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" We can only see as much and we can only go as far as our languages take us. "
Timothy D. Snyder
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" Democracy only has substance if there's the rule of law. That is, if people believe that the votes are going to be counted, and they are counted. If they believe that there's a judiciary out there that will make sense of things if there's some challenge. If there isn't rule of law, people will be afraid to vote the way they want to vote. "
Timothy D. Snyder
People
Challenge
Law
" We think about democracy, and that's the word that Americans love to use, 'democracy,' and that's how we characterize our system. But if democracy just means going to vote, it's pretty meaningless. Russia has democracy in that sense. Most authoritarian regimes have democracy in that sense. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Love
Democracy
Vote
" I think, whatever ideological coloration we think actually applies to Trump, we can be pretty confident that he sees the American state as a mechanism to make sure that people called Trump are rich forever. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Rich
Think
People
" The aspiring tyrants of today have not forgotten the lesson of 1933: that acts of terror - real or fake, provoked or accidental - can provide the occasion to deal a death blow to democracy. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Fake
Death
Democracy
" When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of 'terrorism' and 'extremism.' Be alive to the fatal notions of 'exception' and 'emergency.' Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Listening
Words
Look
" Courage does not mean not fearing or not grieving. It does mean recognizing and resisting terror management right away, from the moment of the attack, precisely when it seems most difficult to do so. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Courage
Moment
Difficult
" Trump bankrupted six companies but succeeded on the biggest of stages. He is the champion of failures. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Six
Stages
He
" Every day you don't do something, it makes it less likely that you will ever do something. So you've got to get started right away. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Away
Will
Right
" When a terrorist attack comes, you will not necessarily know who did it. What you can know is that certain kinds of leaders will use that to suspend your rights. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Know
Will
You
" Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history. "
Timothy D. Snyder
History
Most
Live
" Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of 'our institutions' unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Media
Go
Beginning
" One thing that I would like to get across is that even the most horrible events do have explanations that we can understand. And it's not always comfortable for us to understand, because in order to understand, we have to see how we're not so far away from the people in question. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Understand
People
Far Away
" The Constitution is worth saving, the rule of law is worth saving, democracy is worth saving, but these things can and will be lost if everyone waits around for someone else. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Democracy
Law
Lost
" Republics, like other forms of government, exist in history and can rise and fall. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Rise
History
Government
" Very often, when leaders repeat things over and over, they are preparing you for when that meme actually emerges in reality. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Repeat
Things
You
" Modern tyrants are terror managers. Do not allow your shock to be turned against your freedom. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Freedom
Modern
Tyrants
" Getting out to protest, this is something real and, I would say, something patriotic. Part of the new authoritarianism is to get people to prefer fiction and inaction to reality and action. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Reality
Say
Action
" To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Nothing
Abandon
Facts
" In rhetoric and action, the Trump administration has aggrandized 'radical Islamic terror,' thus making what Madison called a 'favorable emergency' more likely. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Action
Trump
Rhetoric
" I thought I was going to grow up and become a diplomat and negotiate nuclear arms. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Thought
Going
Become
" I worry about global anti-Semitism - not just as a bad idea that originates from bad people, but also as something that arises as a challenge to global order. "
Timothy D. Snyder
People
Worry
Bad People
" There's a basic problem with the history of the Holocaust. The people who do it don't know the necessary languages. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Problem
People
Know
" Get the screens out of your room and surround yourself with books. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Surround Yourself
Books
Room
" Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Weakness
Political
Strength
" It's easy for us to congratulate ourselves on our own moral superiority when compared to the 1930s, but I'm not sure that we're actually right about that. In most of the West, we simply haven't been tested in the same way. And when we are tested, we often fail. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Right
Moral
Way
" Think up your own way of speaking. When we repeat the same words and phrases that appear in the daily media, we accept the absence of a larger framework. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Media
Own
Think
" In the descent from a world of factual discourse into a world of emotions and alternative realities, the first step you take, whether you're the Russian media, whether you're Breitbart, is that you manufacture lots of stuff that isn't true. The second step is that you claim that everyone is like this. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Media
Step
First Step
" Mr. Trump is primarily a television personality. As such, he is judged by that standard. This means that a scandal does not call forth a response; it calls forth the desire for a bigger scandal. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Television
Personality
Desire
" Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Possible
Obedience
Teaches
" It is unclear how much money Trump has, but it is not enough to matter in Russia. If he keeps up his pose as the tough billionaire, he will be flattered by the Russian media, scorned by those who matter in Russia, and then easily crushed by men far richer and smarter than he. "
Timothy D. Snyder
Media
Men
Money