#dictators

When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near. ↗

— Will Durant

#dictatorship #liberty #license #near

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time. ↗

— Lech Walesa

#continue #dictators #fear #here #i

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong. ↗

— Wendell Willkie

#concentrated #dictators #free #government #government power

It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics. ↗

— A. N. Wilson

#children #dictatorship #easily #grown-ups #how

No one should suffer from the great delusion that any form of communism or socialism which promotes the dictatorship of the few instead of the initiative of the millions can produce a happier or more prosperous society. ↗

— Charles E. Wilson

#communism #delusion #dictatorship #few #form

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life. ↗

— Paul Wolfowitz

#dictators #few #i #life #met

A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture. ↗

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

#behaves #being #care #children #culture

It's pretty well known that the CIA has been installing friendly dictators around the world for years. ↗

— Rob Walton

#been #cia #dictators #friendly #installing

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#al-qaeda #antisemitism #dictatorship #freedom-flotilla-ii #gaza

From 1976 to 1983, Washington supported a devastating military dictatorship in Argentina that ran all branches of government, outlawed elections, and encouraged school and business leaders to provide information on subversive people. The administration took control of the police, banned political and union organizations, and tried to eliminate all oppositional elements in the country through harassment, torture, and murder. Journalists, students, and union members faced a particularly large amount of bloody repression, thus ridding the nation of a whole generation of social movement leaders. As was the case in other Latin American countries, the threat of communism and armed guerrilla movements was used as an excuse for Argentina's dictatorial crackdowns. Hundreds of torture camps and prisons were created. Many of the dead were put into mass graves or thrown out of places into the ocean. Five hundred babies of the murdered were given to torturers' families and the assets of the dead totaling in the tens of millions of dollars, were all divided up among the perpetrators of the nightmare. Thirty thousand people were killed in Argentina's repression. ↗

— Benjamin Dangl

#dictatorship #latin-america #mass-murder #repression #u-s