Welcome to Litsy!

I am gutted.

A well written and insightful look at the strongman ‘leaders‘ throughout the world and modern history and the commonalities, themes and environments which allow them power. Not a huge amount of hope was given when reading it at our current point in history, but I think important nonetheless at least in understanding our situations.

I‘d like a follow-up, but this is a book everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) should read. It always felt wrong to me, no matter how much Trumpism scares me, to “other” all Republicans. I try to be a “when they go low, we go high” Democrat. But guys, we‘re so close to losing our democracy. Please be kind this election season, trust your election workers, and vote. And try to build bridges, not tear them down. We‘re all in this together. Read this book!

Read to understand how democracies fail, and the many threats to democracy in the USA. Key takeaways are: political norms hold democracies in place and as polarization increases, parties lose the ability to hold to political norms and democracies die; people need to form broad coalitions; and people make the decisions that kill or revived democracy.
4/5 compelling & informative. Aloy tried to eat this book. I think unions should be considered key

How does one rate a book like this? I read it at the suggestion of a friend.The authors political views are the polar opposite of mine,but this book got me thinking.After reading it,it‘s hard to decide what to believe. The author seems very knowledgeable and definitely made a point. I‘d like to read a book telling the story from the opposite point of view. It‘s definitely going to be a crazy time between now and the ‘24 election!

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.

Talk from Putin‘s camp of “denazification” & “desatanization” of Ukraine seemed so bizarre & laughable, but Snyder offers serious origins of Russian mythology & ideology behind the lies. Ivan Ilyin. Kleptocracy. The “innocent nation.” Historical narratives of inevitability & eternity. Russia=sacred idea rather than nation state w/ clear borders. But Snyder‘s arguments can resemble the aggrandizing, sweeping claims he associates with Putin… 2018

A timely reminder that, democracies are made of much more than the hard architecture of a constitution or our institutions and why we should cherish and protect that.

Hearing this in audio read by the author brought a real sense of sincerity to the narrative of institutional decay. I found Kendzior‘s dry wit to be a nice balance to the heaviness of the topic being covered. Being a long time listener of Gaslit Nation a lot of this was information already covered but I found it helpful to have it all laid out in one place.

Doing some #audiocrafting today while I race to finish the tagged before my loan is up. I got this project from my library‘s makerspace take home program.