Keep in mind that there are no specific, direct orders for people to behave this way. It's all done on their own initiative. "Working Towards the Führer", as Ian Kershaw put it.

Reminds me of when Pat Buchanan suddenly discovered the presumption of innocence when faced with a former Nazi concentration camp guard...

It's worse than that. Trump's appeal is aspirational. Many of his followers would like to rape women with impunity.

"We’d been building what we liked to call a “procrastination engine,” named Sloth Surf. The app worked like this: A user who had the urge to procrastinate on the internet could come to the site, input their procrastination preferences, and let an AI agent do it for them."

There's no coverup, it's all out in the open. Donald Trump is the most "transparent" president in US history. Transparently corrupt, for example.

Pay more attention to the people who are carrying out these policies, often without explicit orders from Trump.

"Working towards the Führer"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Ker...

"Watchbird" is a 1953 science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley about a society that uses robotic "watchbirds" to prevent murder.

"Watchbird" by Robert Sheckley (1953). What could possibly go wrong?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...

The Cruelty is the Point

Most of those “freedoms” are irrelevant abstractions to many Americans, alas. Same for the rule of law, due process, etc..

You are deaf to the dogwhistle, then?

Most of those “freedoms” are irrelevant abstractions to many Americans, alas. Same for the rule of law, due process, etc..

Doctrinaire platitudes are not actionable policy.

What I meant was that the rules were much, much looser before the Code.

Was anything “censorable” before 1930?

I would say “ignorant” rather than stupid. A lot of reasonably intelligent Americans don’t know what the rule of law, or the rights under the Constitution, really mean to them.