Saved by Russ and
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Each story on televised news is “breaking” until it is displaced by the next one. So we are hit by wave upon wave but never see the ocean. The effort to define the shape and significance of events requires words and concepts that elude us when we are entranced by visual stimuli.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
No one (except perhaps a tyrant) has a private life that can survive public exposure by hostile directive.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
When we take an active interest in matters of doubtful relevance at moments that are chosen by tyrants, oligarchs and spooks, we participate in the demolition of our own political order.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
A party emboldened by a favorable election result, or denying an unfavorable one, might change the system from within.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Milgram grasped that people are remarkably receptive to new rules in a new setting.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
We need to remove private funding from what should be public campaigns for office. We will have to take seriously our own Constitution, which forbids oath-breaking insurrectionists from running for office.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.
Timothy Snyder • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
The whole notion of disruption is adolescent: It assumes that after the teenagers make a mess, the adults will come and clean it up. But there are no adults. We own this mess.