# How are you preparing for the coming fascist authoritarian regime?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [June 18, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426 "2022-06-18T12:35:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/101 "2022-06-19T01:00:49Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> We think that the civil rights movement was all MLK making nice speeches and a bunch of white people being moved and peacefully changing (because that’s how the powers that be want to portray it and it gives us warm, fuzzy feelings too), but the reality is that the civil unrest and threat of greater civil unrest was a key component in moving society to accept changes in civil rights.
Exactly. MLK jr gets all the coverage in history class, while Malcolm X gets a brief mention, if that. But it’s exactly Malcolm’s command of an increasingly angry class of people that compels the moderate to listen to what Martin has to say.
Good-cop bad-cop doesn’t work if all you do is play good cop.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/102 "2022-06-19T01:04:07Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Americans have this idea that they can just move to a better country whenever they want, so if things turn shitty here, they’re going to bail. But they’re in for a rude surprise - no one else wants you just because you’re an American, and other countries are much more strict about controlling their own immigration than the US is (even though it’s popular to bash the US for being racist for any talk of securing our borders, most other countries in the world are on fucking lockdown compared to us).
That’s why the thread title, about preparing, makes sense for those who would consider a stolen Trump 2 presidency equivalent to fascism (or who don’t want to live under even a mild dictatorship).
In circumstances of real, or near-real, fascism, millions of Americans would be trying and failing to get out. But those who actually get a Costa Rica, or Ghana, or, if really skilled here, Portugal passport, a few years in advance of need, will likely be allowed out on the final Lufthansa flights.
Of course, in these situations, timing is crucial.
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> I suppose we could buy a boat large enough to live on, and take to the sea. If we have it registered and insured in the US I think we can both still get social security, his military retirement pay [which gets deposited into the Navy Federal Credit Union, oddly] and I think we would still qualify for Tri-Care medical. [Unless/until Puerto Rico bails out of being a US protectorate, ditto the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands we could lurk in those waters, and be within 12 miles of being outside the US just in case.]
Now this sounds like a plan 🙂
Once Trump successor Tucker Carlson hears how many former Democrats now live in Panama and Israel, he would cut off their U.S. government payments. But your maneuvering should let you stay one step ahead of all that for some time.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/103 "2022-06-19T01:27:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> Portugal is one of the easier countries, but not knowing a soul there, and fearing I’d never learn the language makes it really hard.
As mentioned, Portugal has a large expat community. Also, most Portuguese under a certain age speak - or at least understand - English. I lived there for two years and have friends who just moved there permanently. They’re having zero problems.
It’s also easy to live in Costa Rica, which also has a large ex-pat community (some 10,000, IIRC), and it mainly just takes putting a certain amount of money in a local bank and having a retirement income. There are also towns in Mexico where Yanks are welcome. A neighbor of ours in Portland moved there.
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### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/104 "2022-06-19T01:39:27Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> In circumstances of real, or near-real, fascism, millions of Americans would be trying and failing to get out.
I’ll tell you, a lot of us in Canada are not looking forward to the migrant caravans coming north.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/105 "2022-06-19T02:12:10Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> Exactly. MLK jr gets all the coverage in history class, while Malcolm X gets a brief mention, if that. But it’s exactly Malcolm’s command of an increasingly angry class of people that compels the moderate to listen to what Martin has to say.
>
> Good-cop bad-cop doesn’t work if all you do is play good cop.
I’m reading a fair amount around here that’s the secular equivalent for saying the white man (if a Trump supporter) is the devil. And yet Trump is polling above good cops Joe and Kamala.
The 1960’s riots were Black looters destroying their own shopping areas (and thus unlike earlier race riots where whites attacked Black neighborhoods).
