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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After half a century of tyranny, the Assad family’s rule over Syria has come to an end.—
Fawaz A. Gerges,
Foreign Affairs,
27 Jan. 2025
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The tyranny of an unscaleable beauty hierarchy will forever be the inspired stuff of great horror moviemaking.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
24 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Hepburn’s hatred of fascism and the Nazis was especially resonant to people on Reddit.—
Martha Ross,
The Mercury News,
24 Jan. 2025
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Reviewed by Andrew Moravcsik January/February 2025 Published on In This Review Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich By Richard J. Evans Save Who would support fascism today?—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
14 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Molina, a gay hairdresser convicted of public indecency during Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship, has been sent to the political wing of a prison and put in the same cell as Valentin Arregui (a solid, if unremarkable Diego Luna), an intense and serious-minded Marxist revolutionary.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
27 Jan. 2025
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During the third year of his sentence, he's placed in a cell with Valentin (Diego Luna), a revolutionary who is vital to the fight against Argentina's military dictatorship.—
Ryan Coleman,
EW.com,
27 Jan. 2025
Noun
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And this particular slide into totalitarianism is a rather recent development (which gives one hope that it could be reversed).—
Christian Blauvelt,
IndieWire,
26 Jan. 2025
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With the help of grants from Jewish groups, social psychologists, sociologists, and other scholars investigated how antisemitism was connected to totalitarianism, religion and other forms of racial and ethnic stereotyping.—
Asaf Elia-Shalev,
Sun Sentinel,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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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
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In other words, the absolutism or the abolitionist approach to cutting out meat from our diet doesn’t work for a lot of people.—
Shalom Daniel,
Forbes,
19 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near totalism
Cite this Entry
“Totalism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/totalism. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
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