Welcome to The Apprentice, Washington, DC version.
The greatest collection ever assembled of ne’er-do-wells, political opportunists, misogynists, barn-burners, moral cretins, political weather vanes, performance addicts, conspiracy theorists, scoundrels, and nut cases, all vying to be most like the mendacious, vengeful, amoral, would-be tin pot dictator, felon, and mentally challenged old man who leads the pack. We really should just wall off the Capital and sit back to watch the show as they all scratch and bite and claw to show which one is the most successful sycophant, except that its now our show, too.
If the Founders could see this lot, they’ve have left Philadelphia before they even got started to attempt to create a ‘Republic of virtue’.
Yes. Between a spotty school system and the deliberate campaign to neutralize powerful language, basic communication has suffered. A person who can’t name their Senator probably doesn’t get illiberal or small d democracy or authoritarianism. The result is that folks who aren’t necessarily “elite” come off that way to those who have missed civic education somehow. So what do we call DT?
“Desecrationist” is a description that struck a cord with me. I feel like he is defecating on everything sacred to most people- with that big grin on his face. I can’t seem to get my head around how so many people like that about him.
It is a phenomena that shows the vulnerability of societies that value free thinking from social media, and especially the vulnerability of societies which on top do not value education. Giving citizens the right to vote without an education, will at the end lead to what is happening now - a manipulated electorate voting on false information.
I'm for legal immigration. But I'm also for a solid proof, beyond the ridiculous test now, that those immigrants value democracy and can distinguish it from autocracy. Wanting just a better life for you and your kids just does not cut it.
One of the main reasons why immigrants want to come here is because they are fleeing from autocratic countries.
Giving citizens the right to vote ‘without an education’ is a curious thought. What kind of education did you have in mind? Autocratic states are often very careful to educate their children - in the ‘correct’ way of thinking.
What about that test for voters eligible to vote here before they can vote? Often immigrants are more aware about autocracy and appreciative of democracy than some of us here seem to be.
There are a number factors in USA and Europe moving to the right. 1. There are the overt and covert actions by autocratic nations especially Russia. 2. Growing wealth of middle class populations is reducing people's dependence on community and increasing their self reliance in meeting their needs beyond simple survival. 3. Self reliance as well as social isolation breeds competition with other humans for wealth, position and power. 4. Wealth enables greater consumption of entertainment, of which the vast majority is fiction. 5. Most human brains have a limited mental ability to resist repetitive fiction being accepted as truth but an almost unlimited ability to crave more material wealth.
The result? Imperialism, conquest, enslavement. And now the Earth's environmental limits are being pushed toward the breaking point by the growing middle class and unnecessary lavish consumption.
So why the anti-education thing? Because education is about truth and truth is dangerous in the hands of slaves. And breeds disrespect for fiction.
How about anti-immigrant actions? This is simply a generally accepted prototype test for a system to kill off the unneeded 95% of the population without poisoning the planet's ability to sustain life.
"So why the anti-education thing? Because education is about truth and truth is dangerous in the hands of slaves. And breeds disrespect for fiction”
Apart from the basics of the 3 R’s, education in and of itself is no guarantee of anything except the intent to sell one point of view or another. For example, there are a number of very highly educated Trump supporters who are apparently as indifferent to truth as they are to Trump’s manifest unfitness for the Presidency.
"apparently" The important word here. Fiction has many uses. Higher intellect usually knows he truth (excepting those who for whatever reason or influence have lost some truth). Knowledge of truth does not prevent the use of fiction as an influencer. Use of fiction can be good or bad. Or somewhere in between. I'm pretty sure that a lot has been written on the subject of truth vs. fiction. I'm in no position to teach the subject.
There’s a lot of verbal wriggling going on here. Knowledge of the truth may not prevent the use of fiction (in this case lies is a far better word - fiction denotes a literary form. Lying does not), but how does one say for sure that someone is using lies despite the fact they may know the truth or that they simply believe the lies despite whatever level of education they’ve achieved.
I prefer to be more active than passive. Truth, logic and objectivity are my things. As such I'm boring and have few followers. But I'm creative. And I'm "older than dirt with a body soon to wear out. I also own a California house.