The idea that Black violence helped advance civil rights reminds me of the absurd scene in Blazing Saddles where Cleavon Little tries to stop racism by threatening to shoot himself. It worked for a bit there, but a left of center guy had script control.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/106 "2022-06-19T02:24:21Z")
As someone who did the USA \> Canada thing (heritage citizenship), I would caution everyone else that it’s not that easy. Immigration after your 20s is generally difficult, over and above any paperwork, if you need any sort of employment or friend network. It can be done, but it’s hard. I think a lot of Americans are relying on vague memories of Vietnam-era draft dodgers who were allowed to stay, but that was a different situation in very different times.
I do wonder, though, if the US seriously deteriorates, how good Canada’s quality of life will be. Everything here is seriously entangled with the USA, and while we might have different policies, we don’t have independent supply lines. I’m looking at Europe, but my options are the UK, as my spouse is British, or possibly Italy. I’ve started the process to get an Italian passport but it’s going to be thousands of dollars and will take a couple of years, and success isn’t guaranteed. I’m hoping the US limps along for another couple of decades until I can retire, but I don’t know.
I agree with the posters above who think that we don’t have the will to fight. I suspect that’s because struggling wage-slavery isn’t quite the same as people with starving children. Those people WILL fight, but as long as we’re just discontent with the fascist-leaning oligarchy, we’ll largely put up with conditions as we find them. Bread and circuses work.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/107 "2022-06-19T02:25:07Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> In circumstances of real, or near-real, fascism, millions of Americans would be trying and failing to get out.
If you look at the fleeing patterns from authoritarian regimes, most people don’t get desperate enough to leave until it’s too late. While you still have a job, and a house, and the danger is still in the future, it is not easy to leave, especially when, realistically, there aren’t a lot of places you can think of that you’l be able to go. Fleeing and leaving everything behind is, for the vast majority of people, a very difficult thing to contemplate, and an even more difficult thing to actually do. When it comes down to a time when it is critical to get out, it is usually too late to make it.
So when you see people fleeing en masse to _your_ borders, you should have a very deep thought about how desperate those people must be.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/108 "2022-06-19T02:29:22Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> The 1960’s riots were Black looters destroying their own shopping areas (and thus unlike earlier race riots where whites attacked Black neighborhoods).
Malcolm X was not burning down Watts and Harlem.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/109 "2022-06-19T02:56:02Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Malcolm X was not burning down Watts and Harlem.
True. He wasn’t burning down anything,. He was himself an arson victim. His verbal message of violence and hatred was barely heard by whites, [although perhaps not completely without lasting influence](https://www.city-journal.org/html/how-hip-hop-holds-blacks-back-12442.html).
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### Author:  [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/110 "2022-06-19T03:02:32Z")
It’s a massive leap of logic to say the least that Malcolm X’s rhetoric led to race riots.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/111 "2022-06-19T03:06:32Z")
It also is a massive leap of logic to say it led to the Civil Rights Act.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/112 "2022-06-19T03:08:30Z")
A couple of points:
1. As I argued here before, a better parallel is the Protestant Reformation. In that case, a communications revolution brought about the destruction of the civilization which fostered it by revealing divisions in the populace which were hidden by earlier, more ‘silent’ eras. It began in a region with over 300 different political divisions (cities, duchy’s, minor principalities, and more) and… just like today… persons of power within these smaller groupings (not just DeSantis of Florida, Abbott of Texas, but also corporate decisions are being made about the support for democracy) are beginning to use these divisions to move away from the old world order.
[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/68782016@N08/52156697991/)
1. I seriously doubt the upcoming revolution of the American Right will stop at American borders. If this happens, they will have control of the single greatest collection of weapons on the planet _and, given time, the urge to use them will be irresistible._
I don’t think this is mentioned above, but I cannot stress it enough: these people _must_ have enemies and external enemies are as necessary as internal. And when you have the US military at your disposal and you have already shown a tendency to use it to ‘bring Democracy to the World’, whether in WW2 or Iraq, well… they will fight. And fight. And fight until they lose, the country exhausted, beaten.
