#books to get through this

[vampiremotif]

part 1 of a series I’m going to call

books to get through This*

this* being Current Times (unfortunately more precedented than you might think!)

1. how democracies die (2018)

author(s): Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt

synopsis

The first one-third of the book essentially takes a comparative history approach, comparing different democracies that have failed across the world and identifying their shared characteristics. From this, developing a framework to identify when democracy is descending into authoritarianism. The next two-thirds of the book goes into how this relates to the United States and, what I would say, are fragile, barely-there guard rails in American society to protect against authoritarian rulers. (God, so much of American government is a bunch of norms in a trench coat.) It’s written incredibly accessibly and I was honestly riveted the whole time. I couldn’t put it down. It lends itself to really understanding all of the ways the foundations of the American government has led us to this moment.

scope & limitations

Since it was published in 2018, the authors are writing from the perspective of the midst of Trump's first term. Because of this, they obviously don't have the context of the pandemic (and the massive fail in government response), impeachment, or of the January 6th insurrection. (Frankly, I believe this makes their warnings all the more potent.)

author credentials

Authors are both American political scientists. Both are professors of government at Harvard University. Levitsky is a senior fellow for democracy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Building on Linz's work, we have developed a set of four behavioral warning signs that can help us know an authoritarian when we see one. We should worry when a politician 1) rejects, in words or action, the democratic rules of the game, 2) denies the legitimacy of opponents, 3) tolerates or encourages violence, or 4) indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media. Table 1 shows how to assess politicians in terms of these four factors. A politician who meets even one of these criteria is cause for concern.”

[bookwyrminspiration]

I can behave normally around books

[wanologic]

sorry danny, sam will never think you’re cool

[marisatomay]

Wicked Movie is going to make a trillion dollars its opening weekend and everyone will leave the theater the angriest they’ve ever been in their lives because no one except for me and my beloved mutuals knows that despite having runtime longer than the whole stage musical it is a Part One that only covers the first act

[egophiliac]

he did it! 🐍 and it only took...uhhh...well, there probably could've been less punches, but why hold back!

PUNCHES FOR EVERYONE

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au: and there was only one bed!! :00

Because of course I just had to do this trope

This is the first and last time they decide to sleep in an inn and they have an unspoken agreement to pretend this never happened

[teyrnacousland]

One of my favourite parts of The Wigmaker Job is at the beginning when a Venatori mage tries to sneak up on the Dellamortes in an inn before said Job and Lucanis stabs him, knocks him out, waits for Illario to securely tie the unconscious mage to a chair, and then when the guy wakes up Lucanis just immediately kills him. And Illario is just standing there like why did you wait for me tie him up so securely if you were just going to kill him jfc Lucanis

And it happens again when they talk about getting into the Wigmaker's party and Lucanis says something along the lines of "we were never going to just walk in through the front door" and Illario is like then why the fuck did you let me spend all this time and money on my outfit????

Lucanis thinks wasting Illario's time is hilarious (and he's right)

[crustaceousfaggot]

Shout out to Cishet White Teenager Christopher Paolini for realizing that if you give people infinite time, a completely non-judgemental society, and the power to change their bodies any way they want, lots of people are gonna start doing Freaky Anthro Transgenderism on themselves.

Like yeah, if I had the option I'd probably turn myself into a bizzare eldritch creature too

[glassedplanets]

more sketches! zs on the brain

[somnimagus]

My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]

[joellesolo]

Onyx Storm spoilers

Xaden: Yes, the table is broken. Now, what do you need? Ridoc: You two totally broke it, didn't you? Like that armoire no one was supposed to notice getting hauled out of her room during first year? Mira: The what?

[benevolenterrancy]

~loathing, unadulterated loathing~

[oxymoronicdumbass]

alas, the “literary genius as a kid” to “chronic ao3 user” pipeline claims yet another victim…

[egophiliac]

queen of diamonds, upright + reversed 💎

I've redone this like eighty times, I have to just be done with it now and stop staring at all my mistakes oh no 🫠

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I am absolutely begging people to stop treating nazism as their big, bad blorbo caricature they can just invoke when they're mildly irritated about people who (they think) have Bad Opinions.

Nazism is not just "any time a Bad Guy does Bad Things." Nazism is not your final jojo stand you can invoke to win discussions or debates. It is a real life ideology that is intrinsically linked to the radical antisemitism it espouses and ignoring that is fundamentally harmful to the point of being radically antisemetic.

Since this is on-topic, I've been reading People Love Dead Jews (I am on chapter two), and I think downplaying nazism is absolutely part of de-emphasizing and reprioritizing antisemitism to make it about everything else but the antisemitism. When nazism is everything, then it can't be fundamentally antisemetic. You won't have to acknowledge that jews are the primary target of nazis and nazism if nazis are everything else. It's not a coincidence, especially seeing how many jews people call nazis. This is part of the dead jew that people love - if your eye is turned away from the fact that jews both exist still and are affected by violence and oppression, you get to say, "the jew is dead!".

Regardless, you will never live in a world without us**

עם ישראל חי