Bonum Certa Men Certa

Rise of Autocracy Everywhere

Hungary recently declared itself a non-republic, having done the opposite after escaping Soviet clutches [1, 2]

Budapest

Summary: Erosion of democratic principles around the world can be seen in the impunity various institutions and corporations nowadays enjoy (there's almost nobody left to represent or effectively uphold public interest)

THE advent of strongmen as "strong" (oppressive) leaders isn't unprecedented. From my understanding of history when people sense there's nothing left to lose and when they reject "traditional" leaders (whom rightly and wrongly they blame for their misfortune) they go for the "crazy" alternative. It's a bit of a gamble; if the less "traditional" leaders screw things up even more badly than before, then "OK, tough luck..."



There's no "reset" button; by their very definition and nature the strongmen don't quite respect fair elections (or honour the results, which they already attempted to manipulate anyway by muzzling critics, reducing turnout selectively and so on). Examples include a lot more than Donald Trump; Hungary, Turkey and Brazil are coming to grips with their own strongmen, joining the ranks of China and Russia.

"Examples include a lot more than Donald Trump; Hungary, Turkey and Brazil are coming to grips with their own strongmen, joining the ranks of China and Russia."Dictatorships aren't a "feature"; strongmen aren't benevolent, either. They like to pretend to be defenders in the face of chaos and disruption ("law and order"), even if they themselves are the chaos and disruption. Exposing corruption becomes a crime (or becomes too risky to even attempt). Ask insiders from the European Patent Office (EPO) how likely they are to speak to their supervisor/line manager about unlawful guidelines from Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos. If they refuse to grant software patents in Europe, citing the law (e.g. EPC and courts/caselaw), guess what will happen...

"Instead of the general population being scared of these strongmen it should be the strongmen constantly terrified of law enforcement that actually serves the public, not brutalises the public."The media's inability or unwillingness to engage and to expose abuses means that strongmen blend in more easily. They don't need to worry about negative publicity or even accountability. In the case of Microsoft, it seems rather clear that they're defrauding their shareholders and have done so for a very long time. They even get to bribe people and get away with it. They know or feel like they're simply above the law. They act accordingly.

A Microsoft whistleblower told us about his SEC complaint: "I had very low expectations going into that. If the SEC were competent, then they wouldn’t need someone like me pointing this stuff out to them and would be regulating the hell out of Microsoft and the like. Hell, 99% of the reason that I feel compelled to even write anything about Microsoft at all is because I maintain a firm belief that regulation exists purely in the realm of theatrics in this country."

In technology and in the world/realm of patents we're seeing the rise of strongmen, just like in general politics. Society will be worse off for it. We need to fight back. We need to get accountability back. Instead of the general population being scared of these strongmen it should be the strongmen constantly terrified of law enforcement that actually serves the public, not brutalises the public.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director
some people move from Microsoft to Red Hat and some do the opposite
Cloudflare Gives Us All Another Reason to Boycott Cloudflare
If Cloudflare wants to use its vast surveillance network (which is what it does as a CDN) to foist paywalls and maybe something worse (like DRM on top), then Cloudflare should be more widely rejected as a company
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
 
Science is Under Attack
Oligarchy prefers a dumbed-down population
Someone Expiring Certificates on the Day of the 9/11 Attacks is Not Someone I Would Want Controlling My PC (or Deciding What's Authorised for Booting)
"social justice warriors"
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has Reportedly Failed People With Wrong Advice
At the moment the SRA has a PR blunder
The Man Suing Brett Wilson LLP and Gervase de Wilde (5RB)
Now he's probably using the (almost) 200,000 pounds he's supposed to receive to sue Brett Wilson LLP and former colleagues/partners
Slopwatch: A World Wide Web That's Rotting for Companies That Won't Even Exist in a Few Years
some of the junk Google News is promoting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Links 24/09/2025: Qt Creator 18 Beta, Microsoft Cannot Bail Out "ChatGPT" Anymore, China and US Intensify Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025