If this takeover occurs and we make it to 2050 without nukes being used (something not in play during the Peasants Rebellion of 1525, much less the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648), it will be a goddamned miracle.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/113 "2022-06-19T04:07:26Z")
I’m an armed and elderly Democrat, just waiting to know what to do next. My daughter will follow, not sure about my son.
I’ve had some wild imaginary conversations with them about what we could all do together.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/114 "2022-06-19T05:56:45Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> If you look at the fleeing patterns from authoritarian regimes, most people don’t get desperate enough to leave until it’s too late. While you still have a job, and a house, and the danger is still in the future, it is not easy to leave, especially when, realistically, there aren’t a lot of places you can think of that you’l be able to go. Fleeing and leaving everything behind is, for the vast majority of people, a very difficult thing to contemplate, and an even more difficult thing to actually do. When it comes down to a time when it is critical to get out, it is usually too late to make it.
mrAru and I have had a fair amount of experience with people who fled, and people who ended up in concentration camps/gulags - and we sort of already have a bit of experience with losing almost everything [someone torched the house leaving us with not much and having to replace.]
We have been discussing departing via emigration [not optimal, we simply do not have the finances to make us attractive despite mrAru’s job skills because of our age and my physical issues] or by purchasing something like that Elco [roughly $189 K, plus probably $75K to convert it to at least solar power instead of a generator which would actually save fuel] because if we liquidated everything and put it into the vessel, mrAru could pick up work in various ports [Navy machinist mate and marine diesel, and old school marine boiler for the win. I joke about it, but think of the movie Down Periscope, He is the crusty old dud they brought back for the engine room] As long as we register and insure US, and hover near US ports we would be fine - and be able to bail out into international waters. Oddly enough, there is no need for a passport to hang in international waters, just to return to a US port [or visit some other country’s port] My job in port would be to remain on board and in a pinch, just drop mrAru off in the sideboat and keep the boat safe =)
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/115 "2022-06-19T07:59:48Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> Once Trump successor Tucker Carlson hears how many former Democrats now live in Panama and Israel, he would cut off their U.S. government payments.
Wait - we’re supposed to get payments?
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/116 "2022-06-19T08:37:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> The “blue” parts of the country are scattered all over the country in small blocks of counties surrounded by red. How in the world do you think that can be a basis for a partition?
There must be still a few ex British colonial official hanging around in some retirement homes in the Home Counties or the Coitswalds. Give them a map with recent census data/election results, a marker and a few hours and they would do it for you.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/117 "2022-06-19T08:55:47Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> I do wonder, though, if the US seriously deteriorates, how good Canada’s quality of life will be.
I do wonder what happens if significant numbers of Americans try to flee north to Canada. Canada is outnumbered 10:1, and even though not _everyone_ would try that, the sheer numbers combined with a largely unfortified border is… not a pretty picture.
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### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/118 "2022-06-19T11:50:38Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> I do wonder what happens if significant numbers of Americans try to flee north to Canada. Canada is outnumbered 10:1, and even though not _everyone_ would try that, the sheer numbers combined with a largely unfortified border is… not a pretty picture.
Yeah, in any scenario in which significant numbers of Americans decide to flee the country, Canada is pretty much screwed. Any US economic collapse will take us down with it, and any violence will almost certainly spill over here. Even if we had the political will to close the border to refugees, we likely lack the physical capacity to stop them from coming, and our local systems will be swamped in short order.
And there’s even less we can do about that than there is for rational American citizens. They won’t even let us vote! 😃
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/119 "2022-06-19T12:30:44Z")
If you are eligible for social security, yes.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2022, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-coming-fascist-authoritarian-regime/966426/120 "2022-06-19T13:13:32Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> and move the US Capitol to Truth or Consequences, NM because I want to remind elected officials of what is expected of them.
Love it.
We where in a cold war with the USSR for ~40 years. Did the US win? Kind of hard to say.
We are now in a cold war, within our country. Idiots against reasonable people.
My Wife and I have enough to flee to Costa Rico now. But I’m not leaving.
I don’t run from problems. I try to solve them. It’s my job as a person to do so.
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