Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“A few posts back I suggested “pointman” as a possible title for the occupant of the center (so I don’t have to keep writing “occupant of the center”) but in doing so I continued to overlook the fact that the perfect term already exists and has for a long time: dictator. This completely innocuous and perfectly descriptive term for whoever governs directly and without formal hindrances dates back, of course, to the Roman Republic, where “dictators” would be appointed to see the republic through some emergency (that, presumably, normal means of consensual rule, i.e., convoluted dictatorship, were inadequate to). My reason for rejecting (or deferring) this term is the massive accumulation of moral opprobrium piled upon it through the 20th century, to the point where, like “fascist” or “Nazi,” it just became a way of describing anyone who, say, prioritized the safety of potential crime victims over addressing whatever conditions or trauma we imagine to have driven the criminal.”

— Adam Katz, Rotating Dictatorship · Dec 17, 2025 · Bouvard Substack