Dictators

These power hungry people have preyed on their own population in many cases. They are unelected tyrants who ran rigorous regimes, where dissent was met with torture and even death. As a society, the same question keeps coming back to haunt us. How did these so-called cults of personalties perpetrate terror, pain, and suffering for so long? We’ll delve into dictators on this week’s episode of FYI.

Transcript

0:02

these power hungry people have prayed on their own population in many cases they are unelected tyrants who ran rigorous regimes where descent was met with torture and even death as a society the same question keeps coming back to haunt us how did these socalled Cults of personalities perpetrate Terror pain and suffering for so long my fellow citizens who are working to make America great I salute the Italians of America who unite in a single love our two Nations we'll delve into dictators on this week's episode of fyr Welcome to for your info engl you got it you got[Music][Applause][Applause][Music] it hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of FYI and today we are going to take a look at a touchy subject because well dictators it's never a topic of conversation around the dinner table at Christmas for example no this is a little bit of the Underworld the dark side but I think it's important to take a look at that as well we're not going to do every episode on donuts and lollipops and as always there's vocabulary to be learned out of every topic not just vocab ulary associated with each topic we look at here on the podcast but also vocabulary associated with everyday English we always look at conjunctions here on the show however nevertheless I usually stop and highlight pronunciation or common mistakes so if you guys take notes if you consider yourself English students will grab a pen grab a notebook and take notes I'm sure you can learn something new every week I know I'm learning something new every single week here on the podcast myself whether it's a Spanish word or a fun fact about our topic the important thing is to laugh while you learn to have a great time and that's what we aim to do every week here on FYI and if you guys haven't heard a topic that you'd like to hear about don't forget you can contact me on social media or go over to my Curious community on patreon and you can drop me a line over there and a quick reminder if you're not in our curious community on patreon I don't know what you're waiting for we are having tons of fun we're learning we're laughing and that's what it's all about and now you can join for free now that won't give you access to all the posts but at least you'll be in the no but for as little as € a month you can get a bonus episode every week plus PDF documents to help you go over all the vocabulary idiomatic expressions and all that jazz and if you're in our higher levels our super duper students or our Interstellar students well then you even have class with me every week we have a weekly group class where we get together and review the things from the episode among other things and if you're in our highest level our Interstellar students well then you also get all that stuff and a private class with me it's a deal Uno you can get more information over at patreon.com Alberto Alonso and if you need a free sample or if you have any questions as I said just reach out and before we get started I want to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Marta Javier Paco Roberto and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a monthly private class with me as well as a weekly group class with me that's five classes a month and those students are Garman Lena Issa Paco David Jos Maria Patricio and Edgar I urge you to join our curious community over on patreon go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso all right let's get into dictators well I guess we should point out that when we say the the word dictators in dick dictator so I guess it's an appropriate word and a dictator runs a dictatorship it's always good to look at the verbs the nouns the adjectives associated with each word the example I always use here is boss he bossy mandon boss around mandar now you know the word completely let's take a look at our intro I started out by saying these power hungry people and if you're power hungry I guess it makes sense you want more power more more you're greedy we talked about the word greed in our corporations episode so these power hungry people have prayed[Laughter] on and to pray I don't mean pray like Our Father Who Art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come no not that prey that's p r a y I'm talking about P re e which is another way of saying to hunt and pay attention it's to pray on a good way to remember it is a lion prays on its prey AA so they prey on their own population in many cases and careful with the pronunciation there too it's not population it's say it with me population population then I said they are unelected tyrants unelected I think is pretty evident and a tyrant is a harsh ruler a despot and they ran rigorous regimes and in this case the word run has nothing to do with it's you might know it from the idiomatic expression to run the show which by the way in the bonus episode we're going to take a look at a lot of idiomatic expressions and so much more and the word regime I guess that's a French word they ran rigorous regimes where disent was met with torture and even death and dissent is disagreement then I said as a society let's pronounce that word together Society the same question keeps coming back to haunt us to haunt is what a ghost does woo but also a memory can haunt you I think we even looked at haunted houses in our Halloween episode again we're getting to know the idea behind the word haunt and the question that keeps coming back to haunt us is how did these socalled talados Cults of personalities perpetrate Terror pain and suffering for so long then we heard Benito musolini and he said something about making America great it's interesting because I didn't know musolini spoke English and obviously we'll talk about old Benny later on and I wrapped up the intro saying we'll delve into indar that's one of the first words I learned in Spanish when I started doing this podcast as I always say you aren't the only ones learning here here folks so we'll delve into dictators on this week's episode as I said before this is not a pretty topic maybe it's not one you want to listen to with the kids I mean when you talk about torture death starvation shooting squads coupet Tas it's never a pretty thing let's kick off with a little etymology the word dictator comes from the Latin language you know that being Spanish dictar but in the Roman sense of the word a dictator was a Roman magistrate who was given sole power for a limited duration so it was originally an emergency legal appointment