[hire_charts]

Except this exact same argument, nearly verbatim, was one of the alt-right anti-Obama talking points! It's a solid criticism too - don't get me wrong.

But it's a single argument, reused over and over, to do more than simply criticize the actions of an administration - rather, to construct a grand conspiracy about how modern Democrats and progressives are secretly authoritarians. Nothing Greenwald writes these days goes beyond this tired trope. (Which, I suppose, would make perfect sense to anyone who has similarly bought into this conspiracy.)

[zepto]

“to construct a grand conspiracy about how modern Democrats and progressives are secretly authoritarians“

Can you explain where the idea that there is a conspiracy, or a secret comes from?

I don’t see Greenwald or the other repeaters of this ‘tired’ argument actually claiming there is a conspiracy.

The argument seems to be that people who say they are liberals are behaving like authoritarians when you actually look at their actions, rather than their words.

I don’t see why a conspiracy is needed for that to be true.

[hire_charts]

My use of the words secret and conspiracy was, at least in part, in response to the parent comment:

> everyone else is loosing their minds and ushering an authoritarian pseudo-communist state in the United States. Glenn sees it, and is trying desperately to warn us.

This is conspiratorial thinking. The whole "wake up, sheeple" mode of political argument is based in the paranoid belief that clandestine groups and powerful actors have a certain degree of control and agency over the world, and that there are those in possession of awareness or knowledge who can "reveal" the truth to the masses.

Rather than making more political-sounding quips, and in the interest of providing something more substantial to this forum, I will recommend a web series called "This is Not a Conspiracy Theory," which is a great overview of the history of conspiracy theories through to the modern day, and how the best conspiracy theories are often rooted in the kinds of facts, uncertainty, and paranoia that resonate with the zeitgeist of their respective eras.

http://www.thisisnotaconspiracytheory.com/series

[disgruntledphd2]

Greenwald has been writing about what an terrible enabler of the survellience state Nancy Pelosi was for almost 15 years. She hasn't changed her opinions much in that time.

And to be fair, the Democratic Party, while mostly still tethered to consensus reality, would be a center-right party in pretty much every country in Europe.