I’ve written in the Guardian today: How to Survive the Broligarchy: 20 lessons for a post-truth world. Read it on the Guardian’s website. I’m also sharing here in its original form as I hope you’ll forward this to your friends, especially but not exclusively those in America. It’s urgent that people understand what’s coming down the line and what they can do to prepare themselves.
The entire list was inspired by the great writer and historian, Tim Snyder. His book ‘On Tyranny’ was the essential guide to the first Trump term. ‘Do not obey in advance’ his number one lesson from his work studying authoritarian regimes. In a great stroke of luck, he rang me while I was writing it and, after thinking for a moment, told me that he would enlarge that, now, to ‘Know who you are.’ Know what your values are, what you believe in. I’ve been thinking about that ever since.
What’s new about the Trump-Musk era is technology. We are entering an era of politically motivated witch-hunts + Silicon Valley platforms and surveillance tools. And, especially for my friends in the US, you need to understand what this means.
Lesson 10 is especially important. We need to be learning from those who have been here before. It’s why I messaged Vera Krichevskaya, the co-founder of TV Rain, Russia’s last independent TV station, for her advice. Those who have lived under authoritarianism are essential voices right now. But, with technology, we also need to listen to those who have experienced its negative impacts first: women of colour.
I’d been thinking all week about what would be on my list. And then I had a much better idea: ask the smartest people I know for their list. Thank you to Rebecca Solnit and Tamsin Shaw for responding to my call out. And to historian Jason Stanley who I didn’t have space to include. He said: ‘The most important thing for ordinary people to do is do their jobs with competence. This kind of authoritarianism replaces competence with loyalty, so resisting that is vital.’
Today’s piece is a companion to the one I wrote last week on the Great Disruption and the next wave of information chaos. If you haven’t read that, please do. I’ve been investigating and documenting and writing about what’s happening in our information ecosystem and how it’s impacting politics, democracy and the new world order for eight years.
And I’m still just finding my way on Substack. As I’m also trying to figure out BlueSky. So many platforms is yet one more challenge, the atomisation is real. Which is why if you chose to share this with your friends and sign up for updates, that would be much appreciated. With thanks, Carole
This post has been syndicated from How to Survive the Broligarchy, where it was published under this address.