in the Roman Republic and also in the at truscan culture as well but back then the term dictator did not have the negative connotation that it has today it was somebody who would come in temporarily when there was a problem and they would be like a temporary leader an interim leader if you will it started to get its modern negative meaning with Cornelius Salah it was Cornelius salah's Ascension to the dictatorship after su's Civil War and he made himself the first dictator in Rome in more than a century and he did it with the de facto clause which eliminates a time limit or a need for a senate eventually he avoided a major constitutional crisis by resigning to resign or to step down he was the leader for less than a year then another guy followed suit he saw what suah did but he wanted to do it successfully and this was in 44 BC does anybody know who I'm talking about here let me give you a clue the die is cast each other did you say Julius Caesar good job that means you know your history and you've possibly listened to our FYI episode on the Roman Empire so yeah little Julius Caesar was paying attention and he was proclaimed dictator perpetuo which in English would be dictator in perpetuity and there were no limits on his power there was just one problem he was assassinated the following month there are no rules when it comes to power grabs following his assassination his Heir Augustus and I didn't mean is but there's another word that's and that's so his Heir Augustus was offered the title of dictator but he declined it he turned it down also later successors also declined the title of dictator so it started to really get a bad rap the word people say no call me Emperor but don't call me dictator no no no and now it brings us to modern day where if you call somebody a dictator you're not saying something nice about them so what is a dictator good question let's define it a dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power a dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small click a little click is a little group the word originated as we said from the Roman senate and they were used to rule the Republic temporarily in times of emergency like the term Tyrant and to a lesser degree autocrat dictator came to be used almost exclusively for oppressive rule in modern usage the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power dictatorships are often characterized by some of the following suspensions of Elections and civil liberties proclamation of a state of emergency rule by decree repression of political opponents not abiding by the procedures of the rule of law and the existence of a cult of personality as we said before dictatorships are often one part party or dominant party States so that's what a dictator and a dictatorship is in black and white also in many cases dictators grab the power through a coup d'a but what do you need if you're going to have a coup we don't pronounce it Coupe we say coup well obviously you're going to need military backing if you don't have the support of the military you're not getting too far so there's always been an association between a dictator and the military some even wear military uniforms now in the case of Francisco Franco he was a general so he was wearing his uniform and Manuel Nora there's another example he was officially the commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces but some of them who have had no military experience at all dress as if they were soldiers or high-ranking officials I should say so even if they don't have the backing or the support of the military it looks like they do and that's so important it's all about perception that's where the idea of propaganda comes from tell them it's blue even if it's red if you keep telling them it's blue maybe they'll believe it's blue and speaking of propaganda I'd love to do an episode in the future on Edward bernes I don't know if you guys would find that interesting but he's the guy who made bacon popular for breakfast who made women smokers and he learned from the best from his Uncle Sigman Freud I think we should do a special episode on propaganda well either way let's delve into it a little bit here when you think of propaganda I think one of the people that always pops into your mind is gibles the Nazis had a master of propaganda and I realized recently I was watching some Warner Brothers cartoons with my daughter ones that I used to see when I was a kid and I didn't realize it then but it totally blew my mind now to realize I was watching an ad for the United States military only with Daffy Duck and all the Looney Tunes characters you're despicable so propaganda can even leech into children's cartoons and supposedly in the United States we don't have a dictatorship however our media exposes us to propaganda and we're going to talk about the role of the media as well sure you need the soldiers the military behind you but you also need the media behind you or at least not talking smack about you talking smack about you is talking bad about you and dictators or at least their their crew the people around them have to be masters of crowd manipulation I mean if you've ever seen some of these old videos from World War II and you saw Benito musolini or Adolf Hitler addressing a crowd it was insane it was fervor it was was energy it was getting people all riled up so being a good orator being charismatic is really important especially if you're going to convince people that you're good even though you're killing people and as we know throughout history some dictators have been more charismatic than others the same applies to politicians by the way but even if they make a mistake in a speech or say something or you know somebody catches them in a compromise situation don't worry they've got the media in their pocket well they'd better if you're a good dictator you'd better have the media in your pocket of course the media is important if public perception is important then the media is the speaker and also if you seize control of the media well you can censor anything you need there's a a big debate right now about censorship on Twitter and other social media platforms again a lot of these things can be applied to our politicians of today okay maybe they're not lining people up in a firing squad and shooting them but they are making money off the blood of others and you also have to convince people that they're not getting screwed over there's some kind of expression that says if you repeat the LIE enough times it becomes the truth and they even give themselves fancy titles musolini called himself Uchi Hitler their fur El over here in Spain and Stalin I didn't know this one he gave himself the same name as Superman the Man of Steel you can't take Superman's name not cool Stalin you may have been a powerful guy but you'll never be as powerful as Superman let's talk a little bit