The most important take-aways from this book are the pulsinamity of the West in the face of Putin's evident and publicly available program to reduce every democracy to the economic, social and political level of Russia and the complicity of occidental extreme right and left wing politicians, oligarchs and partial media in supporting, enc…
The most important take-aways from this book are the pulsinamity of the West in the face of Putin's evident and publicly available program to reduce every democracy to the economic, social and political level of Russia and the complicity of occidental extreme right and left wing politicians, oligarchs and partial media in supporting, encouraging, enabling and imposing it in our societies. Intentionally implausible lies destroy belief in history, the existence of truth and the importance of seeking it. Confidence in institutions and the utility of voting go out the window as people content themselves with the idea that no matter how much it hurts they can't do much about it and anyway, someone is suffering more than they. The fascists reduce the people to a servant status; zombies whose only role is to believe the lies of their "redeemer" and obediently hate their external enemies who are of course to blame for all their pain. The people are thus merely production/consumption units whose only goal in life is to ensure the increasing wealth of the oligarchs and to admire the increasingly midas-like life-style of these semi-gods that lord it over us. Snyder lays out the fascist philosophies used to cover this coup d'état and their evolution from Putin's return to the Presidency in 2012, through the disruption and invasion of Ukraine to Scottish independence and Brexit to the imposition of their creature Trump as Chief Magistrate and head of the Army in their philosophical nemesis; the USA. Some of the details on Trump's fake status as a "successful businessman" generated by Russian propaganda and illicit money laundering and details of his finances and operations are extremely revealing.
If we don't now act cohesively to annihilate this movement and these dangerous lunatics .....Russian servitude here we come!
Thanks for taking the time to summarize this. I am looking forward to reading the book. I have just listened this morning to the first two of Timothy Snyder’s talks on YouTube and heard some of the same themes you refer to. We are, indeed, living in a momentous time in both the history of America and of the world. It’s starting to feel more and more as if things are beginning to spiral out of control, both environmentally and politically. Existentially frightening.
“Intentionally implausible lies” stands out as the secret for success of anyone’s rise through an organization, along with message manipulation and exploitation of loopholes in the rules.
We just saw intentionally implausible lies from DeJoy on Friday as he testified before the Senate committee yesterday, and will see more of it on Monday.
It’s interesting to think how this skill is learned in childhood.
It is a pervasive problem that unchecked, can lead to terrible consequences, and it is very difficult to effectively respond in time. Hence the Holocaust...
The most important take-aways from this book are the pulsinamity of the West in the face of Putin's evident and publicly available program to reduce every democracy to the economic, social and political level of Russia and the complicity of occidental extreme right and left wing politicians, oligarchs and partial media in supporting, encouraging, enabling and imposing it in our societies. Intentionally implausible lies destroy belief in history, the existence of truth and the importance of seeking it. Confidence in institutions and the utility of voting go out the window as people content themselves with the idea that no matter how much it hurts they can't do much about it and anyway, someone is suffering more than they. The fascists reduce the people to a servant status; zombies whose only role is to believe the lies of their "redeemer" and obediently hate their external enemies who are of course to blame for all their pain. The people are thus merely production/consumption units whose only goal in life is to ensure the increasing wealth of the oligarchs and to admire the increasingly midas-like life-style of these semi-gods that lord it over us. Snyder lays out the fascist philosophies used to cover this coup d'état and their evolution from Putin's return to the Presidency in 2012, through the disruption and invasion of Ukraine to Scottish independence and Brexit to the imposition of their creature Trump as Chief Magistrate and head of the Army in their philosophical nemesis; the USA. Some of the details on Trump's fake status as a "successful businessman" generated by Russian propaganda and illicit money laundering and details of his finances and operations are extremely revealing.
If we don't now act cohesively to annihilate this movement and these dangerous lunatics .....Russian servitude here we come!
Thanks for taking the time to summarize this. I am looking forward to reading the book. I have just listened this morning to the first two of Timothy Snyder’s talks on YouTube and heard some of the same themes you refer to. We are, indeed, living in a momentous time in both the history of America and of the world. It’s starting to feel more and more as if things are beginning to spiral out of control, both environmentally and politically. Existentially frightening.
“Intentionally implausible lies” stands out as the secret for success of anyone’s rise through an organization, along with message manipulation and exploitation of loopholes in the rules.
We just saw intentionally implausible lies from DeJoy on Friday as he testified before the Senate committee yesterday, and will see more of it on Monday.
It’s interesting to think how this skill is learned in childhood.
It is a pervasive problem that unchecked, can lead to terrible consequences, and it is very difficult to effectively respond in time. Hence the Holocaust...