On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
You might not be sure, today or tomorrow, who feels threatened in the United States. But if you affirm everyone, you can be sure that certain people will feel better.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
When we learn of one scandal, it whets our appetite for the next.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
To remember
People who assure you that you can only gain security at the price of liberty usually want to deny you both.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
THE MOST INTELLIGENT of the Nazis, the legal theorist Carl Schmitt, explained in clear language the essence of fascist governance. The way to destroy all rules, he explained, was to focus on the idea of the exception. A Nazi leader outmaneuvers his opponents by manufacturing a general conviction that the present moment is exceptional, and then tran
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Ukrainian and Russian journalists who sniffed the air in the Midwest said more realistic things than American pollsters who had built careers on understanding the politics of their own country.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
The fact that most Americans do not have passports has become a problem for American democracy.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
For us, the lesson is that our natural fear and grief must not enable the destruction of our institutions. Courage does not mean not fearing, or not grieving. It does mean recognizing and resisting terror management right away, from the moment of the attack, precisely when it seems most difficult to do so.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
IT IS GRATIFYING to know that, whatever the course of events, you are helping others to do good.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
During the campaign of 2016, Americans took a step toward totalitarianism without even noticing by accepting as normal the violation of electronic privacy. Whether it is done by American or Russian intelligence agencies, or for that matter by any institution, the theft, discussion, or publication of personal communications destroys a basic foundati
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