So here I am looking forward to soon finalizing my living trust and will. Unless my lawyer convinces me otherwise I plan to leave approximately 10% to each of my two sons (both fairly well off) and the rest to the ACLU. This has always been my favorite in the fight for freedom for Americans.
This is a deliberate "kiss my ass" for the dirt bags of our species who want to control the rest of us as they play their games of dominance. $1 million at today's prices from a single donor.
It won't take many Blue Americans doing what I am doing and donating to one or more activist causes of their choice to scare the "BG's" out of trump, musk and the rest of the dark side.
Money talks, bullshit walks and if they try to throw my dying body into the back of a truck I'll get even, just a little sooner.
I was going to leave a good portion of my money to my 2 nephews & Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, & my local animal rescue. However, one of those nephews is a trump voter & forced birther; so I will now be leaving his share to organizations that provide assistance to people needing abortions.
Yep. You are right about the Apprentice D.C. A wrestling exec in charge of Education? What an insult! This may be what people voted for. The excitement of a coming drama to watch their own conflicts played out for them as opposed to figuring out life for themselves. Examining: men vs women; strong vs weak; attractive vs unattractive; street smarts v book smarts; talented v untalented; ambitious v lazy; etc. Watching it all unfold on one’s TV screen, with popcorn and blanket, watching it all as a football game where you have a favorite team and hate the other team. Lots of us (as many as half of us?) untethered from reality right now. I don’t see how this ends well.
In fact the rest of the world is preparing to operate now in an environment where Amerino longer exists. They are reworking their strategies to protect themselves from russia assuming the dissolution of NATO. They are rethinking commerce in an environment where they will no longer import American goods. They may go through the motions of convening international conferences like the G7, but will design policies in sessions closed to American delegates or absent their opinions and votes. Asia and the far east are already in conference about how to protect Taiwan w/o American help. So the world is already geared up to isolate America from meaningful involvement in global affairs just as they have isolated russia, china and n korea, the other fascist authoritarian regimes.
Cathy, I agree with much of what you wrote but think some further impetus is needed to make it happen, and have grave concerns about the implications for climate change. Perhaps the impetus for providing an effective defense against Russian and Chinese aggression will be provided by the tariffs proffered by the MAGAts. But the withdrawal of the US from the climate change fight has worldwide consequences. Only Saudi Arabia exceeds the US in greenhouse gas emissions per capita, and those will increase further as the already pitifully small measures in place are rolled back.
From a climate perspective the best thing that could happen is a collapse of the US economy, although it represents a cruel injustice for the 50% who voted Blue in 2024
The concerns about reducing US efforts to battle climate change cannot be understated for Canada. We already have non-believers and I fear that trump’s affront on the progress achieved under Biden will reverberate throughout my nation. So we’ll be back to square one, anew.
Canada's only response to the imposition of tariffs will be to erect a wall to American imports equally punishing. This will reverberate in every other relationship. You must expect and develop strong resistance to US interference in next year's federal elections to keep P and the CFC as far away from a majority as possible. Yo can expect interference from musk who will do his best to rig the election and install fascist lapdogs that will destroy Canada's democracy and turn it into a mere handmaiden to US interests.
Canada will never close the door on tariffs, either under a Liberal or Conservative government. The 🇺🇸 is 🇨🇦 major trading partner, and in 2022, it enjoyed some $357.3 B in goods and an additional 7.3B in services. That’s a huge loss for Canada, so although it might cross some minds, I can’t see it happening.
If that's what it will take to save the world from an environmental collapse, then I am willing to make the sacrifice. In his first term, TFG alienated the world. But they were able to cooperate because of the guardrails they knew checked his insanity. This time is different, no guardrails and he is backed by bona fide nazis! The only world powers that will be willing to cooperate will be other countries where their leaders are on their way to becoming authoritarians. The rest will quietly shun the US and thwart their ambitions at every turn. His administration will be proactively shunned and punished at every turn.
When the Soviet Union “collapsed” (which did happen overnight), American specialists from Harvard University were welcomed to advise the transition. “The shock therapy “, they proposed furthered the economic and social crisis for ordinary citizens of Russia.
Beware specialists with “good intentions!”
Currently studying Post-Soviet Russia at Queens College. Hope I’m getting my facts right.
