If there’s a part of you that still holds out hope that, for all his autocratic tendencies, Donald Trump will revert to a sort of political normality as president, you need to read Masha Gessen’s chilling but essential article “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” in The New York Review of Books.
Gessen, a journalist who has devoted much of her career to making sense of Russia under Vladimir Putin, offers a number of hard-won lessons for surviving in the autocracy that we may soon find ourselves living in here in the US.
The first and in some ways most important lesson for those still holding out hope for a more-or-less normal presidency:
Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture.
I think we’re going to have to suspend Godwin’s Law for the length of Trump’s presidency; the comparisons are simply too apt.
He has received the support he needed to win, and the adulation he craves, precisely because of his outrageous threats. Trump rally crowds have chanted “Lock her up!” They, and he, meant every word. … Trump has made his plans clear, and he has made a compact with his voters to carry them out. These plans include not only dismantling legislation such as Obamacare but also doing away with judicial restraint—and, yes, punishing opponents.
Gessen’s other rules:
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. Consider the financial markets this week, which, having tanked overnight, rebounded following the Clinton and Obama speeches. Confronted with political volatility, the markets become suckers for calming rhetoric from authority figures. So do people. …
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. It took Putin a year to take over the Russian media and four years to dismantle its electoral system; the judiciary collapsed unnoticed. …
Rule #4: Be outraged. … [I]n the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. …
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
The final rule offers up a little bit of hope:
Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever. Donald Trump certainly will not, and Trumpism, to the extent that it is centered on Trump’s persona, will not either.
Gessen ends her piece with a call for “resistance—stubborn, uncompromising, outraged.” Thousands of Americans are already taking to the streets in cities across the country to let the world know that Trump — who after all lost the popular vote — is not their president. He’s not mine either. We need to join those in the streets — literally, figuratively, or both — to make clear we don’t want, and won’t stand for, Putinism in the United States.
I’m all for this approach.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxGZdxsVIAAqKUA.jpg
@ ohlmann
Or this:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/13/nigel-farage-donald-trump-crispin-blunt-ukip
Many thanks 🙂
sunnysombrera said
Yes, this.
But also, it depends just as much on the individual doing the correcting! Everyone has different comfort levels with confrontation. Some need to avoid it altogether, others are okay with speaking up, a lot of us are in between and it often depends on how we feel that day or week or hour. Many of us won’t have the spoons to do this 24/7/365. All we can do is our best.
Also, practice makes it easier.
@Alan
It would.
On a purely personal note, I’m sad/angry/ashamed that I’m still recovering from the stroke when this is happening to my country. I can’t really pledge to do much of anything because there are so many things I can’t do right now, and I don’t know when I can do them.
@ ohlmann
You’re very welcome. Did you see this quote from the minister?
Ouch. Guess that’s what passes for fence mending these days.
ETA: @ vicky p – that’s hardly your fault. You get yourself well first, then you can think about the wider picture. Frustration at being out of the team through injury is a common phenomenon, but you don’t do anyone any favours, including yourself, by returning to the pitch before you’re fully recovered.
re: Nigel and the Donald; this just seems bizarre after the meeting between Trump and the President. It’s not like Obama ever treated him with kid gloves! I guess it’s easier to belligerently posture at someone with an ocean and a sympathetic go-between of the right gender between you?
ETA the reference to Farage and gender in the last sentence.
@Alan Robertshaw
Hi. I read back when the Brexit vote happened that Farage was denied a position in the new government after Blair stepped down. Is there any sense in Britain if his relationship with Trump is mainly in response to the snub and maybe an attempt to force the government to offer him an official position? An article I just read on the Guardian said only 15% thought Trump would be a good president, so given Trump’s high levels of unpopularity in Britain and elsewhere, I can’t really see how this would help him at home with his constituents.
Scildfreja @ 12.16pm
Brilliant comment.
@rammer
The reason Farage was denied an official position was because nobody voted for him. He had the same chance as the other MPs. It’s just that he was a laughing stock at the time. Besides, he’s been an MEP for a long time so it’s not like he didn’t have ANY kind of official position.
He also is a very destructive and dangerous man. Giving him yet more power is the last thing to do, since if you give him and inch he’ll take a mile. He’s also getting waaaaay too much attention on TV.
EDIT: for the record, this is an example of what we mean when we say don’t give concessions to bigots.
@ rammerjammer
And Hi to you too. I think you may have got Blair mixed up with Cameron there. To remember which is which, one’s a right wing autocrat who’s hated by the Labour Party members everywhere, and the other was Tory Prime Minister (had to go there, sorry)
Farage is very good at making himself the centre of things. But the general perception here amongst non UKIP supporters (and indeed a lot of the UKIP hierarchy) is that he’s got an overgrown sense of his own importance.
The narcissism and egocentricity is something he shares with Trump so it’s no wonder they get on.
For domestic political reasons the government can’t allow him to play any role in our relationship with the US, so they have no inclination to pander to him. Their policy now seems to be to just treat Farage as an irrelevance and a bit of a joke. That’s good politics but you also get the impression they enjoy winding him up.
@Alan Robertshaw
Hi. Thanks for clarifying my mixup and the explanation. I’m in Alabama so unless I intentionally look for international news sources, most of the local stuff is football related. Farage does seem to share several traits with Trump (I also read about the comments he made about Theresa May in regards to her meeting Trump). I realize the political system is different in the UK, but one of the issues we had with Trump over here is that for the longest time many people, including major media sources, treated him as a joke, and now he’s president-elect unless the electoral college (hopefully) does something. Do you think the current policy to treat Farage as a joke could eventually backfire as well or are there enough safeguards in place?
