#on tyranny timothy snyder

[yikesforever]

Just a reminder for this lovely Sunday 🥰

[porterdavis]

We have met the enemy...

How to destroy the US:

"The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective, Trump's proposed appointments—Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard—are perfect instruments. 

"They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done.”

Timothy Snyder, author - On Tyranny

[sigridstumb]

Do Not Comply In Advance

We humans, we protect ourselves.

We protect ourselves, our families, and our communities.

We protect what we had built, what we have collected, what we have made, what we have nurtured.

We do this in a variety of ways. One way we protect ourselves, our people, and our works is by getting along with others.

A part of getting along with others is ... well, it's doing what you need to do so that you remain unremarkable. Unnoticed. We live in societies, in communities, and we on the whole try to live in accordance with the rules and unspoken expectations of that society.

Compliance is one of the cornerstones of protection.

However.

However.

Do not do the work of those who would see you broken and battered for them.

Okay, listen.

I'm talking about the U.S., here, the U.S.A. in the bitter end of 2024. As I type this, I cannot forsee the future. I am, thank the uncaring void, not a Cassandra. But it would be abject foolishness to not know that turmoil is coming from sea to shining sea. What manner of harms will befall us are as yet unknown.

But harm will come.

Harm will come. We will be threatened. And in the face of that threat we will want to protect ourselves, our people, and our works. Most of us, the vast, vast majority of us, will be compliant most of the time.

This isn't stupid. This isn't evil. This is one tool in the toolbox of the occupied, invaded, and oppressed. Keep your head down. Go along to get along.

Every marginalized community in the U.S. already knows this. This isn't new and it's not news. But a lot more people are going to abruptly find themselves in this position, and it will be very unnerving.

Compliance to protect you and yours isn't wrong. It's not a failing. It's just what you have to do.

However.

However.

Do. Not. Comply. In. Advance.

What does that mean? That means, do not try to guess what the oppressor wants so you can do it without being asked. It means do not imagine what will make the autocrat happy and do it as a little present. It means do not suck up to the oligarchs by hanging on their every word and doing what they hint at.

Do not, in short, 'rid him of this turbulent priest.'

Do not call ICE on anyone. Do not ask anyone for their documentation. In fact, don't keep very good records. Forget to do your paperwork. Lose files. Corrupt a database here and there. The oligarchy can't deport who they can't find.

Do not be a snitch, period. However you feel about your neighbor's lawn signs/car on blocks/late night weed smoking you do everything you can to handle it yourselves. It is important to try to establish good relationships with your neighbors, your coworkers, your medical provider, anybody you have regular dealings with. You help them out, they'll help you out.

Do not do the work of the oppressor for them. Do what you need to do to get by, but remember that everyone else is also trying to get by - leave them be.

Do not do the work of people who want to see you dead for them.

Do not comply in advance.

[clovencraft]

'til the day I die

[godzilla-reads]

8. Stand Out

Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

📕 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

[originalleftist]

From "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," by Timothy Snyder:

(Screenshots from Spoutible.com)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Timothy Snyder At Thinking About...:

1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. 2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about -- a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union -- and take its side. 3. Beware the one-party state. 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 multiple-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office. 4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so. 5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor. 6. Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.

[...] 10. 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. 11. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate with others. [...]

14. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks. 15. Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good. 16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

Timothy Snyder wrote in his Substack the twenty lessons on combatting tyranny that were in his book On Tyranny.

Key lessons:

1 Do not obey in advance.

2 Defend institutions.

3 Beware the one-party state.

10 Believe in truth.

15 Contribute to good causes

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

This is so important.

@TimothyDSnyder, author of On Tyranny. I wanted to know how to live our best lives in opposition to an authoritarian regime Here's what he told me :: [Will Bunch]

[hatefulbread]

today's the day... 1/20/25

it's inaugural day. i'm sure many of us are sitting on our phones, anxiously awaiting noon.

yesterday, i tried my best to ignore the articles flooding in about tr*mp's "victory rally", but there were so many that it was unavoidable. there are a million things i can talk about right now, things that disgusted me yesterday, things that disgust me today... but instead i want to chat about something more important.

us.

regardless of where you stand on the political tightrope, this upcoming administration is going to affect you. working class, lqbtqia+, woman, immigrant, bipoc, disabled. veteran, even. we're all going to face hardship unimaginable in our lifetimes. the oligarch is moving inside the white house today. there is no avoiding it when it has it's own office.

this isn't a time to nestle your fear, this is a time to feed your awareness. things are going to happen quickly and swiftly. this isn't the 1930's where people were tracked down solely by tip-off's and good luck. we're all immediately trackable. everything we say and do is coursing through the framework of our phones and laptops, even this blog.

we need to stay focused. study. don't believe everything you hear until you've researched it. conservative media, liberal media, moderate media. it's our job to digest it all and find the truth, because they will all be biased. they will all hide something.

this is one of my favorite books i own, especially this graphic version. it tells us step-by-step what to expect in the uprising of fascism in the government; what we can do to stay safe and present. my favorite chapter is 11.

investigate.

