The Road to Unfreedom: Democracy, Neofascism, and the Importance of Language

[@fairface6892]

I'm listening to this 3 years later and it's maybe even more fascinating in light of what's happened in the meantime: a global pandemic, the Jan 6th attack on Congress (they actually got off the sofa and protested!) as well as the invasion of Ukraine and Putin's instance that he's liberating the country from fascists (a word used in a very different way in Russia).

[@ripdime1351]

I would love to hear Prof Snyder give a rebuttal to this “Not even Fascism” argument and this lecture as a whole given the current state of the world.

[@jeweetzlfpappi]

I came here to write this exact comment! In these three we now see the process of turning medium size lies into the Big Lies and resulting 'tragic responsibility' that is central to full fledged fascism. Listening to these words three years later feels quite chilling...

[@Dabu-Dabu]

indeed. Jan 6th is a super fascist event, in that sense that it utterly resembles what Hitler did with the burning of the Reichstag to invoke a state of emergency, which is what Biden goons are doing now, even though there's a ton of evidence of FBI's involvment.. so a state manipulating citizens into thinking that "unthinkable is happening and we need to act nooooow". enjoy your blindspots

[@jeweetzlfpappi]

@@Dabu-Dabu Can't figure out if you're being sarcastic or not, but I sure hope so. Hitler effectively killed German democracy within four weeks of coming to power. And Biden did what exactly? And evidence of the FBI being involved in what exactly? And how reliable is this ton of evidence you're apparently in possession of exactly?

[@Jesus_Christ_Is_Lord77]

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is an organ-harvesting, virus-spreading, terrorist regime that promotes genocide, torture, and global terrorism. Like the slaughterhouse Khmer Rouge regime, CCP is set out to erase all human rights and freedom, kill off innocent lives to bring the entire world under its totalitarian control.

[@rg31404]

It might seem strange to non-germans why some questioners seemed to criticize the use of the term fascism in this context. Germans are highly sensitive of using terms from their past for the present, and aren't used to it at all. That's why the one guy used a phrase you hear all the time in Germany: "You are relativizing..." It's the thought that the 3rd Reich was so awful and in a category of its own, that when you compare the current to it you are somehow diminishing the horror of the past. Just FYI

[@arsalanziazie9812]

Timothy Snyder makes history alive and usable. He is right in saying that fascism is present in our time and should not be left as hollowed our and irrelevant.

[@robertgoleniowski4188]

Umberto Eco used a term “fascismo eterno” - eternal fascism to describe the innate susceptibility of humans to totalitarian thinking.

[@eddybiaz5677]

Orange man bad? The $500 m Zuckerberg poured into the 2020 elections , the Time magazine Molly Ball, article, the fact that Tiebe and Shallenburger exposed the FBI and CIA infiltration of Twitter and the Democrat Party incitement to suppress the opposition. WEF and the policy of ESG is fascist in that the private sector is under control of the state. Russiagate was a Hillary construct abetted by the deep state as Durham reported.

[@duncanmoore3780]

"If we get out of the habit of appearing in public, it's very hard to protest and to meet new people." THIS.

[@sacrificezone]

That’s something that changed since this lecture. Trump and company started to endorse anti-lockdown protests and other protests...

[@mbords01]

We might decide to write protest of letters in local newspapers especially if you are able and your English is good and you are educated enough.

[@typower9]

@@mbords01 Have you never heard of censorship....

[@makhetefall8003]

Bravo Professor, this is an excellent analysis of our socio-political discourse and language of today. This is so good. You increased my I.Q.

[@victoews6842]

It's totally impossible for an honest person to be elected to either Congress or the Senate. Why? Because it costs $12 million to be elected to get a job that pays $175 thousand. So to get a job that pays $175 thousand you need to raise $30,000 every day in the year of an election or $8,000 every day for 4 years. (That's 7 days a week) So you may start out with honest intentions but after being handed $30,000 every day for a year you are comprised.

[@kn9ioutom]

GOP SUPREME COURT MADE MONEY EQUAL TO FREE SPEECH !!!

[@patrickaucoin2344]

What about the American Empire?

[@Brett_S_420]

Probably best not to let "not quite fascism" types get a hold on these weapons again.

[@LeighAnnMiller]

When everyone turned around to see who the guy was who didn’t believe in man made climate change 😂

[@presterjohn1697]

@Tom Witch FACTS

[@adrianseanheidmann4559]

That dude was so full of himsel, you could notice in the way he was using the opportunity to ask an engaging, important question to go on full-on monologue.

[@fabiolopesdasilva9103]

Professor Snyder at his best.

[@mbords01]

Indeed. So educational. If I was a HS Civic teacher, I would get permission to present this to my students as mandatory. Public Library across the country might also need to advertise his e-books/videos too.

[@sha2828]

That's unfortunate. He's hyperventilating as he speaks and what he is trying to say is so fueled by his fear and hate that he simply obfuscates and muddies whatever it is he is trying to teach.

[@larsmarianne913]

@@sha2828 well, yeah... taking something seriously may not be anybodys gusto...