Harvard, like all the Ivies, for years then, and now, has produced nihilist M.B.A.s.
Roughly half of all the Ivies major in finance, biz ed, and other forms of service to big money, dark money.
Through the 1990s these Ivies turned up en masse over there to help the former Soviet nomenklatura seize, steal, and pilfer all state assets in order to form the kleptocrat oligarchy that would soon, as you say, Babette, be furthering "the economic and social crisis for ordinary citizens of Russia."
Check out American Paul Klebnikov's "Godfather of the Kremlin" on this era, Babette. (Putin had him killed for it, and other things he was then unearthing.)
I think you've hit on the biggest story we face, Cathy.
The U.S. will soon be run by a cabal of sexual deviants, incompetents, patently ignorant fools, social media hate profiteers, the neutered, dehumanized standardized testers, and knaves to Putin and the world's related murderous, dystopian criminal classes.
What parts of the world may unite for rule by law and whatever vestiges of human decency and democracy some may yet cherish?
When the San Francisco opera announced this fall its premiere production of an operatic version of The Handmaid’s Tale, I belatedly read the novel. And decided that I wouldn’t be able to bear the opera — the story is so utterly bleak, weirdly improbable and highly possible at the same time. During the week or so that I was reading it, I took a 20 minute city bus ride, taking advantage of the good public transportation system that we have here in San Francisco. The bus was crowded that day, and it was just a single car, rather than a double car. I was really wishing for a nice long double car, because I needed a place to get away: The man sitting across from me had a Bible open on his lap. He was loudly, aggressively, angrily explicating his version of the Scripture to the woman sitting next to him. She was submissively nodding at every phrase. I had the chilling feeling that this bus ride was an extension of the novel I was reading. Professor Snyder, you remind me of that happening, and I realize that the entire nation desperately needs a place to get away, and does not have one.
A neighbor of yours, Cheryl -- Rebecca Solnit -- has written similarly of her disappointment.
Rebecca has lived in San Francisco many years. Has done much walking of its streets. Has written many books full of love for your city. But sees the massive changes there.
Not good. Basically, as U.S. schools have dehumanized, so, too, have the people she's seen. No one greets anyone anymore. All but glom onto their "smart" phones. Drug stores and grocery stores lock all goods away behind glass panels, in fear of customers as if all were thieves anymore.
Rebecca didn't write the last point. It's mine from observations I've made myself in trips downtown and to neighborhoods to the west of downtown. And I could add the pervasive smells on urine on the streets. The trash. The feces. The homeless. And the flash mobs so ransacking and stealing from brand name stores that dozens have had to close down and leave the city.
I feel the USA is now a declining power. It has'gone down the tubes' since the neoliberalism "reforms" of Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980's. Naomi Klein' s 'The Shock Doctrine'is a massive expose of its far-reaching consequences The UK became a declining power after the end of WW2. The unpredictable climate patterns world wide is the wild card in the pack i feel your distress and hope you remain unbowed and unbroken. I come from the land of the compulsory vote (even for local council/municipal elections.) Fun fact: South Australia gave women the right to vote in the 1890's.
I’ve heard so many White Nationalist Christians say things like, “I don’t want Shariah Law in America”, not realizing that what they want is exactly that under a different extremist religion.
Right. I’ve been calling these religious creeps the U.S. Taliban since that so called “preacher” in FL took it upon himself to set fire to the Koran. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I certainly loathe, hate and detest those who are so hatefully vile, racist and willfully ignorant and who in some god’s name throw invective around like verbal grenades in a crowd. They are the lowest of the low.
Having only read Handmaids Tale, I’m thinking that what may possibly emerge from the smoldering rubble of what our shining city on the hill used to be, might look like a cross between Handmaids Tale and The Man in the High Castle(Prime); neither of which is good.
I think the whole thing about "Shariah Law" boils down to not wanting the competition on some level. Many are 100% on board with a theocracy as long as it's the "right" kind, even if they can't articulate it as such.
