Don't get used to it - it's what autocracies rely on

Humans are both adaptable and resilient - but it would be dangerous to get used to the Trump administration

It’s not even been 100 days since President Trump was inaugurated and my spreadsheet is approaching 250 authoritarian-like actions. The administration is moving forwards with trade wars, dismantling the federal government, defunding key health and environmental programmes, shipping off immigrants to foreign jails with no due process, deporting students, attacking universities, law firms and media companies, and undermining the international world order that the US led in establishing 75 years ago. I’ve probably missed out another equally long list of actions that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

It’s exhausting. But it’s also incrementally less and less shocking. And this combination is dangerous - the more we switch off and the more we have to work harder to remember that none of this is normal, the harder it is to fight back.

Adaptation is not always helpful

Humans are both adaptable and resilient. We are one of the most adaptable species on earth, allowing us to be resilient to change and adversity. But being able to adapt doesn’t mean that we should adapt or that what we’re adapting to is acceptable.

When there is too much information, too many crises, tuning out is one way people adapt and protect themselves. In general, ‘issue fatigue’ can lead to people actively avoiding new information on an issue.

Another adaptation is for people’s capacity to process new information to get saturated and so new information simply doesn’t have the same impact after a while. For instance, studies have shown that while one scandal can be very bad for a politician, many scandals doesn’t necessarily mean things get progressively worse. Instead, additional scandals might not reduce support at all.

When each day brings a new outrage, at some point the outrage starts to feel “normal.” The abnormal becomes background noise. This adaptive erosion of alarm is exactly what an emerging autocrat can exploit.

Tolerating the intolerable

The process of accepting the unacceptable is sometimes called the normalisation of deviance. Sociologist Diane Vaughan coined the term after studying the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, where warning signs were repeatedly ignored. Vaughan observed that when rule-breaking or “deviant” behavior is tolerated and repeated, people can become desensitized to the point that deviant practice no longer feels wrong.

This can be exacerbated if people feel unsafe, where people trade away some rights or overlook “deviant” behaviours in return for order, stability and perceived safety. People can retreat into their private spheres of family, friends and work and disengage from the public sphere, hoping that the danger will pass them by. If they see their peers and communities also seeming to accept the status quo, it can in turn accelerate the normalisation of deviance.

Authoritarian - or proto-authoritarian - leaders often try to exploit these instincts by playing on fears of instability and danger. They highlight threats (real or exaggerated) and then promise only their strong hand can shield the public from those dangers. Trump is following this playbook exactly in his immigration rhetoric, although he is also undermining it by promoting economic instability with his tariff policy.

We must not forget that none of this is normal

We must recognise the signs of normalisation in ourselves. As Trump and his MAGA cheerleaders continue to behave in ways that flout democratic norms or basic decency, we must resist the instinct to simply get used to it. Humans can get used to almost anything – but normalising Trump will only help his regime stay in power.

We must keep calling out abnormal behavior for what it is, no matter how frequently it occurs. Maintaining this stance requires conscious effort. It means actively remembering what “normal” governance and leadership look like – truthfulness, respect for rules, basic civility – and labeling deviations clearly, even when we’re tired. No single person can do this - we need to build communities which allow us to also take time to switch off, to support each other, to remind each other we are not living in ‘normal’ times. For me, my substacks are one way that I feel I can contribute to reminding myself and others that none of this normal.