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nwhikerI just read a book that was both chilling and a bit -a lot- disingenuous.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum. I linked to the goodreads because there are a number of reviews that there touch on how I feel about the book.
1. It was... as I said, chilling and disturbing, especially in light of what happened on 6 Jan. Democracy is a fragile thing, and authoritarianism only a breath away.
2. She notes, correctly, the rise of fascism, authoritarianism, and nationalism but never seems to completely acknowledge that this is a right wing problem, that this trend goes hand and hand with right wing ideals. She's a Thatcher/Reagan conservative, and there are some very unfair smears on the left (the DNC, as one commenter on goodreads put it, did not get its platform from the Weather Underground, and cancel culture is not what she describes), as well as some OMG ROSY glasses on her descriptions of Reagan, who was not talking about all of us when he talked about his fucking shining city on a hill, and, who, in truth, set the stage for the current rage-foaming GQP or QOP I can't decide if I like Grand Q Party or Q's Own Party better.
The disingenuous comes in because after a lot of exposing what is happening (one party system, control of the media, lack of a central trusted information source, like the BBC or the three networks), she just kinda throws up her hands when comes time to tie the rise anti-democratic institutions to the rightwing, where they belong.
It's a bit heavy on the name dropping, and the lamenting of all these conservative friends who went full on rightwing loony... but you know, as far as I'm concerned, if you couldn't see the corrupting influence of the right after Reagan, and you missed it AGAIN after Newt Gingrich, and had to wait to John McCain picking Sarah Palin to see a problem... well, I dunno. I question.
A mixed bag, for a liberal like me, but still a very worthwhile and disturbing read. It's very current, before Biden's election, but after the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, so she ties that in a bit too. I think that's a good book to read, and is parallel in its discussion of authoritarianism to Madeleine's Albright's book Fascism: A Warning who is more historical in nature.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum. I linked to the goodreads because there are a number of reviews that there touch on how I feel about the book.
1. It was... as I said, chilling and disturbing, especially in light of what happened on 6 Jan. Democracy is a fragile thing, and authoritarianism only a breath away.
2. She notes, correctly, the rise of fascism, authoritarianism, and nationalism but never seems to completely acknowledge that this is a right wing problem, that this trend goes hand and hand with right wing ideals. She's a Thatcher/Reagan conservative, and there are some very unfair smears on the left (the DNC, as one commenter on goodreads put it, did not get its platform from the Weather Underground, and cancel culture is not what she describes), as well as some OMG ROSY glasses on her descriptions of Reagan, who was not talking about all of us when he talked about his fucking shining city on a hill, and, who, in truth, set the stage for the current rage-foaming GQP or QOP I can't decide if I like Grand Q Party or Q's Own Party better.
The disingenuous comes in because after a lot of exposing what is happening (one party system, control of the media, lack of a central trusted information source, like the BBC or the three networks), she just kinda throws up her hands when comes time to tie the rise anti-democratic institutions to the rightwing, where they belong.
It's a bit heavy on the name dropping, and the lamenting of all these conservative friends who went full on rightwing loony... but you know, as far as I'm concerned, if you couldn't see the corrupting influence of the right after Reagan, and you missed it AGAIN after Newt Gingrich, and had to wait to John McCain picking Sarah Palin to see a problem... well, I dunno. I question.
A mixed bag, for a liberal like me, but still a very worthwhile and disturbing read. It's very current, before Biden's election, but after the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, so she ties that in a bit too. I think that's a good book to read, and is parallel in its discussion of authoritarianism to Madeleine's Albright's book Fascism: A Warning who is more historical in nature.
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