Pre-modern historian weighing in here. (n.b. I read The Handmaid's Tale decades ago and it amuses me that it took a tv series to put it in front of people so that mansplainers can tell Margaret Atwood about her own novel. Anyone ever read Rebecca Solnit's essay "Men Explain Things to Me"? Similar situation; equally both hilarious and infuriating)
So the rhetoric surrounding the origins of Islam, which is the youngest of the world's most influential religions, is complicated by the tendentious self-description of its origins by Muslim scholars themselves. They have claimed that the animist systems of Bedouin and other nomadic groups in the late 6th century (Mohammed had his first visions at the age of 40, sometime around 610 CE) were highly restrictive of women and that Islam "liberated" women from legal statuses as non-persons. But there are problems with that narrative, even within the legendary stories of Mohammed's life--his wife, Khalifa, owned her own business, which he ran as her husband, for instance. But what Islam did indeed do was borrow heavily from Byzantine Christian traditions, themselves derived from pre-Christian so-called classical Greek culture--the society Tim loves to mention--that was just about as misogynist a culture as you could ever see. Where did the hijab and the burka come from? The Byzantine-cum-Greek requirement that "respectable" women be completely invisible and so had to be veiled from head to foot in public. Laws permitting women to divorce their husbands, but only if they can manage to escape the home and plead to the authorities for the right to be separated? That would be Hellenistic-era and Athenian laws' influence. Consideration of women as biologically deformed? Aristotle.
Margaret Atwood is a very well educated Canadian woman (yup: Canadian, in case you didn't know that) with an excellent background in classics and the history of Christianity. She knows whereof she speaks. So for all the folks who think Athens in the 5th century BCE was paradise, I can tell you that you are misinformed. It was very comfortable for about 10% of the population: those men with citizen rights who had access to the plebiscite. Yup: Athenian Democracy was not very democratic. And man oh man, did they hate women. It's one of the reasons why "Socrates" (in actuality Plato for the most part inventing Socratic philosophy) was so challenging to the powers that be. Because in every Platonic dialogue, especially the early ones (like Symposium), Socrates obliterates every man's argument by talking about being inspired by a conversation with a woman, or an experience with a woman. Hmmmmm. If you want a different view of the ancient Greco-Roman world in the age of Marcus Aurelius (another fave of white boyz) that reflects on all of these aspects of how law linked up with misogyny, I recommend Sarah Pomeroy's (a very famous historian of the ancient world) book, The Murder of Regilla. It lays it out in stark terms.
As to Christians themselves. Well, like the adherents of all religions, the problem comes when human beings take hold of any given faith, whoever or whatever it’s ‘founder’ may have said or done, and make of it something conceived in their own far less than divine minds.
Christianity was a faith created to benefit the rural poor in a small country largely controlled by a local Jewish hierarchy and what was then the world’s greatest empire. Once it really caught hold, of course, human beings took it over, girding it with earthly riches and temporal power far beyond anything Christ envisioned. But it was also well within the tradition begun when ‘the kingship descended from heaven’ in ancient Sumer - a political power based on the idea that some ‘higher' power dictated who should be in charge and how things should go.
This is exactly what Christian nationalists have in mind for us. It is a story as old as civilization itself.
Of course there are, just as there are good, civic minded Muslims and Jews and all the rest. In fact, the problems in all faiths will only be solved from within. But that is not being done nearly well enough.
I think the term “people of faith” must include those who have faith in doing right, caring for each other, and defending truth. Religious fundamentalism must be addressed from within those organizations in order for their members to truly join in the fight for a fair society now, here on Earth. Maybe this is a turning point?
At the very beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, one of the "aunts" (aunt Lydia) tells the women selected for their status as breeders: "Ordinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time, it will. It will become ordinary." Which is what happened to millions of Germans between 1933 and 1945. Resisting the "ordinary" - that will be the real challenge in the coming months and years, in the USA and over here in Europe also. (Leaving a copy of the graphic edition of On Tyranny casually lying about may prove useful as a reminder - also available in French :-) https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny
I'm no longer on X, but used to encounter such people there all the time. Just encountered the first of such people on bsky.social a few days ago. What is so irritating about them is that they don't read/understand before posting, thus making themselves look ridiculous without knowing they've done so. And their inscience can be dangerous.