[@lilmoe4364]

@Sha no, you're just highly confused

[@erniebuchinski3614]

I teach at a university in Europe and even there I doubt that five percent of the students could give a reasonably accurate definition of either "fascism" or "socialism". "Fascism" seems more of a general go-to insult to anyone to the right politically of the person using it than an actually well-understood concept at this point, and "socialism" seems to be confused by an awful lot of people with the concept of the "welfare state", which describes most Western European economic systems at this point. (Perhaps someone over there in the US could explain that to, for example, Bernie Sanders, as he seems a bit confused on that one.) The greater point being that these terms, especially the former, are sometimes thrown around too easily, even by academics. Having said that, I can highly recommend Dr. Snyder's book "Bloodlands". It's definitely worth the read, and he has another lecture posted where he talks about it in some detail here on KZbin, which I can also highly recommend.

[@Jerrybk6]

I started and finished this audio book today. Fucking head rushing and jaw dropping the whole time.

[@grandpa5508]

You must be coming down with something. The folks have prepared displays where they shed light on things but do nothing in a follow up. In short they're all accomplices.

[@KaritKtana]

1:36:29 - even if he didn't just deliver a great talk, Snyder is the MVP for being able to follow that rambling monolog alone 👏

[@jean6872]

Snyder does indeed ramble on incoherently with a smorgasbord of essentially meaningless vocabulary which sounds clever but actually tells us nothing. It is an entertaining act unless one wants to learn something about politics. The importance of language is ironically highlighted by demonstrating how language can be used to bamboozle members of an audience who try to look interested as if they know what he is on about.

[@joeessig3550]

@@jean6872 Jean--are you just looking for a pro-fascist speech or something? I've been alive and awake for the past 5 years, and have seen countless criticisms and complaints of 'contemporay fascism', most of which are hysterical and poorly thought out. However, Snyder is obviously more sophisticated than the vast majority of critiques--and he is at least somewhat generous to those being criticized, doesn't give way to moralizing. He understands that our authoritarian trend is a culmination of an entire society's failing, and blame cannot be attributed in any succinct and partisan way.

[@jean6872]

@@joeessig3550 I congratulate you for understanding what Timothy Snyder means to convey. My criticism of this talk should not be taken as a disappointment that Timothy Snyder does not support fascism. Nothing I wrote suggests that. Rather, I was looking for some perspective which at least makes sense. I do not know what Snyder believes. Perhaps you can tell me. I am a native English speaker and I was lost from the beginning. That he was addressing German speakers and got through to them mystifies me. He boasts of being a polyglot but I suspect he plays the part of an intellectual having maybe one interesting idea and hides his intellectual impoverishment behind a curtain of verbiage. Few in his audience want to admit that the emperor has no clothes. If you read the comments section here, generally we get adulation for Snyder and how brainy he is but no-one is discussing what he said.

[@drandana3661]

I would add the need for constant vigilance AND education of ordinary people. The enemy of such ideological cul de sac's such as neoliberalism and fascism is education.

[@nightoftheworld]

Yes, presuming of course that that “education” is well-rounded and emancipatory-what is the content of said _education?_

[@lancewalker2595]

Little Orwellian with the terminology there dude.

[@jeriksson7686]

ALOT of humans should and needs to listen to this man!

[@miguelchippsinteligente6072]

Tesla referenced human energy 🌪👻jesus christ referenced living waters 🤍💎science described water memory 🌊👨‍🎓existence reflecting psychologically psalms16:24 k,j 👻🤍💎👨‍🎓💖🗽🌪🌪🌪

[@vc6984]

Only thing is that of all the fascist regimes that existed in history they were all very left wing with left progressive policies. The global crisis that the left has latched onto is climate change. This man contradicts himself and doe not refer to facts. Part of the job growth under trump for low income people was due to the decrease in illegals entering the country. He denies allot of documented facts. It has been made clear that the media has been extremely deceptive and manipulative.

[@minniewipster8130]

@@vc6984 And who owns/controls the media?

[@lilmoe4364]

@ VC, what a bunch of nonsense. You've been conned by a champion con man

[@themsmloveswar3985]

"should" - is that a command? Sounds very Totalitarian.

[@OneAdam12Adam]

I love it Timothy Snyder acknowledged the German speakers there and thanking them for understanding that this presentation will not be in their first language. How did I not realize that one of the five languages that he's fluent is German? I love him even more now!

[@flosev75]

Did you know that Snyder is a surname of German origin?

[@t.l.1610]

@@flosev75Doesn’t mean people of German ancestry speak German. Most I know do not. And Prof. Snyder also speaks Ukrainian, Russian too.

[@intlprofs1]

Where does the rich and powerful's 3-decade -old Privatization Movement figure into this?

[@daletyoung2984]

Peripatetic Professor Privatisation reduces effectiveness of the State. The blame for societal dysfunction remains with the state.

[@sharonnoble3877]

Five and a half decades. See Atlas Shrugged, the books of Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and on and on...

[@nightoftheworld]

@@sharonnoble3877 There’s a cool book by David Sloan Wilson called “Atlas Hugged” which refutes Rand’s objectivist greed cult through an extension of the Atlas fiction into the future. It’s John Galt III’s autobiography about how his father and grandfather were sick.

[@w.t.fpipedreamwithhopefull5538]

The spoils of plunder under Fascism.

[@nextworld9176]

@@nightoftheworld Rand was a crank with no intellectual basis in either reality or theory. Couldn't write, either.

[@karenabel6218]

I love listening to Mr. Snyder, a brilliant modern day intellectual. Thank you for the interview.

[@martinirving3824]

agreed.

[@Fuchsia_tude]

What a weird couple of question-comments there at the end. At least he was able to turn them around in a useful way.

[@LittleOrla]

Easy to see Mr Snyder's words playing out in our world today.

