Documenting the erosion of democratic norms and the rule of law in real-time
Convergence is the regime-shift mechanism: multiple erosion vectors operate at once—each enabling and amplifying the others—until democratic form persists but democratic constraint disappears.
Nietzsche warned that democratic culture can produce 'last men'—citizens who prefer comfort to freedom’s burdens, and who become the perfect audience for managed politics and gentle despotism.
Tocqueville imagined a despotism that keeps democratic forms intact while citizens drift into tutelage—managed through equality, convenience, and isolation.
Arendt argued that political catastrophe is often enabled not by monsters but by ordinary thoughtlessness—especially when citizens retreat from the public world and stop judging what is done in their name.
Moral-emotional language boosts diffusion, out-group animosity drives engagement, and algorithms learn the difference. When rage equals revenue, radicalization becomes an emergent business outcome—not a conspiracy.
