This is a guest post by my brother-in-law Bernie (with help from Google’s Gemini Flash 3.8). Bernie lives in a midwestern retirement community.

Score yourself (or your favorite political leader) against the operating manual of 20th-century Totalitarian State regimes.

1. The Press & Free Expression
[ ] The “Enemy of the People” Reflex: Do you label independent journalists and critical news outlets “enemies of the people” (vrag naroda), accusing them of treason simply for reporting unfavorable facts?

[ ] State-Sanctioned Reality: Do you insist that objective facts (crowd sizes, weather maps, economic metrics) are whatever the leader declares them to be, demanding the public reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears?

[ ] Threats of Censorship: Do you advocate revoking the broadcasting licenses of networks that air satire or critical coverage?

2. The Civil Service & Science
[ ] Ideological Purity Over Competence: Do you plan to reclassify tens of thousands of career, non-partisan civil servants as political appointees so you can purge them and install personal loyalists (the Nomenklatura model)?

[ ] Subordinating Science to Doctrine: Do you sideline, silence, or threaten government scientists and researchers whose empirical data contradicts political directives (modern Lysenkoism)?

3. Elections & Rule of Law
[ ] Pre-Determined Legitimacy: Do you adhere to the rule that any election you win is valid, but any election you lose was inherently rigged and fraudulent?

[ ] Show-Trial Justice: Do you demand the Department of Justice or law enforcement arrest, indict, and imprison your political adversaries and former allies who broke rank?

[ ] Subverting the Transfer of Power: Have you pressured election administrators to “find” votes or encouraged crowds to disrupt the constitutional certification of an election?

4. The Justice System & Detentions
[ ] Mass Internment Camps: Do you advocate constructing massive, militarized detention camps to hold hundreds of thousands of people rounded up by federal forces without traditional due process?

[ ] Dehumanizing Language: Do you refer to domestic political opponents as “vermin” or “scum” who must be “rooted out”?

5. Economy & Oligarchy
[ ] Crony Fealty Over Free Markets: Must private corporations pledge personal loyalty or avoid criticizing the state leader to escape punitive taxes, regulatory harassment, or contract retaliation?

[ ] State Capitalism: Do you suggest that the state should directly control, shake down, or dictate the boardroom decisions of private enterprises?

6. Aesthetics & Cult of Personality
[ ] Monumentalism by Decree: Have you issued mandates dictating that public buildings must conform to a single state-approved architectural style, or ordered the construction of a state “Garden of Heroes” filled with statues?

[ ] Military Pomp for the Leader: Do you demand tanks rolling through the capital streets for personalized military parades to showcase state power?

[ ] Infallible Figurehead: Is loyalty to the individual leader prioritized above the Constitution, the rule of law, or the state itself?

Scoring Guide
0–2 Checks: Standard democratic politician (imperfect, but operates within constitutional norms).

3–6 Checks: Illiberal tendencies with severe authoritarian drift.

7+ Checks: You have adopted the standard operating procedure of a Soviet-style police state—regardless of what label you put on the banner.