@rammer
From what I can tell Farage isn’t being treated as a joke at all. Considering that the Tories have, even by UKIP’s own words, adopted 90% of their ideals. Our current government is bending over backwards for him and his cronies. The BBC is giving him serious airtime to share his views. And nobody is laughing at him when he threatens civil unrest or hints at violence.
My dad knows Masha, has worked with her in the past. He’s going to be tickled when I tell him how many of my online hangouts are posting this article.
Thank you, Alan.
@ rammerjammer
Go Crimson Tide! (I hope I got that right)
There are of course some Brexit comparisons to be made with the election results, but it’s perhaps misleading to take them too far. Our relationship with the EU has been a complex topic for nearly 4 decades and, notwithstanding the focus in the run up to the referendum, attitudes to in or out haven’t necessarily correlated with political affiliation (during the Greek financial crisis anti EU sentiment was coming very much from the ‘left’ and arguments for the benefits of the EU was the neoliberal conservative position)
Farage just happened to be in the right place at the right time. In a parallel universe it could just have easily been Jeremy Corbyn claiming victory on behalf of the Bennite wing of Labour.
UKIP certainly exploited an underlying dissatisfaction and Farage made it all about himself. He shares a talent for that with Trump. Newsworthy soundbites and outrageous comments that fit nicely into a 30 second clip on the news. But there’s no substance there. Trump’s election and the Brexit comparisons do give him a bit of an extension to his 15 minutes of fame, but I suspect he’s a spent force in actual politics. Probably a celebrity big brother candidate in a couple of years is my guess.
@ rammerjammer
Go Crimson Tide! (I hope I got that right)
There are of course some Brexit comparisons to be made with the election results, but it’s perhaps misleading to take them too far. Our relationship with the EU has been a complex topic for nearly 4 decades and, notwithstanding the focus in the run up to the referendum, attitudes to in or out haven’t necessarily correlated with political affiliation (during the Greek financial crisis anti EU sentiment was coming very much from the ‘left’ and arguments for the benefits of the EU was the neoliberal conservative position)
Farage just happened to be in the right place at the right time. In a parallel universe it could just have easily been Jeremy Corbyn claiming victory on behalf of the Bennite wing of Labour.
UKIP certainly exploited an underlying dissatisfaction and Farage made it all about himself. He shares a talent for that with Trump. Newsworthy soundbites and outrageous comments that fit nicely into a 30 second clip on the news. But there’s no substance there. Trump’s election and the Brexit comparisons do give him a bit of an extension to his 15 minutes of fame, but I suspect he’s a spent force in actual politics. Probably a celebrity big brother candidate in a couple of years is my guess.
And perhaps to actually answer your question, UKIP have one MP out of 650 here. It’s probably fair to say Farage’s constant appearances can give a disproportionate impression of their relevance.
@sunnysombrera
Thanks. Do you think his relationship with Trump could backfire against UKIP as a whole if (more like when, unfortunately) Trump does something as president that provokes international condemnation? Or has this grown to where Farage could be discredited and sidelined but what he represents remains dominant in British governance and media coverage?
Take some time off of whatever the fuck your guys are doing (I don’t know I haven’t caught up) and enjoy THIS
(Approx of how you will all look when you watch it because you all are in the same place and
white teenagersblink-182 in the 90s of course.)Oops, double post, please ignore the first one.
@ SunnyS
It’s a common theme for UKIP to claim influence and how everyone is copying them. That’s pretty much Farage’s argument about Trump. But again, I think they overestimate their own importance. Admittedly the media play into that by giving them disproportionate coverage.
@ rammerjammer
See if you can find Jeremy Paxman’s interview with Farage. It’s very good.
“So you’re supporting a man who’s either sexually assaulted women or lied about sexually assaulting women; which is it?”
@losername
FWIW, my anecdotal evidence with regard to “active listening” (i.e,., making it clear to the other person that you’re listening), is that — so far, at least! — I have had 100 percent success with saying “I hear you.”
I don’t have any evidence that this sort of thing sticks. Maybe they feel heard by me but still hold onto their point of view.
But in the short term at least, I’ve noticed that this always works. The other person becomes quiet and lets me say what I want to say.
I am sincere when I say that. I don’t say it just to say it. And I think that the other person knows that. Then “I hear you” is the frosting on the cake.
I’m already opposed to the world war Trump is going to start. Fuck his misogyny, fuck his racism, fuck his hate speech, fuck his transphobia, fuck his stupid hair, fuck his entitlement and privilege, and fuck the racists who voted for him.
We have to fight our human tendency to rationalize away the outrageous. This guy has a 30+ year track record of vile behavior, skirting the law, dodging taxes, and stiffing his employees. He’s a crusty, bloody bandage some people are scared to rip off, but he needs to be ripped off so we can clean the festering wound beneath.
@Jack
Totally gnarly bowmanship, dude! *air guitar*
@Alan Robertshaw
Hi. Can you give me a date for that interview? I found several postings between 2014 and this past October.
The latter, really, but it seems to be that Farage is snuggling up to Trump not on behalf of UKIP but on behalf of himself. If Trump does do something internationally outrageous and it reflects badly on Farage then UKIP supporters (known as “Kippers”) will simply do what they always do when Farage makes an ass of himself: they’ll claim he doesn’t represent them/their cause. Then when the fallout from his gaffe has blown over they’ll go right back to being his biggest fans again. It’s what MRAs do with Elam all the time, don’t think that right-wing extremists don’t try this trick too.