How Democracy Really Dies

READ MY PUBLISHED WORK + GET ON WRITING AND WORLDBUILDING VOL I-III https://linktr.ee/timhickson Thank you patrons — without you, I wouldn’t be able to do the work I do. https://www.patreon.com/hellofutureme (come join the Discord/writing workshops!) FREE DISCORD https://discord.gg/vvMBpZa6Xh INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/tim_hickson_hfm/ TWITTER https://twitter.com/TimHickson1 A WIZARD DID IT MUG https://store.nebula.app/collections/hello-future-me EMAIL [email protected] GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18990222.Timothy_Hickson SOURCES Vanessa A. Boese, Staffan I. Lindberg & Anna Lührmann (2021). Waves of autocratization and democratization: a rejoinder, Democratization. DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2021.1923006 Bastian Herre (2022) - “The world has recently become less democratic” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/less-democratic' [Online Resource] Youkee, M. (2021, September 26). Nayib Bukele calls himself the ‘world’s coolest dictator’ – but is he joking? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/26/naybib-bukele-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator Del Real, D., & Menjívar, C. (2024). The Tools of Autocracy Worldwide: Authoritarian Networks, the Façade of Democracy, and Neo-Repression. American Behavioral Scientist, 68(12), 1559-1577. Lefort, Claude 1981. L'invention démocratique. Les limites de la domination totalitaire. Paris: Fayard. Orban, Viktor. 2023. “Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the opening of the CPAC Hungary conference” https://miniszterelnok.hu/en/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-opening-of-the-cpac-hungary-conference/ National Institute of Justice. Five things about deterrence. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/247350.pdf Wunsch, N., & Blanchard, P. (2022). Patterns of democratic backsliding in third-wave democracies: a sequence analysis perspective. Democratization, 30(2), 278–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2022.2130260 Hungary's new anti-LGBTQ law: The medical profession must speak out about the harm it does to LGBTQ adolescents’ health. März, Julian W. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, Volume 8, 100199 How persuasive is ai-generated propaganda? | Stanford HAI. https://hai.stanford.edu/policy/how-persuasive-ai-generated-propaganda Reuters. (2018, March 13). Myanmar: UN blames Facebook for spreading hatred of Rohingya. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/13/myanmar-un-blames-facebook-for-spreading-hatred-of-rohingya Ressa, Maria. How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future. Harper. 2022 TLDR News EU. Will Hungary’s Economic Crisis Topple Orbán? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzdxxWWteBs Nicas, J., Milhorance, F., & Ionova, A. (2022, October 25). How bolsonaro built the myth of stolen elections in brazil. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/25/world/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-misinformation.html Vanessa A. Boese, Amanda B. Edgell, Sebastian Hellmeier1, Seraphine F. Maerz, Staffan I. Lindberg. Deterring Dictatorship: Explaining Democratic Resilience since 1900. May 2020. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute. https://v-dem.net/media/publications/wp_101_final.pdf Schmitz, R. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán chips away at the country’s judiciary. 30 May 2025. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5407320/hungarys-viktor-orban-chips-away-at-the-countrys-judiciary Cunningham, Sean, "Breaking Free of Managed Democracy in the United States" (2012). Senior Honors Projects. Paper 293. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/293 Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017). Jamie Adam and Michael McClelland. Forward-looking return: An interview with Disco Elysium writer Helen Hindpere. February 2025. https://platypus1917.org/2025/02/01/forward-looking-return-an-interview-with-disco-elysium-writer-helen-hindpere/ Ezra Klein. Trump Kicks Down the Guardrails. The New York Times. November 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-anne-applebaum.html POSTAL ADDRESS (if you’re kind enough to send me a letter or something!) Tim Hickson PO Box 69062 Lincoln, 7608 Canterbury, New Zealand Script by meeeeeeeee Video edited by Federica La Marca / Faith Lapine https://www.youtube.com/@rythulian The artist that designed my display pic! https://serem01.deviantart.com/ The artist who design my cover photo: - https://raidesart.deviantart.com/ - https://raidesart.tumblr.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/raidesart/ Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com/creator Stay nerdy! Tim 0:00 — intro 01:10 – PART ONE: DEMOCRACY DIES AS A VALUE 17:31 – PART TWO: CONTROL OF INFORMATION 25:50 – PART THREE: CRIMINALS LOSE RIGHTS FIRST 31:37 – PART FOUR: THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY AS AN INSTITUTION 47:50 – PART FIVE: TYRANNY IS A RUST