrote this list mysteriously disappears overnight…
the worst tyrannies show no signs
And people look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them I’m moving out of America…
First of all: Nowhere in the constitution does it say that you must be able to buy mini-uzi’s at every corner of every street. and second: Carlos I genuinely feel sorry for you.
All I can say is this: I hope you get some decent education.
McSquida – Stop and think for a moment. A gun is a TOOL. It is a tool used to kill or injure other living things.
A knife or other sharp implement is also a tool; one that can be used to injure or kill other living things. In fact, the only drawback between the two is that a gun is loud, but is good for distance; a knife is silent, but usually must be used up close.
So go ahead and ban guns, and watch people become increasingly proficient at buying or making them illegally. Keep them illegal, and watch honest people learn how to become proficient with throwing knives and knife fighting in general.
We are human, and survival at any cost has always been our most urgent imperative; that’s how we got to the top of the food chain – and how we manage to stay there.
WTF I’m not talking about the right to buy uzis at every street corner you ass. I’m talking about the rights to own a gun for lawful reasons. I have many friends and family that have firearms for hunting, recreation and protection. Your telling me that the government should have the right to take the right for them to use them away. They have never used them any unlawful way. So basically what I’m saying is that if a person has gotten into trouble for or with guns then by all means take away their right to have them. BUT IT IS NOT RIGHT FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE AWAY EVERONES.
By the way its the extreme one way or the other thinking like yours that composes “the reason” why the people think that the gun ban should be passed. I have a HS diploma and College degree by the way. Your name says it all Moron….o
Right on Shadow.
*EVERYONES opps
*oops Man I need to go to bed and stop letting people like Morono fire me up.
good night
Suskis was right up there. Maybe not all of the 16 signs apply but here in Italy we certainly are heading towards a new tyranny. I guess it’s been too long since fascism ended, and people are so scared and blind that they’re willing to give up their freedom just to feel safe again. What a bunch of useless sheep. I’m so, so ashamed of my country right now.
So much of this sounds like the United States post 1/20/2009.
Carlos, you just dont get it do you?
If you really want to, you could get a permit and own a gun. This is in Holland but I think its the same in all of western Europe.
Now that you (might) understand, I want you to look up the crimerates involving fire arms.
Aaron…I agree with you. Political correctness is so overrated!
Is this like what is happening in Zimbabwe?
“WRONG WRONG WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS
Let me educate you savages. restricting the posession of firearms is NOT a sign you’re living in a Tyranny, and does NOT result in increased crimerates. you need to check your facts. Seriously. I now see how brainwashed you Americans really are.”
Let me educate you a little bit, Morono…Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. And people who kill others with guns will do it regardless of the fact that guns are legal or not. Gun control only increases the amount of “illegal” weapons because telling someone they can’t own a gun doesn’t make them not own a gun. And no not all gun owners want to have uzi’s or automatic or even semi-automatic weapons. I own a gun for simple protection. Protection from those that seek to rob me of what is mine. That I and my family have worked honestly to gain. I have the right to protect myself, not because of the constitution but because it’s what God gave me. I will not simply stand by while I am victimized by an illegal gun toting criminal. Thank God, for now, that we can legally own guns. There are restrictions, guidelines, and rules in place that work rather well for those who choose to follow them. It’s not the guns fault if a person chooses not to follow the rules in place for gun ownership.
I for one will always have a gun. I WILL have it legally and will do whatever necessary to keep it.
this sounds like pakistan.
I really believe you should copyright this list, one day US history classes will read this as the precursor to the book on George Bush’s presidency. I always believed he was a dictator, and now I suppose that notion is confirmed.
OK I’ve tried reasoning with you and i’ve tried to convince you with facts. It didnt work so Au revoir
honestly people need to get over this George Bush thing. The president is not the only one that controls the country. Its called branches of the government!!! Congress has as much fault as Bush for not stopping his stupid acts. George Bush is just a pawn for Congress and they are using him to hid the errors they were not able to stop/fix. He was like the Big Brother i
… IN OUR SOCIETY (1984) he doesnt have all the fault.. and by the way i am not a supporter of Bush i just think people actually inform themselves on our government and then they can realize that it wasnt just him in a big chair in the oval office forcing people to do whatever he said…
The good news is, we don’t have TOO MANY of these in America today. The Democrats are trying to initiate #5 and #12. The Republicans are trying to initiate #8. I think both will fail. The worst news is that #4, 13, and 16 have already begun without the help of either party. This means there’s no opposition party to stop them.
42. hg8057 – “So much of this sounds like the United States post 1/20/2009.”
The smartass comments without substance don’t fly here. I’d like to see your proof of this, of actual legislation signed within the last 1 month, 2 weeks and 1 day where anything from this “post 1/20/2009″ society is in anyway applicable to that list. I’ve said to another person before, complaining won’t help and Obama is in office now so either move out or give him time to actively attempt to alleviate the problem.
corinthian0430:
My knowledge of Philippine politics is kinda weak…could you elaborate, please?
If you want a lesson in tyranny, just visit the Philippines. And @ post 22: you are freaking right.
@ Carlos
Hey dude I didnt really see a reason to tell me that you have a college degree, and frankly I couldnt care less what education you have as long as you can be reasoned with. Which I you can be, because you seem to think about these things like government control. You have to understand though that in europe we dont have a tradition of firearms. (which I’m grateful for.) Therefore I dont really feel like I need one. But I understand that when every thug on the street has a gun, you’d want one too.
* Which I – THINK – you can be,
@gabi319
Philippine politics is kinda based on a dynastic kleptocracy (see previous list) -until their term is over, or to cling on to their power as long as possible (until it’s time to pass it on to an anointed heir).
Courts are virtually useless, unless you have money and or influence.
The general populace is as afraid of the so-called police farce (i meant force, but i think you’d realize the substitution) as they are as the crooks.
Yes, the Philippines may have SEA’s freest press, but is that such a good thing? Exercising the right to freedom of expression is OK, but this freedom is often abused (crooked journalists getting paid not to publish stories… or worse… journalists extorting money so they will not blow the whistle – the current Vice President is a charismatic albeir dumbass former broadcast journalist… go figure).
The few honest journalists get gunned down, drug pushers go scot free (after the necessary exchange of bribes etc).
The list goes on…. but I don’t have all night :p
Since I seem to be unable to make myself understood at this time, I will not post an opinion on this, but I do want to say to the originator of the list – Good job.
Thanks corinthian! I knew the “money talks” with parents being expat pinoys and all but I didn’t know about other facts. Can’t really find much on it here since the other Filipino discussion is merely back and forth namecalling, haha.
thanks again and good night!
oh yeah… most of the elections in the Philippines are fixed, and in order to win an election (in most cases) is to have the 3 G’s (Guns, Goons, and Gold).
Incumbents often win by 1) Cheating (via buying votes) 2) Disenfranchisement (by scaring voters who are against them not to vote, or totally paying someone off to “doctor” the voter’s list) 3) Assassinating any competitors.
In an election in the Philippines, it’s not about who wins and who loses- it’s all about who won… and who got cheated (*canned applause*).
Sounds like America to me