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This book came out in 2020, before the violence of January 6, and provides a clear-eyed and methodical look at the attempted autocracy of the first Trump administration. Gessen examines the normalizing of the unthinkable, the ways in which Trump strips words of meaning and drags the media along in his wake. Vital reading for anyone interested in understanding how we got here and what is likely to come next. I wish I'd read it sooner.

Unfortunately, have to pick this one back up again 😭

This book did not help me understand how to survive in an autocracy. I think it did a good job of mapping how, under Trump, we walked the line to becoming one, and perhaps now are in one, but I wanted to understand more about the dynamics of what living in an autocracy requires and if it‘s possible to really survive in one.
2/5 a good way to remember that we are terribly close to losing our democracy and what got us to this point.

This is a highly readable look at the strategies of autocratic rulers and Trumpism. With a heavy dose of collective trauma survival tips.

This was another book I picked up from the new shelf at the library and it was such a good read. I have been wanting to read things that help me make sense of the world right now and this helped. #nonfiction #trumpismexplained #librarybook

It cut off the last “-American personhood.”

On the Trump supporting base

I remembered bits and pieces of Trump pardoning this guy but had no idea it was this bad

I‘ve upped my coffee game lately with trying to buy whole beans from small companies so they are super fresh. I also bought this cool air locked container to keep them fresh-it has a plunger that locks out air and airtight top, then I bought a $5 milk frother for my creamer 😂 All for a nice morning cup (Coffee Chicks supports women growers and is a woman roaster company!) #coffee #booksandcoffee

This was a solid 5 stars for me. Sometimes in my observations of real life in real time I thought I had eaten some magic mushrooms and ended up in Wonderland. This book confirmed that I was not crazy or living a psychedelic experience. And to be honest, gaslighting is my word of the month. Sometimes I think it could be applied accurately to specific events discussed in this book. Is it possible to gaslight entire communities? Rhetorical question.

Will you share your five star reads of 2020? I‘d love to see them! Please consider tagging me. Ironically this has been my favorite reading year this decade. Tagging some friends to get started but I would love to see everyone‘s! Tag a book you would hand to everyone and say “read this!” I would love to see yours if I did not tag you also!

Trumps idea of “American”

“Trump is ridiculous..”

The trump lies

A note on the Kavanaugh hearings

🤯

On COVID response

Started this book a day or so ago and it‘s fascinating. Shows how Trumps insane behavior and policies became the norm and now they took root.

I‘ve seen this pop up on here by other Littens. The Kindle version is a pretty good price on Amazon right now!

A very timely book. Masha Gessen was a journalist in Russia during the rise of Putin, and knows more than a little about autocracy.

If you follow what‘s actually happening in the US and the rest of the world, there isn‘t much new info here, but it‘s laid out in such a way as to make it easy to see where Trumpism is headed. None of it is ‘fake news,‘ all of it can be fact checked.

Unfortunately, people who need to read this won‘t.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

@sprainedbrain I just downloaded surviving autocracy- so glad you posted about it. And sometimes William Shakespeare speaks to my very weary soul. Sharing in case he speaks to yours also. 1984 gave me nightmares, and I consider it the most frightening book I have ever read- yet hear we are. Where science is questioned, human rights violated and actual journalism disregarded.Also - I‘m so grateful for my kids generation - they astound me. VOTE

Woke up this morning and put our second Biden/Harris sign in the front yard for the last time (we have to bring it in at night so it‘s not stolen like the first, while the neighbors get to keep their two Trump signs and a confederate flag).

Listening to the tagged book today because I can‘t concentrate on fiction.

I‘d never tell you who to vote for, but I voted for the decent human being who is NOT trying to delegitimize democracy.

Vote!🗳🇺🇸

Masha Gessen‘s modern books read like powerful essays from newspapers. Which makes sense, since she writes for them. Her historical books take a tone I like more, but I always am glad of her cutting insights and connections across time regardless of the tone.

Excellent writing as usual from Masha Gessen but not exactly cheerful. What I will say is that if you didn‘t already see the importance of voting in November, this book will make you clearly see it!

Gessen‘s book is so rich with ideas that it bears multiple re-readings. I had two key takeaways from my first reading. The first concerns the stages of autocratic takeover, of which we are in the first: the autocratic attempt. Her framework comes from a Hungarian scholar‘s analysis of post-communist mafia states. The second takeaway is Gessen‘s careful examination of Trump‘s perversions of language.

“...he seemed to see himself as a king barricaded in his castle, with thousands of soldiers in the battlement, the sights of their rifles trained on potential intruders.” This actually happened the week the book was published!