"figure things out for yourself. spend more time with long articles. subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). take responsibility for what you communicate with others." pg. 64.

i am so thankful for the environment my parents raised me in. we didn't have much, but they were adamant about teaching their kids to use critical thinking before coming to a conclusion. they taught us to always trust a pattern, even when it looks like a wild card too-good-to-be-true enters the game. be skeptical. ask questions.

i won't drone on any further. but please, please, please- investigate everything you hear for yourself. do not take what you hear as fact until you've seen it peer reviewed, sourced, and/or fact-checked across several trustworthy news outlets. fox and cnn are not news sources i would ever categorize as trustworthy. go forth with that, as you will.

other incredible books that will help us during this time:

"how to be an antiracist" by ibram x. kendi

"gay berlin" by robert beachy

"strongmen: mussolini to the present" by ruth ben-ghiat

"who's afraid of gender?" by judith butler

"it can't happen here" by sinclair lewis

"how fascism works" by jason stanley

"white fragility" by robin diangelo

and many, many more, upon request.

stay safe. organize. be critical, and let your anger be your guide.

[laugier]

[spiderpanic]

13. Practice corporeal politics ------------------------------------------------

Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For resistance to succeed, two boundaries must be crossed. First, ideas about change must engage people of various backgrounds who do not agree about everything. Second, people must find themselves in places that are not their homes, and among groups who were not previously their friends. Protests can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets. If tyrants feel no consequence for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change.

The one example of successful resistance to communism was the Solidarity Labor movement in Poland in 1980-81: A coalition of workers and professionals, elements of the Roman Catholic Church, and secular groups. It's leaders had learned hard lessons under communism. In 1968, the regime mobilized workers against students who protested. In 1970 when a strike in Gdansk on the Baltic coast was bloodily suppressed, it was the workers turn to feel isolated. In 1976, however, intellectuals and professionals formed a group to assist workers who had been abused by the government. These were people from both the right and the left, believers and atheists, who created trust among workers -people whom they would not otherwise have met.

When Polish workers on the Baltic coast went on strike again in 1980, they were joined by lawyers, scholars, and others who helped them make their case. The result was the creation of a free labor union, as well as government guarantees to observe human rights. During the 16 months that solidarity was legal, 10 million people joined, and countless new friendships were created amid strikes, marches, and demonstrations. The Polish Communist regime put down the movement with martial law in 1981. Yet 8 years later, in 1989, when they needed negotiating partners, the communists had to turn to Solidarity. The labor union insisted on elections, which it then won. This was the beginning of the end of communism in Poland, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. The choice to be in public depends on the ability to maintain a private sphere of life. We are free only when it is we ourselves who draw the line between when we are seen and when we are not seen.

-On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder)

[porterdavis]

A lengthy, clear-eyed, and essential read on what is happening to the country from the man who wrote the book on tyranny.

It is depressing, but then, so is current reality.

Time is running out. In short -- do something!

[tomorrowusa]

« Trump and his highest-profile allies have plainly embarked on a broader related project—one that seeks to acclimatize the American electorate to fascistic language and far-reaching authoritarian policy “solutions.” They are slowly edging the discourse deeper into that fraught territory, as if painstakingly testing how far they can take this without provoking too much public discomfort over it. »

— Greg Sargent at The New Republic.

All those references to fascism and Hitler love have been part of MAGA since the start. They form a pattern. Blaming them on staffers only draws attention to the more senior people who hired those Nazi-friendly staffers in the first place.

Trump speaks lovingly of dictators and dictatorship. It's time for us to speak more lovingly about democracy and not to be reticent about giving pushback – especially in person – to those who make excuses for Trump's semi-coherent anti-democratic diatribes.

Trump won't be defeated without extra effort from all of us. Slackerism only gave us Trump in the first place in 2016.

BTW: If you're looking for a thoughtful but not expensive graduation gift, here's a book by historian Timothy Snyder which was a bestseller during the Trump presidency.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century

And yes, I did read it – it took less than two days.

[laissezferre]

"What is the truth?" Sometimes people ask this question because they wish to do nothing. Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference. It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society. The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds. The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant.

-Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

[thoughtfulfangirling]

A Nazi leader out-maneuvers his opponents by manufacturing a general conviction that the present moment is exceptional, and then transforming that state of exception into a permanent emergency. Citizens then trade real freedom for fake safety.

—On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons of the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

[godzilla-reads]

❤️ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

“In politics, being deceived is no excuse.”

—Leszek Kołakowski

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

In 2017, after the USA presidential election of 2016, Timothy Snyder wrote a small book (only 126 pages) on how to spot tyranny and fascism, how to fight it, and what we need yo continue to do everyday when living under tyrannical rule.

Now, in 2024-2025, we’re in the shithouse again. I’ll admit, I’ve been panicked, I’ve been despairing, and depressed. This book has helped me ground myself into the present and take a look at what I can do and how I can process what’s happening around me. Timothy Snyder is very poignant in his writing, not afraid to call out and reference those in power. I’d recommend everyone read this book and take a look at how we can get up, brush ourselves off, and move forward.

“One thing is certain: If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity and inevitability will destroy it. And to make history, young Americans will have to know some. This is not the end, but a beginning.”