[@jared_r]

That username with this comment lmao

[@jnagarya519]

@@RicardoGomesRodrigues Russian propaganda. Totally illiterate about currency and economics.

[@RicardoGomesRodrigues]

@@jnagarya519 Russian???!!!

[@jnagarya519]

@@RicardoGomesRodrigues Yes, Russian. Even if you don't recognize it, you are talking anti-American gibberish. Currency is an agreed form of exchange; it is not "fake". Everything you base on the idea that it isn't real is illiterate crackpottery.

[@JoeyVol]

@@RicardoGomesRodrigues It's not a fiat currency when it's backed by the combined might of US Armed Forces, US Naval protected shipping lanes (All of them except for a small segment near China) which allow for global commerce, the entire NATO block and the entire US economy plus Wallstreet. Actually, that makes it the opposite of fiat, or based on nothing - that makes it very - very real.

[@snowflakeca2079]

1980 Republican: "Tear down that wall". 2020 Republican: "Build that wall". JFC...

[@LuzdoSol00]

2021 - Insurrection of the Capital

[@TheMyssT]

Awesome!

[@lilmoe4364]

"The wall is a dumb idea. It's just something that morons can get behind." - (see directly above) renowned political scientist, Howard Stern. The US border wall is a terrible idea, a waste of money that would devastate ecosystems and not accomplish its purpose. It was a means for Steve Bannon to fleece the ignorant.

[@nirmalan5590]

Here we go round the mulberry bush... Imp to go round this bush ,let's see if our collective intelligence is intelligent enough.

[@andreinekrasov2036]

The last guy called bullshit on this stooge! Putin is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and under my bed! Russia is important because the U.S. needs a "bogeyman" to justify spending trillions on NEW NUCLEAR weapons (those cute, little [mini-nukes]!). There's no other way to justify that amount of spending.

[@johnries5593]

Not only was there never a British nation-state, there hasn't been an English one since the Norman Conquest (if then). The existing United Kingdom and its dependent territories are what remains of the Norman-Angevin-British Empire founded by William the Conqueror in 1066.

[@chrisbirmingham5132]

Quite interesting, though there are some enormous oddities in this talk. To begin with, French cookbooks don't use the subjunctive for their instructions, they use the INFINITIVE. While the shortcomings of the US education system are no secret, it's very strange that someone who teaches at Yale shouldn't know the difference. Similarly, the argument that "Build that wall" as a slogan does not precisely specify who should build the wall does not make the word "build" anything other than an imperative. Imperatives in themselves - think of the example "TAKE this cup away" or "RUN round that field" - never specify who is to perform the task; that is something which occurs elsewhere in "the speech act". I presume what Snyder is trying to say is that it is an IMPERATIVE WITHOUT AN ADDRESSEE. A contrast would be the Nazi slogan "Deutschland erwache" (Germany, awake), in which an addressee is specified. Perhaps the confusion is produced by the fact that, in English, infinitive and imperative are usually identical in form (they aren't in, for example, German or French). There was briefly a vogue some years ago for historians to wander on to philosophical terrain and attack post-structuralism on all kinds of spurious grounds that bore little or no relation to the actual philosophical problems being addressed by that movement: one particular contribution by Richard Evans, who is a perfectly competent historian, was especially embarrassing. This feels a bit like that. There is a second obvious problem which is the apparently unexamined nature of Snyder's political classifications. The notion, for example, that "There is no alternative" was a "Centrist" slogan seems quite bizarre, at least to this Englishman: in the UK, it was the watchword of the extremist neoliberals led by Margaret Thatcher, a movement further to the right than anything which had been seen in mainstream British politics since the 1930s. Fukuyama's transposition of the notion into the realm of historical philosophizing became very fashionable in the USA a few decades back, but apparently among those who had only vaguely heard of Hegel or understood the nature of his politics. Other problems are failings of historical scholarship, such as the idea that Fascist ideology is uniform on fundamental issues like its conceptions of time. That just isn't true across the major forms of European fascism in the twentieth century. All the variants (Italian, German, French, Belgian, Spanish, Hungarian, Rumanian etc.) draw on different national traditions in that regard. SImilarly, Snyder is clearly wrong about 1930s fascism not having an internationalist dimension. A large number of movements in Europe in that period were imitative of Italian fascism or Nazism (e.g. Bucard's Francistes in France. Mosley's Blackshirts in Britain, the Garda de Fier in Rumania). In general, Snyder is addressing a very fertile area for reflection, but it does require precise concepts that are handled deftly and with the self-reflection which he calls for but, in my opinion, doesn't adequately achieve. I think he would do well to explore Jean Baudrillard's concepts of simulation and the simulacrum: referring to the new right-wing populist authoritarians as "not even fascists" seems oddly like a call for them to up their game and embrace "the real thing".

[@KaritKtana]

Very interesting points, a lot to think about and look into; Just one small thing, is strange because I believe Snyder speaks German and French.

[@seanmoliver]

While slightly interesting, your comments point to issues which are not particularly relevant to the larger theme. We all know language is seldom precisely understood exactly the same way by all listeners.

[@chrisbirmingham5132]

@@seanmoliver My comments had nothing to do with the way language is understood by listeners. The point about language was that those who are claiming to analyze political discourse really ought to be able to distinguish between the subjunctive and the infinitive. As for the "larger theme", no one is going to make much progress on that by talking in vague - or, as at times in this piece, wholly inaccurate - terms.

