What I meant is that there is no point at which giving ground to authoritarians makes them so nakedly brutal and vile that the population turns against them. My point is that “Things are bad now, but if they get worse, then things will REALLY crash and the population will THEN finally see!” is just not viable, no matter how bad it gets. Every inch given to authoritarians makes them stronger; it will not sap their popularity or lay the groundwork for a successful reaction against them.
What I meant is that there is no point at which giving ground to authoritarians makes them so nakedly brutal and vile that the population turns against them. My point is that “Things are bad now, but if they get worse, then things will REALLY crash and the population will THEN finally see!” is just not viable, no matter how bad it gets. Every inch given to authoritarians makes them stronger; it will not sap their popularity or lay the groundwork for a successful reaction against them.