It’s important to resist this in any way you can. One of the strengths of democracy is that because so many people are part of government, it requires a lot of people to participate in making dictatorship work. It can happen, as in Russia or North Korea, but it isn’t supposed to be easy.

The first step I’d suggest is to establish private communication with others in your department so you can coordinate a response without your supervisors knowing. A mass walkout/general strike in the case of firings should be a consideration.