[@seanmoliver]

@@chrisbirmingham5132 i can't argue with that. Snyders greater concerns regarding words and reality remains valid even if this particular example was flawed. Hes not discussing French cookbooks.

[@chrisbirmingham5132]

@@seanmoliver The analysis of how language is used in political contexts requires an ability to describe that language with some level of technical precision. If someone can't tell the difference between the subjunctive and the infinitive or between the imperative and the infinitive (or doesn't think these specifics are important), then their contribution is likely to be less than robust. The cook books are incidental. I did praise some other aspects of the talk in another comment, but I think it was fair (and decidedly germane to the general argument) to point out how odd this aspect was.

[@itssanti]

When you lecture to people in a language other than their own, the Q&A section becomes quite messy

[@M_Lopez_3D_Artist]

He actually speaks fluent german actually, you should check more of his videos.

[@TheNinjonny]

when he's talking about trump not having a "big lie" that serves to move to his "higher truth" that would happen with actual fascists. that aged like milk. Because he even called it a "big lie", I'm going to have to give him partial credit for that.

[@anatoliyklimenko7797]

Goebbels would be jealous.

[@TJ-hs1qm]

His ideas remind me a lot of the Adam Curtis documentaries.

[@marzenawojtaszewska4886]

During present events: everything is so up to date.... The only thing hat changed, is that the not-even-fascism got a great name "Russcism"

[@OneAdam12Adam]

You're right! Few in the USA even know what that means.

[@nightoftheworld]

17:15 *Big data prison house* “There is a sense in which we are all now prisoners of what the algorithms find out irritate us the most.” (I.e. Cambridge Analytica/“Build the wall”)

[@amandap9332]

So few people seem to know what Cambridge Analytica even is. It brings me hope that I'm not the only one!

[@nightoftheworld]

@@amandap9332 yeah glad to see another concerned citizen. My worry is that abuses like this will be slowly forgotten especially as economic austerities wind up with all this pandemic mess and companies looking to “leverage human capital” in more prying, micromanaging data/app drenched ways. Cambridge and others showed that using data against people works to produce specific actions (like voting against your own freedom).. neuromarketing and all that corporate advertising junk are “psychology in reverse gear” (Rick Roderick)-seeking to deconstruct/obfuscate the sense of one’s self in order to mechanically realign it with efficiencies metrics/market cap goals. Rather than using data to emancipate and to reduce the exploitative pressures in life (the critical theory aim), it’s increasingly used as a tool with which to more subtly and effectively repress and subjugate the desire to dissent against such things as, the hypocrisy of _”corporate family.”_ Every modern employee witnesses this in the communication asymmetry between boss/employee.. and at performance/appraisal time.

[@secallen]

@@nightoftheworld They are all using Cambridge Analyticas. And now the left is throttling the right's access to the marketplace of algorithm-driven mind control. They want a monopoly on it - because they think they know what is best. And if you don't agree your social credit score will be reduced accordingly. China is rushing back from the "century of humiliation" in style.

[@nightoftheworld]

@@secallen yeah.. black mirror lifestyle coming to a world near us maybe-freaking “social credit”, aka minority report paranoia state. Zizek is worried that we’re heading toward a type of permanent emergency state, that the optimism of post-covid life is unfounded. Beyond that even it seems that western capitalists are slowly adopting a “capitalism with Asian values” methodology. His and Sloterdijk’s hypothesis that 100 years from now they’ll be building statues of Lee Kuan Yew (former prime minister of Singapore) to honor him as a world capitalist saint. Hopefully people wake up.. but I feel rather pessimistic when thinking about the future in regards to human freedom/liberty. And the cherries on top.. neuralink/ the transhumanism fetish/ Kurzweil’s singularity prognostications..

[@thurstonhowellthetwelf3220]

@@nightoftheworld yes ..I was in a corporate job for many years, I am very happy to have retired this year.. in a moment of semi sleep.. the description.."suffocating mind control " came to me as apt my years there..

[@ArizonaWillful]

He is often a guest on Rachel Maddow's TV show. You know, that intelligent show that right wingers loath like vampires reacting to a crucifix.

[@dominantallele4216]

lol.

[@georgecarberry9222]

I agree that we need a different terminology than fascism to describe the politics of today. We need a new terminology. We need factual local news rather than the watered down often foreshortened use of the term fascism. Fascism is a real thing today & being foisted on us in the US very skillfully.

[@rettro6578]

Inverted totalitarianism is a good term for todays America. The USA has an unholy alliance between corporations and the state that isn't quite fascism due to that veneer of democracy. Big tech, is fused with the security state. There is a facsimile of democracy but we know lobbyists create laws for the ruling elite in the USA, the majority of Americans don't truly have a voice in Washington. So while the USA isn't fascist, we could go that way if systemic change isn't made to lessen egregious inequality. Social unrest will lead to greater crackdowns and like in the 30s things could go south if capitalism isn't saved from its own excesses.

[@joncheskin]

I found this talk very helpful in clarifying the similarities and differences between Fascism and Trumpism. Particularly notable to me is the notion that Fascism is ideological, whereas Trumpism is irresponsible. It would be nice to get to an age where responsibilitiy and striving for a better world is actually the objective of our government.

[@62Cristoforo]

Mussolini represented certain aspects of fascism as did Hitler; but they weren’t the quintessential definition of fascism; merely certain parts of it. There is more than only one definition of the word; it changes with time, it evolves and adapts.

