Welcome to Litsy!

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This book was published in 2017 as a direct response to and rebuke of 🍊1. Now we‘re here again but it‘s even worse, making this book more relevant still. The key is: if enough of us fight against this crap, we‘ll protect our democracy. So, please read it and whatever way you choose, STAND FAST AND FIGHT!

Overall, this was a very interesting and informative book. Some parts could be a little dry, but quite a bit still provided interesting commentary. It was also interesting in presenting an outsider's perspective on American culture, government, and society. Overall, would recommend.

"Despotism, which is of a very timorous nature, is never more secure of continuance than when it can keep men asunder; and all its influence is commonly exerted for that purpose. No vice of the human heart is so acceptable to it as egotism; a despot easily forgives his subjects for not loving him, provided they do not love each other."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"

"Educate, then, at any rate; for the age of implicit self-sacrifice and instinctive virtues is already flitting far away from us, and the time is fast approaching when freedom, public peace, and social order itself will not be able to exist without education."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"

Naturally, Snyder‘s 20 rules on tyranny are pertinent & should be read & absorbed by everyone. But I am so grateful I was able to listen to this expanded edition. Snyder goes deep into the Ukraine/Russian War and how central Ukraine has been to history.

I learned so much & I cannot recommend this version enough.

"There is a great difference between doing what one does not approve and feigning to approve what one does; the one is the necessary case of a week person, the other befits the temper of a lackey."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"

"In absolute governments the great nobles who are nearest to the throne flatter the passions of the sovereign, and voluntarily truckle to his caprices. But the mass of the nation does not degrade itself by servitude: it often submits from weakness, from habit, or from ignorance, and sometimes from loyalty."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"