Certainly there was more authoritarianism in past times, but we haven't previously had authoritarian movements at the same time that we've the internet and ubiquitous computing. Authoritarianism isn't meant to be a scare word; in the US, you have the total fecklessness of Congress, the expansion of the executive under every single president in the 21st century. (it's still authoritarianism even if some people like what is being done unilaterally by the executive. eg: both Trump and Biden sought and acted with expanded executive powers. Even if you like the outcomes, it's still actually quite bad. Neither party seems capable of imagining that someone they disagree with could be elected and use those same powers. It's baffling.) You have a lot of governmental changes in parts of Europe, etc.
I think it's pretty uncontroversial that there is a global trend towards authoritarianism, but I'm happy to hear other opinions.
Don’t think of it as one side against the other. It’s a dialectical process, two extremes, like communists and fascists, seemingly locked in mortal opposition, yet through their struggle, pushing the same totalitarian machinery forward. That old pattern feels disturbingly familiar today.
