as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
warned that forfeiture of civil liberties for the sake of security would only result in the terror of totalism
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Recent Examples of totalism
Common sense and a mania for systematization, logical thinking and ideological totalism, are constantly at war in the French character, as a belief in instant happiness and a paranoia about imaginary enemies are in the American.
—
Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for totalism
Noun
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By settling with Trump, two of the firms that Trump targeted — Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps — have disgraced the legal community and turned their backs on their public duty to fight tyranny.—
Robert B. Reich,
Hartford Courant,
1 Apr. 2025
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The Trump deportations Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez case spotlights wrong federal priorities in deportation cases Deportation as theater is the wrong tactic History has shown us that when governments operate without checks and balances, tyranny follows.—
Nisha Whitehead,
Oc Register,
28 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Leading scholars, including historians of fascism, keep making alarming comparisons between WW2 and the present.—
Chris Doyle,
Hartford Courant,
2 Apr. 2025
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Stanley is an expert on fascism and the author of several books on the topic, including Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.—
Destinee Adams,
NPR,
1 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The oligarchs in Hungary and Russia support the dictatorship with their monetary gains in return for being allowed to remain billionaires.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
4 Apr. 2025
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The biographical drama is inspired by the lives of Brazilian activist Eunice Paiva and her politician husband Rubens, who was murdered for his dissidence toward the military dictatorship of 1970s Brazil.—
Edward Segarra,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Forgotten Anne, for example, makes arguments against authoritarianism and totalitarianism.—
G Kirilloff,
Forbes.com,
31 Mar. 2025
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The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.—
Claude Malhuret,
The Atlantic,
8 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Public discourse must resist the seduction of emotional absolutism, demanding instead that moral arguments be grounded in fact and logic.—
Kevin Waldman,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Apr. 2025
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In our skies as in our social lives, incremental change, like ring rain, seems to work slowly, while acts of frightening absolutism seem to happen overnight.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
22 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Totalism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/totalism. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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