Because, like so many of us, I don't know what my near future will be, I wanted to tell you that "The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999" is such a fine work. You were so young when you finished it, and many of the ideas in "Bloodlands" and "Black Earth" are already present in that book, but are (I think) the most fully worked out in "Black Earth." "The Reconstruction of Nations" is a dense work, but well worth the effort. The relationships between Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus are exceedingly complex, and the story of Kultura and Poland's approach to the end of the Soviet Union left me nearly breathless.
Hi, SPW. I'm a word person and sometimes like to use words that have become archaic/obsolete. The modern word "science" < the Latin "scientia" < "scire," meaning "to know." The prefix "in-," in this case, attached to "science," means "not." So "inscience" means literally, "not knowing," in other words, "ignorant" or "ignorance." I pronounce it "IN-shence." The word "ignorant" has a different etymology, but the archaic "inscience" means "ignorant."
There's a video podcast on youtube in which the host and guests discuss archaic words in middle and early modern English that they wish to bring back. Because that happens to be my thing, I occasionally watch it. "Inscience" is not one of the words they discussed; I don't remember where I ran into it the first time.
BTW, I was delighted to encounter an archaic word in Prof. Snyder's 2003 book, "The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999," which I just finished. Now I can't remember what it was or where it is in the book. I think it's in either Pt. 1 or 2.
The construction of our sentences and the constitution of them with meaning is all about word choice and common sense clarity [brevity is not my capacity, yet].
I forgot about Prof Snyder's The Reconstruction.... Thanks for that reminder.
In re the events at hand, our effectiveness together in using the Constitution to preserve each other's legitimacy and Constitution-based governance system and civil society citizen protections and institutions, e.g., diverse free press media outlets, will in large measure depend on our conservation of words while we carefully and effectively choose to use them.
I am grateful to someone, of whom I am often reminded and for whom I have respect more than words can express, who has assisted focus my public participation, and whose public expressions stand with the one's referred to in this letter to the editor:
'Americans need to choose together to resist the incoming Trump Admin and its racist and xenophobic policies.
Exiled Chinese dissident Wan Yanhai, naturalized American citizen who witnessed the brutality at Tienanmen Square reminds us, “This is the essence of democracy. You present all information and debate in a peaceful way to influence people and bring changes, not that you walk away from people you don’t agree with. ... But when Trump dims the beacon of freedom and democracy in this country, people like me have nowhere to go. That was the moment I realized that I have to fight for America.” https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/10/29/tiananmen-trump-queens-man-chinese...
The Constitution speaks for all Americans in its 'We the People of the United States...'' Preamble, In novel and yet unrealized capacities to improve and amend this formal constitution of our political and civil society, we must act in willful solidarity together to use the Constitution to defend ourselves. '
This is so right-on in relationship to Prof Snyder's comment in the essay presented here,
"...he felt qualified to say what the book was about without having read it." We in America are educated without even a beginning educational effort at coming to terms with the words we use. It is extra-ordinarily useful to find reliable sources of linguistic construction of our languages.
" in·science ˈinsh(ē)ən(t)s,
ˈin(t)sēə-
: lack of knowledge "
In John Milton's works, as in Shakespeare's works, we often meet exemplary formulations of statements that use words in ways that slightly recontextualize a potent conscious alternative use, much to the useful understanding of a reader. We often also use verbal puns or verbal plays-on-words to suddenly and revealingly provide novel meaning or context
Dear Dr. Snyder. I read The Handmaid's Tale, saw the original movie, became a fan of the television series, and read the sequel The Testaments upon release. What attracted me to the story was how misguided, delusional people took control of a society and how many others tried to adapt to the idiocy, not outright supporting the power holders while not doing much in opposition. Others just fell into line.
The Morning Joe's hosts appear to fall into this third category. As most observers have witnessed, Joe and Mika made the pilgrimage to the White House south Florida to bend the knee to the President elect. During this morning's broadcast, which I habitually watch while exercising, Joe alluded to and proclaimed he is a conservative following his years of denouncing Trump. One of his guests, Donnie Deutch, stated that the major problem of the Democratic problem is they have moved too far to the left center on the political spectrum and need to move to the center right in order to attract voters. Has Morning Joe got the message?
I do not agree with Joe at all, I’m supremely disappointed in the Democratic Party because they moved too much to the center. The white man that I just this minute saw on msnbc running to be chair of the DNC is an absolute hard NO from me. Tax cuts for the wealthy down to 15%?!?! Hell no, may as well bring back Reagan & his stupid trickle down nonsense.