[@robreich6881]

Fascism is like God to liberals. An anti-God. An all encompassing concrete universal that gives their lives meaning.

[@vgorp3849]

He seems much less reluctant to refer to Trump as a fascist in this lecture compared to previous videos on this topic. That does not comfort me.

[@1godapex]

He usually suggests that Trump isn't committed to anything enough to be an actual fascist. He just flails around in whatever direction he fancies in the moment. That's neither better nor worse than fascism but it's not coherent enough to be considered an actual ethos.

[@MichaelHarrisIreland]

You're right, I think he's still self serving of his own position in society. He's good, but he needs to go a long way in his thinking despite how good he thinks he is.

[@vd6637]

And now 2 years later Biden is controlling the whole econmy getting people fired whom cannot afford it by vaccine mandates for a virus that the vaccine doesn't stop. Trump is self serving not facist. Current admin is trying to take total control.

[@chrisbirmingham5132]

Snyder majes an excellent point about US usage of the word "democracy" in the discussion. He might have gone on to add how "democratic" and "capitalist" became almost synonymous adjectives from the Cold War onwards.

[@kasnarfburns210]

Professor Richard D. Wolff makes that distinction very clear!!!

[@themsmloveswar3985]

He might. But that would be to reveal everything. Some better to skip that.

[@ІванДжиніч]

Difference between modern "democracy" and "capitalism" can be only on the abstract, academic thought. If you can give an example in real world, then, please, indulge me.

[@alistairmackintosh9412]

​@@ІванДжинічGilens and Paige's study on congressional responsiveness re voters vs. donors.

[@presterjohn1697]

This is a very cartoonish discussion of fascism.

[@perryvalton4245]

Timothy Snyder Is definitely very important voice in our time right now, this man will be regarded as prophet someday.

[@TriumphR3man]

Really?? The wall is almost finished.

[@corryjookit7818]

@@TriumphR3man No, it's not. Stop lying.

[@carolinemaybe]

I really struggle to find the words to describe what’s happening. The English language itself struggles.

[@terencecottrell795]

This man describes what's happening with perfect clarity. The English language struggles only when used by those inept in its usage!

[@carolinemaybe]

Terence Cottrell there is nothing in language I have ever struggled with it’s him not me.

[@jodyhuston1516]

Study history, Caroline. It gives us , ideas and a framework to stand on !

[@carolinemaybe]

Terence Cottrell I have a doctorate in the English language but any words that historically used have never been used in the US in relation to what’s happening.

[@maxheadrom3088]

Can anyone explain the part about "there are no European nation States - there never were except [somewhere]".

[@jacksonblack9408]

21:40 - My man here predicted the Russian-Ukraine invasion 3 years before it happened! HE'S A WITCH!!

[@log85on71]

Awesome

[@ohara3459]

I cant believe its not fascism

[@williamstierle]

As a language specialist and mediator, this is a wonderful opportunity to take accountability for the words both spoken and in thoughts

[@angelaablett]

Snyder is conspicuously silent on Israel. That speaks volumes.

[@angelaablett]

@s7martify Conspicuous because, next to US, Israel is the biggest destabilizing force in the world. He didn't have a problem being negative about Russia and Putin... specific enough for you?

[@Redactedlllllllllllll]

Nobody talks about Palestinians, gets you black balled.

[@adrianseanheidmann4559]

@@angelaablett How exactly does that work out? How is Israel stabilizing other countries? Any examples? What about Iran? Saudi-Arabia? Pakistan?

[@eldarrissman4172]

Very odd paradox. Big Government, where some form a democracy still exist, is "bad".. However, It is common knowledge that elite Businesses and Businesspeople control and "govern the Government". Therefore from that axiom, one should logically conclude that since Elite Businesses and Businesspeople control the government so that the government enacts policies detrimental to most people in the country (highest burden of taxes on the middle class, pollution around middleclass communities and other such policies, are being driven by the Elite i just mentioned) should be "Bad" also since the elite is government by proxy. But the elite group is considered generally "good" -- which is a completely illogical conclusion. The only way to stop the true "Bad" groups (elites) causing the government to make bad decisions is through democratic pressure to get the government to make changes, but that is the wrong way to enact change because we all know the government is "Bad" and therefore not the way to do it. Dear lord i need a drink

[@thebostonbrawler1]

Russia is a bit player now, look at what China is doing!!

[@miroslavnikic4272]

Timothy,Timothy...Russia in your head...

[@stevenjbeto]

January 6th, 2021 was the Fort Sumter of radical right wing politics.

[@knightrider4001]

Really?... a "radical right" that is led by a militant Zionist who loves homosexuals and made MLK's birthday a federal holiday and deports 95 year old men to Germany to stand trial for "war crimes". You know nothing about what radical right or anything else of a political nature. Trump is a leftist slob just as much as you are. And so are his pathetic followers.

[@sacrificezone]

Certainly the anti-protest attitude of America’s right wing has changed since he gave this speech.

[@echo1174]

T.I.N.A. (There is no Alternative) was a thatcher slogan in the late 1970s. All this 'Hegelian' talk of end of history, inevitability, Wrong side of history etc this is where the concept of 'Necessary Evils' comes from the idea that "We will look back on this horrific moment and laugh" it all comes from Hegelian views of history which excuse all injustices and violence, as inevitable steps to 'Glory'. And, "Not even Fascism" is call "Fourth way political theory", the Russians would say "I have my Russian 'Truth' and I didn't do all those things I've been caught on camera doing' - it's a tactic for negotiating, it forces you to concede ground and admit to what wrongs you are doing first and then afterwards they will finally admit to their wrong doings. Only after you concede though. "My Truth" or "Our Russian Truth" is like the whole 'Woke' identity politics way of speaking. And in Fourth way Political theory they are open about using 'Post Modernism' to criticize the West.

