Category talk:Totalitarianism

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Some of the names here don't qualify as "totalitarian"[edit]

First, because as totalitarian scholars argued, totalitarianism emerged at 20th century, older authoritarian regimes and people (Hegel? seriously?) shouldn't be here. Second, because some dictators are not as powerful as totalitarian leaders. I'm not even sure if Putin can be considered a totalitarian leader, let alone Orbán. While China can arguably be considered a totalitarian state, and Xi is the most powerful leader of the country since Mao, I don't think he has enough power to be totalitarian. To be fair, there is a whole debate among historians and political scientists about the usefulness of the "totalitarianism" category, and many people question its usefulness and application even for Nazi German and Stalinist Russia. Yes, there are some poor critiques, like the one Domenico Losurdo did, but serious authors, like Sheila Fitzpatrick and Michael Geyer have said that totalitarianism as a category is dead. I'm not saying that we should delete the category, but I don't think we should uncritically buy the term just because it's useful to criticize regimes we don't like either, and I say that as someone that actually finds it useful. GeeJayKWhere all evil dwells Where every lie is true 20:07, 12 March 2024 (UTC)