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When few voices of authority would tell the truth about Donald Trump, she did.
Today in The Ink, an interview with @sarahkendzior about alarmism, whether Trump is a fascist or mafioso, and why we should stop listening to the voices who minimized him. https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Today in The Ink, an interview with @sarahkendzior about alarmism, whether Trump is a fascist or mafioso, and why we should stop listening to the voices who minimized him. https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Gather 'round for highlights from a conversation that truly made me think.
But first, if you haven't yet, take a moment to sign up for The Ink, to get interviews like this in your inbox. https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
But first, if you haven't yet, take a moment to sign up for The Ink, to get interviews like this in your inbox. https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I began by asking @sarahkendzior about the recent comments by Trump casting doubt on a peaceful transfer of power.
She reminds us that nothing with him is as new at it seems, and our "bizarre selective amnesia," especially in the media, enables him.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
She reminds us that nothing with him is as new at it seems, and our "bizarre selective amnesia," especially in the media, enables him.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
This line in particular struck me: "They feign shock to avoid accountability." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I asked Sarah about the Tax Story.
Her take: "Acquisition of wealth is not the goal for either Trump or Cohn; debt is not a problem for them. A luxurious lifestyle, powered by fraud and threat and untouchable by law, is the goal." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Her take: "Acquisition of wealth is not the goal for either Trump or Cohn; debt is not a problem for them. A luxurious lifestyle, powered by fraud and threat and untouchable by law, is the goal." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
There's even free messaging advice for @JoeBiden:
"What I do wish his base (and everyone else) would understand is that the reason Trump doesn’t pay taxes is because he is a key part of the so-called 'deep state' and 'DC swamp' and 'NYC elites' that his base claims to despise."
"What I do wish his base (and everyone else) would understand is that the reason Trump doesn’t pay taxes is because he is a key part of the so-called 'deep state' and 'DC swamp' and 'NYC elites' that his base claims to despise."
I asked @sarahkendzior what in her background helped her see Trump, truly see him, as few did.
1. Academic study of foreign autocracies that many Americans think irrelevant to them.
2. Early skepticism of internet utopianism.
3. Living in St. Louis, out of elite media mesh.
1. Academic study of foreign autocracies that many Americans think irrelevant to them.
2. Early skepticism of internet utopianism.
3. Living in St. Louis, out of elite media mesh.
If you think back to 2015, there was a big debate, in which I grew enmeshed as well, about how early was too early to call Trump an autocrat.
@sarahkendzior's view was clear. It was never too early, because "the history of the U.S. is the history of selective autocracy."
@sarahkendzior's view was clear. It was never too early, because "the history of the U.S. is the history of selective autocracy."
For many of us "early alarmists," we were not suggesting that the unprecedented would occur.
We were arguing that what had already happened to some people in America, what had been the permanent condition of other people in America, might become the default condition of America.
We were arguing that what had already happened to some people in America, what had been the permanent condition of other people in America, might become the default condition of America.
In other words, what was potentially new about Trumpism was men having to experience the terror that was not new to women, and white people having to experience the terror that was not new to Black people. What Trumpism represented was the scaling up of "selective autocracy."
We STARTED with most people not voting, so Trumpism's assault on suffrage isn't a break from the past but an attempt to return to it.
We had Japanese internment camps and Jim Crow upheld by the Supreme Court, hence the idea that the courts wouldn't protect us from tyranny.
We had Japanese internment camps and Jim Crow upheld by the Supreme Court, hence the idea that the courts wouldn't protect us from tyranny.
Like others who spoke out earlier and more vociferously than others, @sarahkendzior was sometimes tarred by critics as an alarmist and an exaggerator.
I asked her what that was like and whether anyone has said sorry.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I asked her what that was like and whether anyone has said sorry.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Then @sarahkendzior dropped this:
"I think the fact that I got every major thing right is less interesting than the question of why all the people who got nearly everything wrong still have jobs."
