jonn wants to read Autocracy Inc by Anne Applebaum

Autocracy Inc by Anne Applebaum
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls …
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54% complete! jonn has read 29 of 53 books.
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls …
@mikerickson that’s my recent shower thought. Guardian et al. are great at pointing out the direction where stuff is going for those in the back of the class (no pun intended). The question is — what to do. I think there should be a platformed way to protest, like protest orchestration-as-a-service almost. I don’t know… I think it is too late for trying to propose institutional solutions.
You know what? Kudos to this book for actually saying something with its full chest. I frequently come across political books that read like, "everything sucks and here's why," but this goes a step further with tangible and direct suggestions for what to do about it; it really is a guide of sorts.
Of course there's the standard solutions like ranked-choice voting and campaign finance reform, but this also discussed a concept of "citizen deliberation" (think of a souped-up round of jury duty except the results get pushed to a public election as a referendum question) that I'd never even heard of before. It even laid out real-world examples of how these have operated in the (then) recent past. There's also discussions on how to tweak recall election rules to better hold politicians accountable in between elections, and just an overall grab bag of specific things that foreign countries do. …
You know what? Kudos to this book for actually saying something with its full chest. I frequently come across political books that read like, "everything sucks and here's why," but this goes a step further with tangible and direct suggestions for what to do about it; it really is a guide of sorts.
Of course there's the standard solutions like ranked-choice voting and campaign finance reform, but this also discussed a concept of "citizen deliberation" (think of a souped-up round of jury duty except the results get pushed to a public election as a referendum question) that I'd never even heard of before. It even laid out real-world examples of how these have operated in the (then) recent past. There's also discussions on how to tweak recall election rules to better hold politicians accountable in between elections, and just an overall grab bag of specific things that foreign countries do.
The book reads as a little dated now because it was published in 2014 when the Greek austerity programs and the Eurozone crisis was the big news of the day. I did find it curious that even in a pre-Brexit/pre-Trump society the general attitude was described as "literally everyone from the far left to the far right hates establishment politicians". I guess the more things change the more they stay the same. But this is still definitely a book worth checking out if you come across it though.
Well it's a day that ends in 'Y', which means it's a beautiful day to despise the Russian government with every fiber of my being!
This is a powerful argument for asking Western governments to stop treating powerful heads of state as one-off, case-by-case studies; the Francos and Mugabes of the 20th century no longer provide the model of authoritarianism. Seemingly diverse countries with little in common beyond a desire to stay in power in the face of Western pressure (Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe to name a few) are all interconnected now in an effort to provide an air of legitimacy to each other. The overwhelming message they convey to their populaces is, "yes we're bad, but it could be worse, so don't fight to change things."
Rather than acting as a bridge to bring these oppressive regimes into the Western fold, post-Cold War economic overtures have instead acted as a …
Well it's a day that ends in 'Y', which means it's a beautiful day to despise the Russian government with every fiber of my being!
This is a powerful argument for asking Western governments to stop treating powerful heads of state as one-off, case-by-case studies; the Francos and Mugabes of the 20th century no longer provide the model of authoritarianism. Seemingly diverse countries with little in common beyond a desire to stay in power in the face of Western pressure (Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe to name a few) are all interconnected now in an effort to provide an air of legitimacy to each other. The overwhelming message they convey to their populaces is, "yes we're bad, but it could be worse, so don't fight to change things."
Rather than acting as a bridge to bring these oppressive regimes into the Western fold, post-Cold War economic overtures have instead acted as a rope that can be pulled against democracies for leverage (Germany being so dependent upon Russian gas pipelines and high-tech industries relying on Chinese rare earth suppliers come to mind). And on a smaller scale, cities like Vancouver and London allow powerful foreign nationals from hostile countries to park wealth in the form of real estate without repercussion, and at detriment to their own citizens.
I appreciate that the book tries to end on a more positive note, laying out a potential blueprint for how liberal democracies can combat deliberate misinformation, cyberwarfare aimed at infrastructure that we're pretending isn't already happening, and cultural defeatism in general, but it felt a touch too ambitious to me. Or maybe I'm already bought in to the idea that our enemies have too much of a head-start in the information age.
I was starting to enjoy this book, until a sex scene between a 30-40 year old and a 15 year old killed pretty much all my enjoyment and left me feeling gross after.
Content warning Fan-hypothesis
A great book with a lot of loops and callbacks. This time it’s clean and logical without plot-holes and such.
I’m fairly certain that the book together with some other moments from other books make me think that the reality in the books is happening in a book.
For example, there is a clear note in this book that the bookspace is speculated to have variants and parallel spaces.
Quote of the book is, sadly,
Keep the “now” long, mom.
We failed to, as a society. “Now” is shorter than ever. We’re sorry, Mr. Fforde.
@limebar oh! It's so cool that other people are using that metric too! ❤️
By the way, I find that something in the ballpark of five core ideas per, say, 300p book investigated from several sides is the sweet spot for me.
That's why I don't read philosophy, too dense!
"Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and …
@tivasyk I wasn't even searching, just saw a familiar... Face (?) while reading bibliography of Fforde
– Is it health and safety? – No, it's important.
Sweetheart, I don't do birthdays
I understood one of the mysteries of what happened when the incident happened closer to the end, but I have so many questions as for why.
I can't criticise the book without spoilers, but I will say that the big baddie didn't get anything out of their kindness, the henchperson didn't get anything of their screw-ups, the most resultive evil character, on the other hand, felt really too keen.
That said, it's an extremely astute book, and another study of trumpian fascism.
It was – of course – inspired by German nazism, but it is striking how, if you add a little bit of modernity and neoliberalism to hitler, you get trump.
To solidarity with Danes! (Oh how unintentionally modern)
Finally, there was a proof that the real world in the Next series is happening in the real book world, which has a book world inside it! We know it …
I understood one of the mysteries of what happened when the incident happened closer to the end, but I have so many questions as for why.
I can't criticise the book without spoilers, but I will say that the big baddie didn't get anything out of their kindness, the henchperson didn't get anything of their screw-ups, the most resultive evil character, on the other hand, felt really too keen.
That said, it's an extremely astute book, and another study of trumpian fascism.
It was – of course – inspired by German nazism, but it is striking how, if you add a little bit of modernity and neoliberalism to hitler, you get trump.
To solidarity with Danes! (Oh how unintentionally modern)
Finally, there was a proof that the real world in the Next series is happening in the real book world, which has a book world inside it! We know it from the dialogue with Hamlet about the steamroller as well as the reunion 4th-wall-breaking scene.
I was walking down the street yesterday and did my thing where I look up the books people read.
Normally it's an utter disappointment, silly light reads or thrillers (don't get me right, I love silly light reads myself).
This time my expectations were low – a white bald guy, wearing a teal T-shirt, how good could the book be.
Well... It was this one.
Thank you, white bald guy wearing teal t-shirt.
And let's all hope that Palestine shall be reclaimed.