Summary of Masha Gessen's Surviving Autocracy

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The difficulty in absorbing the news is that the words we use have a way of making the outrageous seem normal. Thus, when we try to describe the exceptional, barely imaginable nature of Trumpian events, we are forced to use normalizing words.

#2 When we use the wrong language to describe what we are seeing, we cannot understand it. When some of the post-Soviet societies developed in unexpected ways, language impaired our ability to understand the process.

#3 The Obama story, which drew on the stories of previous presidents, was that American society was inexorably moving towards a better, more free, and fairer world. It may stumble, but it always rights itself.

#4 After the election, people were quick to compare it to the Reichstag Fire, which happened in Germany in 1933. The fire was used to create a state of exception, which allowed Hitler to expand his power unchecked.

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E-kirja: 13. elokuuta 2022