You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Mandeep Tiwana of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations and activists working to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world. And CIVICUS just added the United States to its Watchlist.

In this episode, we talk about:

* Why CIVICUS has put the U.S. on a democracy watchlist alongside countries like Serbia and Congo

* The scary erosion of basic American freedoms like protesting, speaking out, and organizing

* How America's gone through rough patches before, but why this time feels way more alarming

* How democracy is torn down with alarming speed, and takes decades and centuries to rebuild

* What regular Americans can do to spot these freedom-crushing red flags before things get even worse

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