“It is for your own good!” says Romania’s hybrid regime

Who better foreshadows Romania’s plummet in the democracy index than General Rog, head of the cyber division of the Romanian intelligence services, boasting of his executive overreach over a year ago?

The situation in Romania is so dire that it requires extraordinary means—like quoting Episode 32, Season 3, from The Amazing World of Gumball, where Gumball's little adopted brother Darwin transforms into a safety dictator "for our own good"! What begins as genuine concern for his entourage's wellbeing ends with surveillance, control, and the cheerful d…