[@miguelchippsinteligente6072]

Isn't that like persecutions 😐🤍👨‍🎓🗽💖🌪

[@ronaldjohnson5904]

I loved this presentation very insightful but the only thing I wanted to mention was the genocide in Namibia 🇳🇦

[@antonvotyakov8889]

In his review of the book "Bloody Lands", A. Weiner noted that being a scientist who is not an expert on Nazi Germany and the USSR, T. Snyder in his book is almost entirely based on the conclusions and arguments of other scientists, but at the same time his own statements question all the literature on this topic that preceded this book of his. According to the reviewer, Snyder's statement regarding the cooperation of Nazi Germany and the USSR and the fact that they supported each other in the territory under consideration by the author, which he called "Bloody Lands", as well as the chronological framework, "are nothing more than unproven assumptions and the fruits of the author's personal agenda, and not historical evidence". According to P. A. Rudling, the scope and goals of the book "Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Prevention" are ambitious. Noting that it is politicized, the reviewer sees it noteworthy that the back cover contains, unusual for books in the field of Eastern European history, the approval of former US national security advisers and the Secretary of State. In general, as P. A. Rudling noted, the direction of the book is aimed at a non-academic audience, and the generalizing statements contained in it mystify the topic and actually distort the state of science. The most politicized is the last chapter, in which, in particular, it is claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in relation to Ukraine, acts as a destroyer of the state with the foreign policy doctrine of ethnic war, that he, just as Stalin entered into an alliance with Hitler in 1939, put himself at the head of populist, fascist and neo-Nazi forces in Europe, in order to destroy the European Union, which is the most peaceful and prosperous order of the beginning of the XXI century, etc

[@kierfm957]

Not sure what TS knows about the EU. I'm sorry that the UK left the EU. But let's be open about this.., the EU and the US are trade clubs which deny with levies and sanctions on other countries to make trades. A lot of parts of the world are excluded from this Africa the poorest one is excluded. Their is no real future without free trade for all. TS can talk about Brexit but he is a colonolist speaker who wants the EU and us to colonolise the rest of the world. I'm a very liberal person from the UK. We need to make the whole world about the whole world. I'm anti Putin, but I'm pro free world. I have morals, but I want moralists to include all.

[@DonGonzalito]

French cuisine recipes use the infinitive, AFAIK., not the subjunctive. And this is a language expert? And what's with the global warming stuff, where did that come from?

[@flighttherapybullisticfpv133]

Good god some of these questions are just painful lol

[@benedictcowell6547]

An account of the preIude to a tragic epoch in European History As the off-spring of a German this period, the interlude between two wars is important personally, as well as essential, in the age of Trump and Johnson amongst other charlatans. The fall of the Weimar Republic is an account of how mountebanks, and opportunists and the spineless or reactionary can exploit a sequence of of processes and events and cajole or insinuate themselves into the confidence of an already challenged society. The democratic institutions of Weimar had not endured long enough to be democratic conventions which mediate turmoil and tumult. This is an account of that process by which Hitler came to power. It is, because we know how it culminated, a harrowing book describing how every political institution was subverted by men seized by an ideology. Ideologies need scape goats, 'The outsider' and to emphasise and identify the outsider by religion, 'race [truly Ethnicity] or class, and compounding this lethal mix was the Treaty of Versailles, which Hitler exploited to stoke discontent of a society bewildered by the First World War and the Great Crash For the Cultural aspects of Weimar, the back cloth to the 'drama' I refer you to Peter Gay's book 'Weimar' where one learns that in this respect those years were Artistically and Scientifically a spectacular success; experiments literature, the new art of film and in scholarship, Architecture and design. I refer you to this work as an essential companion to the work reviewed as a matter of urgency,, because of the role of the press which is often neglected in historical accounts and interpretations but the role of Huggenberg was critical in stirring up hostility to 'Liberal' [That is to say humane and tolerant values, and to demonise the Jews, to extol the virtues of German Morality' to romanticise the past, to mesmerise people with their own virtues and beguile them with nostalgia and the prospects of a splendid future built on the notional values they believed they discovered in the past, despite the reality, often enough. This [the book reviewed here] is an important book because although there have been great changes in the substrate, the events bear an uncanny resemblance to what transpires in Trumps America and Brexit Britain today. The same scapegoats, the same nostalgic veil cast over the imagined past and the demonisation of Liberal values to make them sound and seem as if they are responsible for decline despite the fact often enough there has been no decline. Weimar was a better society than the one that precipitated the First War, it was more advanced socially and politically and it was amongst the first political systems that extended the Franchise to women. For a resonance of the resemblance of those times and our own I refer the reader to Yascha Mounk's timely study of democracy under siege

[@kittykatzcenteno7160]

BANDERAS FRIENDS AND DISCIPLES. FORGOT THEM ? AND AZOFS ARE THE MOST DEMOCRATIC GENTLEMAN, SUPPORTING ZELLENSKY .

