The Top 40

Sure, most of the same people are still in charge. Its government by criminal cabal, and people aren't kept in line by fear and surveillance, but nothing much else has changed.

Have enough trouble with keeping track of how American government is turning into a "new form of authoritarian rule" to make time figuring out Russia.

Under capitalism man exploits man.
Under communism it is the other way around.

All power corrupts.

" It is a brand new form of totalitarianism, which we are not yet familiar with."

What, are you joking? Heloooooo, it's 2014. A guy named Obama and the Denocrats run the country. Have you heard?

I have to disagree. There is no new form of totalitarianism in Russia or anywhere else. Russia has always been a totalitarian state in some form or another. When did a free society ever exist there?

What I find new is the 'force multiplier' that modern information technology has provided to serve those purposes here.

What I find as new is an evil oligarchical caste of big crony capitalists, huge ever more powerful government bureaucracies, a supine and corrupt mainstream media which has abdicated any pretense to providing information, and a radicalized education establishment (which has itself become a huge government bureaucracy)all converging to transform this country in such a way so as to permanently maintain an ever growing power over the people. Even if it is at the expense of the very things which made this country great and will ultimately ruin it.

Oh and let's not forget that shrinking percentage of folks who are gaining an ever increasing percentage of this nation's wealth, not the old fashioned American way of 'growing the pie larger', but by cutting themselves an increasingly larger share at the expense of everyone else.
This too is nothing new.

If we could ask any Russian who was around in 1917, or any German from the 30's. I'm sure today's trends would be wearily familiar to any 4th century Roman or Byzantine from the early 13th century.

The theme remains the same, as a society we have lost our discipline, work ethic, willingness to fight to save our beliefs, willingness to denounce stupidity, savagery, cowardice, and hypocrisy for what they are, etc..

The advancement in technology has sped up the process. Today this can transpire in the space of a single generation where in times past it took much longer.

Oh, and today we can take a 'selfie' of ourselves and the decline!

One more corollary to the thoughts above (in my humble opinion anyway) is that the societal rot we are witnessing is ultimately the left's great gift to humanity, the death of optimism and the belief in the individual making a difference, and the notion that life is a zero sum game with no more growth possible. So 'groups' now fight for their 'share' of an ever shrinking pie. The people reduced to identity groups of supplicants beseeching their rulers for crumbs. Same as it ever was...

What is interesting to observe are those who are comfortable with all this and don't care, as long as they get their share.

Tim P., could not have said it better myself.

Seven years ago, I was full of optimism that we could correct, that it wasn't too late. Now, my optimism has lessened. We still have all that's needed to come back. The forces of degradation; Nanny Statism, corrupt media, corrupt academia, and crony capitalism; combine to make the comeback ever more unlikely.