War Consumes Everything Else

[applegrove]

War Consumes Everything Else

March 9, 2026 at 10:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 161 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2026/03/09/war-consumes-everything-else/

A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else.

We mustn’t let this war do so.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2026-03-01T23:01:10.396902Z" target="_blank">Robert Reich: “A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else. We mustn’t let this war do so.”

[Wounded Bear]

1. Been true since the beginning...nt

[leftstreet]

2. I don't know many real world people talking about it

I think all those things he says are true EXCEPT "war divides a nation's peoples."

Maybe at one time it did, but not so much now

[snot]

4. It does (finally) seem to be uniting Americans against war.

Probably the only positive outcome.

[snot]

3. We've also spent trillions on war during my lifetime,

killing millions, leaving countries we purported to want to help worse off than they were before, and decimating our own material welfare.

[Skittles]

6. if all that money had been spent on cancer research

we'd have a cure by now

[Skittles]

5. it certainly is part of the repuke playbook