[@BGK531]

Your lectures doesn’t hold water mr chatter no truth about your views Russia 🇷🇺,there is huge jealousy on Russia by the Anglo Saxon though .

[@dagmarueberfeld-lang4088]

one always likes to believe that when one lives in a democracy, fascism is in the past, only happens, if still in existence, some place else, but not where we are, and therefore, it has no place in the western world of today, not in thinking or in speech. Professor Snyder's hits a nerve, and some of us are irritated by his presentation, because our democracies are not as insulated as we are told by our leaders they are.

[@TheMyssT]

I guess it's hard to believe depending on where you are standing...ask any POC

[@cromwellcruiser]

No, he hits a nerve because we know that if he had been living under fascism we would not have heard him today.

[@OneAdam12Adam]

I agree.

[@bretroe5183]

I would give my only $247 i have in the bank to get him to "explain" Justin Trudeau.

[@johnries5593]

Is anyone else disturbed by the use of the phrases "my truth":, "our truth", and "your truth"; which imply that truth is subjective and there is no such thing as objective reality?

[@ika5666]

I like German comment at 1:34. I think you can call putin's regime a "chekist fascism" and that solves the terminological problem pointed out.

[@spanky7277]

This allows Us to realise that we are civilized and we Are not Insane for what we witnessed . The American Empire . Did Donald trump bring it back ?

[@erniebuchinski3614]

I doubt it. Although I'm not a fan of his, he's more of a symptom than a cause, in my opinion. Being a narcissist and attention seeker (perhaps most politicians at that level are both of those to some degree), I'm sure he's laughing at all the world-changing things that he's considered responsible for by so many.

[@JoseMaria-ce4dh]

I'm not sure the distinction between the two fascist views doesn't skim over the surface of the heart of the matter: that both are an inherently destructive and cynical cult that wields language as a weapon. That both like and uses violence for intrinsic reasons, and celebrates death and conflict rather than work for positive outcomes. Its motto would be ignorance and death. Death for efforts at factual descriptions of reality. Death for constructive human values, including the pursuit of moral imagination and worldviews, really a fandom of evil, the worst! So what is fascism? At the end of the day, at the most fundamental level, it's an attitude of rogue resent for a flourishing future, in my opinion. It overwhelmingly prefers its own dominant position as a matter of capricious willfulness over everything and everyone else, over facts, over the possibility of values existing for guiding choices, or over peace, over life, at the cost of anything remotely hopeful or generative, a death cult. And that does not change.

[@matchoftheday3]

What a delusional comment. Liberalism is the death cult

[@kierfm957]

Margret thatcher was a fascist right?. The other guy ronald.,.... fascist!

[@joiedevie3901]

Snyder is a remarkable asset and resource at this time.

[@jenniferzapata5698]

I just see you tagging as “fascist” anything you don’t like, and assigning selfish nefarious hearts to those of us who work for liberty. It spoils your knowledge of history.

[@williamyoung9401]

I love how Timothy Snyder calls Trump a traitor even before he tried to overthrow the U.S. government. (1:10:30)

[@kierfm957]

I love you TS, but why do you keep talking about fascism? Do you think you have the to talk about this?

[@graemebaker]

Christ those questions got painful towards the end...

[@williamyoung9401]

I'm glad I'm not the only one outraged about the F-35 budget... (1:02:00)

[@PeterGurney-p2r]

Yet we Americans keep on voting for the same people and political Parties So we get the government we deserve

[@nancywitmer5214]

Calling America “the homeland”, Reminds me of WWII.

[@MrSp0iler]

you arent native german are you

[@erniebuchinski3614]

Are you referring to Nazi Germany or the USSR? Germans tended to call Germany "the fatherland" and Soviets tended to call the USSR "the motherland". Virtually everywhere I've been, a lot of people called their native land "the homeland". The comparison really seems a bit of a stretch.

[@joanseymour478]

Omg! You’re full of it

[@bonghead6621]

Is build the wall or say it load say it clear everybodies welcome here more destructive to loss of human life for example?

[@thomasjamison2050]

Oddly enough he doesn't talk about either US or Israeli fascism.

[@secallen]

Oddly enough he didn't define fascism - because if he did he would only evoke the same state capitalism he and his audience are in thrall to.

[@secallen]

@s7martify He openly admits to being a leftist and statist. Yet, it was state power, not individual liberty, that enabled the Holocaust. But he is so wedded to his leftist agenda, he can bend even that atrocity to fit his political agenda.

[@secallen]

@s7martify If you are going to be an asshole, I will block you.

[@secallen]

@Tom Witch Define fascism

[@ДмитрийДепутатов]

Robinson Donald Walker Barbara Martin Jennifer

[@wazzup4u]

All / any excuse for mass murder of “The Other” must be condemned & rejected!

[@thebostonbrawler1]

Is Snyder going to write a book about China, communism and liberal democrats? NO! He hasn't stratigcaly ovoided mentioning those words. FYI-Obama & Dem's use Analytica too!!

[@TheEyeball37]

China is not effectively communist the way the USSR was, so how is that the point? Communism seems a thing of the past, but then again, who knows?

[@SpaceExplorer]

but just because we do the same as them with regards to global warming does not make us fascist because our boogeyman is true

[@Brett_S_420]

Bravo! I see why so many are suggesting "On fascism" is the work most needed to be understood at this time.

[@alanmauldin1827]

The Coming of the Third Reich" by Richard J. Evans is a great one, is the second one in his trilogy.

