So, okay, how do you determine it then? If those things listed each happened once, it wouldn't be authoritarian. (Would it?) What about twice? Three times? There has to be some threshold. I couldn't think of a better threshold than some kind of consensus, because it's essentially a value judgment. But, it's a good point about group-think. Maybe there has to be a consensus among people outside of the marginalized group? Maybe the fact that people are even openly questioning whether we have an authoritarian regime in the US means that we don't?

Perhaps things are authoritarian when a wide range of people expect abuse from the people in power, whether or not they recognize it as such.

Or, maybe it's more sinister than that, and we only truly recognize authoritarianism in retrospect.