The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling

Jonathan Last: “These guys can hear the music. They’ve seen the sides being chosen: Elon Musk and Peter Theil assembling with Trump’s gangster government in waiting. They see Mark Zuckerberg praising Trump as a ‘badass.’ And now they see Bezos getting in line, too.”

“What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t have to arrest Bezos to secure his compliance. Trump didn’t even have to win the election. Just the fact that he has an even-money chance to become president was threat enough.”

“Or maybe that’s not remarkable. One of Timothy Snyder’s rules for resisting authoritarians is that ‘most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.’ People surrender preemptively much more often than you might expect.”

“Two weeks ago, Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter wrote what might be the most prophetic essay of the year. They warned about “anticipatory obedience” in the media. Seventeen days later, Bezos made his demonstration.”

“In case you needed reminding: The ‘guardrails’ aren’t guardrails. They’re people.”

“And they’re already collapsing. Before a single state has been called.”