I will say as a fellow journalist: she is not wrong.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
"I think the fact that I got every major thing right is less interesting than the question of why all the people who got nearly everything wrong still have jobs."
I will say as a fellow journalist: she is not wrong.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
And she's right here, too: "Most people who predicted our political direction accurately were women and/or not white, which played a major role in why their theories were dismissed." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
"If you keep insisting that everything is fine or that things will magically work out in the face of evidence that it is not fine and it will likely not work out, you are not a realist, and you are not rational. You are a fool" -- @sarahkendzior https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
One of the obstacles to people seeing Trump as the tyrant he is is his incompetence. It's hard to picture him running the trains on time.
But for @sarahkendzior, the question is: Incompetent at what?
Not at selling America for parts.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
But for @sarahkendzior, the question is: Incompetent at what?
Not at selling America for parts.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I asked @sarahkendzior what other countries' descents into tyranny tell us about how to prevent that outcome:
"Telling the truth is the most important thing. No matter how horrifying the truth is, you have to tell it." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
"Telling the truth is the most important thing. No matter how horrifying the truth is, you have to tell it." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Now, this may surprise you, but @sarahkendzior does not call Trump a fascist.
Because fascists are at least loyal to their countries and want them to survive and "grow."
He is a fascist without the patriotism, which is basically a criminal.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Because fascists are at least loyal to their countries and want them to survive and "grow."
He is a fascist without the patriotism, which is basically a criminal.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Or, as she puts it, "The Trump administration is simply a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government." https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Now, if Trump isn't a normal fascist or even a normal authoritarian, it's going to take special measures to stop him.
"Trump does not even respect the traditional limitations of fascism: he doesn't care if the country itself is defeated, as long as he is not defeated."
"Trump does not even respect the traditional limitations of fascism: he doesn't care if the country itself is defeated, as long as he is not defeated."
"We are dealing with a new kind of threat, and we need to come up with new measures to combat it."
@sarahkendzior's advice to those who would save America from tyranny.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
@sarahkendzior's advice to those who would save America from tyranny.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I asked her to grade America's institutions in terms of their resistance to Trumpism's corruptions, and one part of her answer was disturbing and pointed to a need for serious reporting on the use of threats against the judiciary. We need this covered.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
. @sarahkendzior's predictions have always felt spot-on.
Yet it's hard to visualize what full-blown tyranny would look like in America, given our particular institutions and system. It would have its own flavor.
I asked @sarahkendzior to help me see it.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Yet it's hard to visualize what full-blown tyranny would look like in America, given our particular institutions and system. It would have its own flavor.
I asked @sarahkendzior to help me see it.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
And, finally, I asked @sarahkendzior about that glorious moment when the Trump era ends -- maybe very soon -- and we have to figure out what to do with our friends and neighbors and high officials and corporate donors who enabled this assault on us all.
Is there redemption?
Is there redemption?
One obvious thing she suggested: Don't financially reward anyone who sold out your freedom and then cashed in on latter-day resistance flexing.
. @sarahkendzior is also calling for "Nuremberg-style trials" for those Trump officials whose "crimes are so severe that they are violations of the Geneva Convention."
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
Her answer is different for regular people. They need to be held accountable for their votes. They need to be made aware of the pain they caused. But we cannot forget, @sarahkendzior says, that so many of their votes were purchased through untruth. We need to tell them the truth.
"I don't believe in hope, but I don't believe in hopelessness. I believe in the truth."
And with that @sarahkendzior went off into the night.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
And with that @sarahkendzior went off into the night.
https://the.ink/p/sarah-kendzior
I will never apologize for telling people to support work they love. Writing is hard, and truth-telling of the kind @sarahkendzior does is dangerous.
So read her book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250245397
And listen to and support her podcast: https://www.patreon.com/gaslit
So read her book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250245397
And listen to and support her podcast: https://www.patreon.com/gaslit
And if you want more of these independent voices in your inbox, to equip yourself with arguments in time for Zoom Thanksgiving, subscribe to http://The.Ink . It's free, but we always welcome it if you choose to subscribe.