I recall Morning Joe in 2015 allowing Donald Trump to talk to them by phone, day after day, and treating him like any other candidate; brown and cyan graphics at the time, so long ago. They need to go back to a two-hour show. It's becoming so-much-the-same-all-the-time. The uber owners won't allow them to even glance in the direction of true left. There is no left in this country, except for my own home state—But Gov. Tim Pawlenty undid what he could and now it costs $55 to have my well water tested, when once this service was free.
My fear isn’t when America falls and no longer exists;!this blatant authoritarian takeover will cause rest of the western world will follow suit; and no safe haven will exist anywhere, including Canada which was the safe haven for American refugees.
Trumpism is a virus that spreads almost as fast as lie spreads around the world. Ironically, most of our allies are looking for a safe haven from America, and the only alternative is to kowtow to another, possibly less dangerous version of authoritarianism; only because we know what China stands for, and what they covet most (Taiwan, and control of the S. China Sea). With Trumpism and a MAGA mob filled with mindless sheeple; not so much..:)
The CFC Party in Canada, led by a TFG minion names Poilievre, has been spouting pure American fascist rhetoric since 2016. They have been undermining Trudeau's leadership to take down the Liberal Party in 2025. musk has stated he will throw the election to the CFC just as he has done for TFG now. I just hope to god the Canadians read the rails on this and vote the CFC into oblivion. So far, though as usual there is little interest in the upcoming election and that lays the groundwork for a fascist takeover.
Thank you! Absolutely brilliant. It is of course about authoritarian "Kristianity" and how we are challenged to respond to it, rather than casting stones or blame elsewhere. The cabinet picks seem to be designed to destroy our government as quickly as possible, and I wonder what we can do to protect it, now that the SCOTUS has caved? On a slightly less serious note, I have noticed an uptick of mansplaining since the election, and while this example is almost laughable, it is exactly the twisted logic that we're seeing so much of. Other women I have spoken with are noticing it, too. The patronizing and dismissive attitudes. In the past week alone, two men have either explained (to me!) what I meant by something I wrote, or told me what and how much I could and couldn't say. But saying this to Margaret Atwood herself? That takes the cake.
In Casting the First Stone, Timothy Snyder wrote, ' I want to make the case that The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel we need to read.'
I believe that Timothy Snyder is correct. Before reading Handmaid's Tale, I read his 'The American Abyss'. I recommend that you read it as well if you have not..
'Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump — like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia — is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.'
'Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. These last four years, scholars have discussed the legitimacy and value of invoking fascism in reference to Trumpian propaganda. One comfortable position has been to label any such effort as a direct comparison and then to treat such comparisons as taboo. More productively, the philosopher Jason Stanley has treated fascism as a phenomenon, as a series of patterns that can be observed not only in interwar Europe but beyond it.'
'My own view is that greater knowledge of the past, fascist or otherwise, allows us to notice and conceptualize elements of the present that we might otherwise disregard and to think more broadly about future possibilities. It was clear to me in October that Trump’s behavior presaged a coup, and I said so in print; this is not because the present repeats the past, but because the past enlightens the present. __ From Timothy Snyder's 'The American Abyss' (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
I am nearly through Prif Snyder’s “On Tyranny” audiobook updates edition. The lengthy history of Eastern Europe & specifically Ukraine, is fascinating. Yes, as he tells the story there, it enlightens & reveals what is happening today.
I have read the Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments (and all of the MaddAdam trilogy, etc). What strikes me most about the difference in our reality and these books is the strength of women in the world today - particularly in the US - vs in these books. In fact, the strength of women in my every day life vs what is portrayed in media and politics is also striking. If you "just" watched national media including most social media you wouldn't understand that women are absolutely critical to the US economy and society. Step into the world of healthcare and education particularly and you will find women basically running those sectors. They may not be in charge but they are certainly critical. So this reality and the rapid move toward a Gilead type of existence don't come together for me for this reason. It's not that I don't think it can happen but I think there are a lot of societal barriers that may in fact hold up that are somewhat under the radar because they are the stuff of mundane every day reality.