[@HubbardGavin-e1x]

Young Jessica Wilson Karen Lopez Melissa

[@jamesstuart3346]

9:00 I jump up and ask, "before you go on, define what you mean by the left and the right"

[@kierfm957]

I do adore TS, but i have to question his 'land grab' over language.

[@ДмитрийДепутатов]

Martinez Shirley White Daniel Smith Jennifer

[@kierfm957]

all that clapping before he speaks.... that's not correct

[@stevenjbeto]

Timothy Snyder is in effect and importance, the modern manifestation of Thomas Paine.

[@kierfm957]

,'not even fascism' what is that but for an alienating left wing term?

[@jean6872]

This rambling monolog was a load of useless gobbledygook.

[@frostydei5012]

"A terrorist in America looks like me." Lol i glanced at myself in the mirror and shouted, "Damn it SO DO I."

[@TheMyssT]

LoL!!

[@kittykatzcenteno7160]

JEFFREY SACHS, JEFFREY SACHS, JEFFREY SACHS !!!

[@lancethumel1216]

This didn't age well at all does he have any credibility 2021?

[@Brett_S_420]

History ages. Facts supplemented by piercing intelect are by definition credible.

[@andreinekrasov2036]

NO!

[@sneezesaw2611]

Credibility is not negated by incomprehension. What statement by the professor did you find dated. He is more relavent now than then.

[@lancethumel1216]

@@sneezesaw2611 The fact that he was incorrect

[@sneezesaw2611]

please in what way? What did you find incorrect?

[@kierfm957]

TS is not that good, he's a bit lacking to be fair.

[@cdeignan47]

One of the questioners towards the end talks about the need to create new categories to describe the authoritarians of today. No we don't need new categories, I would argue that we need to use our language in a more refined way. For instance, there are, and have been many different kinds of fascism down through the years. Hitler was the single worst example of fascism from the 20th Century but history has vomited up plenty of other examples. Alexander the Great, was he a fascist for example? Language is and always has been and always will be, imprecise. But that does not mean that we need "new categories" to define what we see, hear and perceive. For example, in our internet age where some people spend inordinate amounts of time online, theatricality can take on a whole new role in our lives, particularly online or on TV. Trump for example, is a theatrical fascist to my mind, first and foremost. That makes his brand of authoritarianism peculiar to our age. His theatricality does not necessarily make him more or less dangerous in this time in history, but I believe that not to make that distinction is intellectually lazy and not particularly helpful. Even the appalling and disturbing events of January 6th in Washington are worth talking about in that context. I would argue that it was not a coup attempt, more like a staged for TV event, a political reality show event if you like. Successful coup attempts include leadership, strategy, often weapons and definitely tactics. The group of individuals who showed up to express their "look at me" outrage at the Capitol buildings obviously had no real leadership, no real strategy and no plan of action. Think of the chasm of difference between the expression of their rage and that of the students and others in Tiananmen Square some years ago when tanks, not the Metropolitan police, went sent to remove them. I have lots more to say but as KZbin comments go, this is probably more than enough :)

[@atomkriegreinigungs7737]

Excellent points! I believe to call it what it is, only then will people to take the event and future threats seriously

[@joeessig3550]

Yawn. Fascism has particular historical context---it is very boring and anachronistic to apply 'fascism' to any leader that displays authoritarian/ethno-centric/militaristic tendencies. Like sure, it can be a useful thought experiment---but in general, it dilutes your analysis of both Alexander, and of 20th century fascists. It's a way to kill your brain and simplify everything. Which I almost wish you'd actually done, instead of writing a boring ass paragraph.

[@joeessig3550]

@@atomkriegreinigungs7737 dumb

[@cdeignan47]

@@joeessig3550 Appreciate the casual glib attack, how thoughtful of you. Hey, you read the paragraph, regardless of how "bored" you were.

[@joeessig3550]

@@cdeignan47 I read half, admittedly. And I apologize for any glibness, but it is tiresome to hear people proudly and assuredly call Alexander a fascist. I've noticed you didn't call other, non-western conquerors fascist---so I think it's warranted to assume that you have a pathologically "anti-western" worldview, and you see yourself as a "debunker" of history's idols. Yes, Alexander was a murderous, megalomaniacal drunkard. We know. You are exactly as reactionary as those who fetishize Alexander, you just do it from a different angle. Sorry for using the term 'western', btw---"Western civilization" is mostly a nonsense category emerging after we stopped using the term christendom. Of course there is no west without the eastern traditions.

[@patrickvernon4766]

There was no nation states what is he talking about?

[@joshuaguting7952]

What German word did he use at 46:19 thank you.

[@AmBotanischenGarten]

The wall was nearly built by Jan. 20, 2000?

[@mkadi70]

While I do agree with some of Prof. Snyder's focus on Russia, I still think that there were alot of rich and powerful local forces that played the game of creating consent, along with Russia, to result in electing Trump, as well as the Brexit vote. It seems that these forces are also playing a role within the EU to dismantle it, for a reason or another. Ignoring these forces (For example the Kochs and Mercers in the US), while focusing only on the tip of the iceberg (Russia, Facebook and Analytica) provides an incomplete picture. Additionally, the fear of the dominant ethnic group in the US, as well as the UK. of loosing power because of natural growth of minority populations, which is another real issue for the dominant ethno-economic group, is another factor.

[@seanmoliver]

These people you mention are quite openly allied with Russia and Putin's right-wing anti-western mindset.