about some of the abuses of power right now as we know generally their tactics violate human rights they're not too interested in human rights in general when you're power hungry all you see is power for example Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin he enforced his government policy by a secret police he established the gulag system I'm sure you've all heard of it these were kind of prison labor camps and anybody who opposed him dissented disagreed well they were thrown into these labor camps other human rights abuses that we've seen coming from the Soviet Union human experimentation and again these are not exclusive to the Soviet Union the use of Psychiatry as a political weapon this is manipulating people's minds brainwashing mind control all of this stuff denying people basic Freedom such as freedom of religion freedom of assembly and even things such as the freedom of speech similar crimes were committed by maong he ruled over the People's Republic of China as I'm sure you all know during what was called China's cultural revolution and his goal and he said it very clearly was to purge dissidents and he did this through the use of Youth groups youth groups that were strongly committed to his Cult of Personality their main goal was to adore their great leader to emulate him some dictators have been associated with genocide I guess the most common example of that that is the Holocaust and in the bonus part we're going to take a look at the most brutal dictators we'll also take a look at some fun facts yes Believe It or Not There are some fun facts even about dictators I should say fun freaky facts again these shows are not for children this week but we'll also talk about pole pot and the Cambodian genocide and what is called The Killing Fields and in no moment are we going to glorify any of this violence this is just to talk about what happened in history so we hope it never happens again unfortunately history repeats itself let's take a look at a couple historic quotes right now and then we're going to hear an audio clip from my favorite comedian George Carlin the first quote we're going to take a look at is from the one and only George Washington the first president of the United States and he said about power few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder let me translate that I so the highest bitter think of an auction it's the person who offers the most money so now that you know what it means I'll say it again few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder so what he's saying is money can corrupt rupt any man and when they say men back then they mean women too obviously speaking of this woman was very powerful The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher and she said power is like being a lady if you have to tell people you are you aren't very short and sweet there but it's true if you have to tell people how great you are are you really that great and our last quote is from Thomas Jefferson one of the founding fathers of my country experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have in time and by slow operations perverted it into tyrrany so it deals with the idea that power corrupts and we're going to wrap up this first part with George Carlin this is a comedy sketch but it's also a man who was a visionary who was ahead of his time and what he's telling you is you shouldn't trust the government they're not your friend they don't care about you they just want to make money and Advance their agendas and this is from about 10 or maybe even 20 years ago but it's as true today as it was back then the famous line that George Carlin says here is it's a big club and you're not in it plus this is chalk full of vocabulary let's see how much of it you understand here's the one and only George Carlin there's a reason for this there's a reason education sucks and it's the same reason that it will never ever ever be fixed it's never going to get any better don't look for it be happy with what you got because the owners of this country don't want that I'm talking about the real owners now the real owners the big wealthy business interest that control things and make all the important decisions forget the politicians the politicians are put there to give you the idea aide that you have freedom of choice you don't you have no choice you have owners they own you they own everything they own all the important land they own and control the corporations they've long since bought and paid for the Senate the Congress the state houses the City Halls they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear they got you by the balls they they spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want well we know what they want they want more for themselves and less for everybody else but I'll tell you what they don't want they don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking they don't want well-informed well educated people capable of critical thinking they're not interested in that that doesn't help them that's against their interest that's right they don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting [ __ ] by a system that threw them overboard 30 [ __ ] years ago they don't want that you know what they want they want obedient workers obedient workers ERS people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay the longer hours the reduced benefits the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it and now they're coming for your Social Security money they want your [ __ ] retirement money they want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street and you know something they'll get it they'll get it all from you sooner or later because they own this [ __ ] place it's a big Club and you ain't in it you and I are not in the big club by the way it's the same big Club they used to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe all day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe what to think and what to buy the table is tilted folks the game is rigged and nobody seems to notice nobody seems to care good honest hardworking people white collar Blue Collar doesn't matter what color shirt you have on good honest hardworking people continue these are people of modest means continue to elect these rich [ __ ] who don't give a[ __ ] about them they don't give a [ __ ] about you they don't give a [ __ ] about you they don't care about you at all at all at all man you know and nobody seems to notice nobody seems to care that's what the owners count on the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red white and blue dick that's being jammed up their [ __ ] every day because the owners of this country know the truth it's called The American Dream cuz you have be asleep to believe it wise words from a wiser man folks I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's[Applause][Applause][Music] FYI