Resistance members are being targeted this week. It appears to be the return of Stalinism. What’s happening right now looks uncomfortably familiar. It feels like the return of Stalinism, not in the old, Cold War caricature sense, but in the way power is being tightened and institutions are being bent to serve one man and one ideology. The effort by Donald Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to politicize the upper ranks of the U.S. military fits that pattern almost point for point.
Stalinism wasn’t only about secret police and show trials. At its core, it was about loyalty replacing competence. The military was purged of experienced leaders who were seen as insufficiently obedient, not ineffective. Independent thinking became dangerous. Advancement depended on political alignment, not judgment or skill. The result was a hollowed-out institution that looked strong on paper but was dangerously weakened in reality.
The U.S. military has long been different. It has operated on the idea that it answers to the Constitution, not to a president’s ego or a political movement. That line is now being blurred. When officers are pressured to prove loyalty, when neutrality is treated as suspicion, and when dissent is framed as betrayal, the military stops being a professional force and starts becoming a political instrument.
The real damage isn’t just who gets pushed out or promoted today. It’s the message sent to everyone else. Keep your head down. Don’t question. Don’t think independently. Survival depends on saying the right things and aligning with the right people. That atmosphere doesn’t just degrade leadership, it poisons the institution from the inside.
This is how authoritarian systems take hold. Not all at once, not with a single dramatic moment, but through erosion. Norms are weakened, then discarded. Safeguards are treated as obstacles. Over time, what was once unthinkable becomes routine. Calling this Stalinism isn’t hyperbole, it’s recognizing a historical pattern as it repeats itself, with consequences that won’t be easy to undo once the damage is done.
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