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The Authoritarianism Project is an open-source attempt to study, identify, and document dangerous political trends in the US, using my years of overseas reporting to model just how strongmen and their anti-democratic allies try to subvert democracy.
This week, I’m giving just a brief share from Timothy Snyder of Yale University, who talks about why constant lying is essential to establish an authoritarian America: on.msnbc.com/31anFU7
You can see my similar argument, “STEP 1,” in the previous posts on this page.
Snyder is a clear and excellent writer who has neatly summarized this material in “20 Lesson on Tyranny,” a radically short book that almost resembles poetry in its concision. Even better, his earlier book “The Road to Unfreedom,” explains exactly why Russia and its efforts to crush Ukraine are so central to democratic freedom around the world, and so essential to Trump and Trumpism.
I recommend both, but maintain one criticism of Snyder, and virtually all other authors on this subject (I’m looking at you, Ann Applebaum). That is, he writes from a strong theoretical framework, but without first-person reporting or the experience of the streets. His narrative is a reconstruction of events, written on the Yale campus, not an act of witness.
But Patrick goes to work in the slums of Peru, the refugee camps of the Middle East, the forgotten corners and closed societies of this world. This is what I bring to the subject, and my forthcoming (type faster, Patrick!) book “Deathsquad Democracy” is about the street-level, tear-gas view of America and the blood-soaked slums from Rio to Manila that forecast our future. So enjoy Snyder, and remember that while he thinks at Yale, I report on political violence from inside the Quezon City Jail in the Philippines…and a hundred similar places. It’s Jail v. Yale and I think I can hold my own.
If you want to watch the book be born, contribute to my research and debates, and support the Authoritarianism Project, hit subscribe.
See you every Sunday…
Patrick Symmes