Donald Trump is an instinctive authoritarian. This is the defining feature of his personality and political life. Since his return to power, he has become much more extreme, ambitious and dangerous. Such leaders know that controlling the past is how you win the present — and lay the groundwork for commanding the future. These types of bad actors will never be satisfied in their quest to remake society in their ideological and personal image.
This explains why authoritarians and other enemies of democracy systematically target schools, universities, science, the arts, libraries, the independent news media and Fourth Estate, museums — anywhere knowledge is produced and critical thinking is taught. To control society, you must first control how people think. But such attempts are almost always contested.
