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I read about politics, history, and philosophy
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20% complete! bl_r has read 3 of 15 books.
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bl_r rated American Marxism: 1 star
bl_r started reading American Marxism by Mark R. Levin
bl_r reviewed On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
A milquetoast liberal take on tyranny
2 stars
This book has a very centrist liberal take on tyranny, and while Snyder makes some good points, he contradicts himself, and has a blindness to tyranny happening on the home front.
This book uses lessons from abroad to discuss tyranny without actually defining it. I'm fine with tyranny having a loose meaning when being discussed between normal people, but in a book written by a Yale professor of history? I don't think that's acceptable. To Snyder, tyranny is simply what the Communists did, what the Nazis did, and what Putin does (and what Trump is trying to do). Not a very useful definition. Ironically, he does provide a useful definition of "totalitarian", a less common word that I frequently see meaninglessly slung around in political discourse.
Snyder also contradicts himself. For example, he will spend a chapter praising journalism and the media. This is fine. He draws a distinction between …
This book has a very centrist liberal take on tyranny, and while Snyder makes some good points, he contradicts himself, and has a blindness to tyranny happening on the home front.
This book uses lessons from abroad to discuss tyranny without actually defining it. I'm fine with tyranny having a loose meaning when being discussed between normal people, but in a book written by a Yale professor of history? I don't think that's acceptable. To Snyder, tyranny is simply what the Communists did, what the Nazis did, and what Putin does (and what Trump is trying to do). Not a very useful definition. Ironically, he does provide a useful definition of "totalitarian", a less common word that I frequently see meaninglessly slung around in political discourse.
Snyder also contradicts himself. For example, he will spend a chapter praising journalism and the media. This is fine. He draws a distinction between print and digital news, and arbitrarily states that print media is more truthful, and online media creates a reality show where things are less real, and therefore things cannot affect politicians. In a later chapter, he will condemn the media for taking the bait and talking about Clinton's emails, claiming that "media preferred to mindlessly indulge the inherently salacious interest we have in other people's affairs" and comparing the political scandal to a fashion journalist not taking photos of a changing model, which is just simply a terrible comparison.
Some of Snyder's better points, such as how "extremist" and "terrorist" are often used as political insults to slander individuals and groups of people, and are devoid of real meaning in many cases because of that. He uses the example of the state claiming rights must be taken away to protect the people from terrorists, but simultaneously accepts this framing as inherently legitimate. One point he makes that I like that I cannot fault is his very brief analysis on how fascists manipulate the laws to gain power and exercise authority while capitalizing on disaster (real or not) to cement it.
Finally, and most annoyingly, Snyder is painfully blind to tyranny on the home front in true centrist liberal fashion. Pointing only at Trump, and disparate acts (such as the patriot act) to point at tyrannic at home, while ignoring the massive history of tyranny in the US. Throughout the book, there is only one mention of black struggle against tyranny, and it is, in full, "Remember Rosa Parks." even if the rest of the historic examples are all from the same time period abroad. Nothing is mentioned about the genocide stemming from colonialism, massive oppression of indigenous people, slavery, or the Japanese concentration camps.
All things said, this book is probably not the best resource on tyranny.
bl_r finished reading On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
In previous books, Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin …
bl_r started reading On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
In previous books, Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin …
bl_r rated Try Anarchism for Life: 4 stars
Try Anarchism for Life by Cindy Barukh Milstein
Try Anarchism for Life revolves around a thought experiment: What are some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism? In …
bl_r finished reading Try Anarchism for Life by Cindy Barukh Milstein
A lightning fast read about the beautiful ideals of Anarchism. While it isn't an analytical work or fully planned vision of the future, it is a reminder that working towards the revolution is hard, don't be so hard on yourself, appreciate the little beauties in life. Ⓐ
bl_r started reading Try Anarchism for Life by Cindy Barukh Milstein
Try Anarchism for Life by Cindy Barukh Milstein
Try Anarchism for Life revolves around a thought experiment: What are some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism? In …
bl_r finished reading In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions …
bl_r quoted In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
“Those who argue that reform is “more practical” or “more realistic” than revolution forget how easily reforms are rolled back to leave the white supremacist, heteropatriarchal capitalist state in place. The gains made in the midst of a civil war that led to 750,000 deaths, won by the largest uprising in American history—the general strike of the enslaved—and consolidated in a decade of local and autonomous governance were traded away by politicians and leaders for the four-year presidential term of Rutherford B. Hayes, and the freedom movement was set back for decades to come.”
— In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil (Page 90)
bl_r quoted In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
“The self-looting fugitive was the spark for the genesis of the earliest policing forces—the slave patrols—and enforcing federal fugitive slave law was one of the earliest tasks of American police forces. Beyond the loss of property she represents, the fugitive anticipates and precipitates rebellion with her flight. The police have from the beginning existed to protect racialized property relations from the threat posed by the looter, the rebel, and the crowd. The looter is one of the historical nemeses of the police: it is no wonder that, during antipolice uprisings, she reappears again and again.”
— In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil (Page 86)
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bl_r rated In Defense of Looting: 5 stars
In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil
Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions …