Authoritarianism isn’t a binary condition. Nations don’t jump from democracy to dictatorship overnight. They drift into an unstable middle ground—what political scientists call anocracy—and that’s where the risk of political violence is highest.

In this video, I explain why claims that “Trump can’t be authoritarian because we can still criticize him online” misunderstand the entire spectrum of governance. Drawing on Human Factors: Considerations of Undergrounds in Insurgencies—a publication used by U.S. Army Special Operations Command—I outline why hybrid regimes are the most volatile and why the U.S. is now showing the very patterns the doctrine predicts.

This is not speculation. This is operational doctrine and political instability research, and we’re watching it play out in real time.

Authoritarianism Isn’t Binary: Why the U.S. Is Entering the Danger Zone