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This may be the last exit before autocracy.
Today in The Ink, a conversation with @mashagessen.
From which I will now share 13 propositions about this vital moment. https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
Today in The Ink, a conversation with @mashagessen.
From which I will now share 13 propositions about this vital moment. https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
1. We are likely at the final stage of the “autocratic attempt.” This is the last moment when it’s possible to block the attempt through normal democratic processes — i.e. voting.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
2. We must understand Trump, @mashagessen argues, as the product of an age of extreme anxiety and relief at handing over decisions to a strongman (but not a strong man).
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
3. Russiagate became a terrible crutch for the liberal imagination.
The daily pursuit of the outside-interference thesis wasted time and energy that could have been spent understanding how our systemic failures made Trump possible.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
The daily pursuit of the outside-interference thesis wasted time and energy that could have been spent understanding how our systemic failures made Trump possible.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
4. Our gravitation to conspiracy theorizing is distracting us from the fact that all the real scandals are happening out in the open.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
5. We don’t need truth and reconciliation commissions after Trump, @mashagessen argues. We need good old-fashioned criminal prosecutions.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
6. Rebuilding local media is a crucial defense against autocracy.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
7. Powerful media institutions need to grapple with how the usage of traditional media language unwittingly normalizes the abnormal.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
8. Biden won the infamously Toobined @NewYorker election simulation, but @mashagessen wasn’t reassured.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
9. Joe Biden could be economically transformational but is unlikely to be democratically transformational, @mashagessen suggests.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
10. The difficulty of seeing autocracy clearly in a society like ours is that so much is normal even when so much is abnormal.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
11. It is time to start thinking about an unthinkable question: Whose side will various segments of the U.S. armed forces take if the election dispute gets really bad?
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
12. It is no accident that this grim year was also the year of a great #BlackLivesMatter 
uprising, which succeeded in persuading many people of its urgent claims.
Crises are also moments when the politically unimaginable becomes possible very quickly.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
uprising, which succeeded in persuading many people of its urgent claims.Crises are also moments when the politically unimaginable becomes possible very quickly.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
13. There is a case for hope. And there is forever the duty of hope, @mashagessen reminds us.
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
https://the.ink/p/how-to-block-an-autocratic-breakthrough
Forgive the long thread, but @mashagessen’s work couldn’t be more essential right now.
Follow them here. Read their latest book, “Surviving Autocracy.” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565060/surviving-autocracy-by-masha-gessen/
Follow them here. Read their latest book, “Surviving Autocracy.” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565060/surviving-autocracy-by-masha-gessen/
And if you value these kinds of conversations, sign up for http://The.Ink and even consider being a subscriber.