I read Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and also her sequel The Testaments. The Handmaid’s Tale was written in the 1980s. I believe Atwood used elements that are already fact or established history to construct these stories. Another series worth looking is her MaddAddam Trilogy: The Year of the Flood, Oryx and Crake, and MaddAddam.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake are 2 books that I heard have been banned by School Boards in various parts of the US.
Planning to suggest "The Handmaid's Tale" to my book club soon. I have been avoiding it for decades because I was afraid it was too depressing. But it can't be any more depressing than real life right now.
I live in a rural county in TN, where there is already a kind of theocracy, especially at the level of the state legislature, but also locally: drag shows were banned for a while here about two years ago, even on the college campus. A regular drag brunch had been happening at a local bar for months, when the Religious Right suddenly decided it should not happen. They summoned Proud Boys and other hate groups, who came out in force on a day when I attended the drag brunch. There were about 30 "protesters" on the sidewalk across the street, yelling and holding hateful signs. One guy had a Nazi flag. The bar owners and their landlord got death threats, and so the bar closed, and the bar owners lost their business for good. They have not reopened elsewhere. It was a great bar and the drag shows were a small part of the good they did in the community, hosting local bands, etc.
I see a lot of bumper stickers warning you that you will burn in hell forever unless you get right with god, for example. Our TN license plates say "IN God We Trust," unless you request the atheist tags without that motto on them. Our courthouse recently got giant letters on all four sides saying "In God We Trust." Even the local diner in a tiny town in the county has a sign about that!
Kids grow up here learning a very Calvinist and joyless form of Christianity that teaches them that just about every form of sexuality imaginable is sinful. As a teacher at the community college, I heard a lot about that: I taught art history and so of course, there were nude human figures involved. It wasn't unusual for students to say they could not in good conscience look at, say, Michelangelo's David, because it "inspired lust." I felt very sorry for them. Some actually refused to look at it and stared at their notebook the whole time the slide was up. They seem to know almost nothing about sex, even in their early 20s, unless they got pregnant at 17.
There were also Saudi students in some of my classes. They couldn't get enough of that stuff! So that's one difference between the Religious Right here and in Muslim countries: the Muslim students relish any chance to see some nudity, whereas the Christian students have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that they censor their own desire to look at beautiful human bodies.
Shannon - they sound like the stories coming out about the North Korean soldiers who discovered porn when they got to Russia. These kids are the future hypocritical, toe-tapping Republicans! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Craig_scandal
Welcome to The Apprentice, Washington, DC version.
The greatest collection ever assembled of ne’er-do-wells, political opportunists, misogynists, barn-burners, moral cretins, political weather vanes, performance addicts, conspiracy theorists, scoundrels, and nut cases, all vying to be most like the mendacious, vengeful, amoral, would-be tin pot dictator, felon, and mentally challenged old man who leads the pack. We really should just wall off the Capital and sit back to watch the show as they all scratch and bite and claw to show which one is the most successful sycophant, except that its now our show, too.
If the Founders could see this lot, they’ve have left Philadelphia before they even got started to attempt to create a ‘Republic of virtue’.
Soon we will all know how to pronounce kakistocracy.
My junior high brain insists on pronouncing it "ka-ka stocrazy"
Not only will we pronounce it, we will be living in a kakistocracy "ka ka storm"
They all drive Deplorians in Ka-ka stocrazy.
( a Deplorian is a electric truck born from an incestuous afair of two close Delorian cousins)
LOL
Same root. Like cacaphony.
Perhaps just ‘kaka' as my mother used to call the result of certain bodily functions is quite sufficient on its own.
Oh lord, yet another one of those terms so many of us love to throw around and so few will actually understand.
Yes. Between a spotty school system and the deliberate campaign to neutralize powerful language, basic communication has suffered. A person who can’t name their Senator probably doesn’t get illiberal or small d democracy or authoritarianism. The result is that folks who aren’t necessarily “elite” come off that way to those who have missed civic education somehow. So what do we call DT?
“So what do we call DT”
Think I pretty much covered that in my initial post. ‘mendacious’ may be a problem for some, but the rest should be pretty plain.
Twisting
Reality
Using
Malicious
Platitudes
was what I came up with in 2016, but Twisting Reality Using Mendacious Platitudes works, too.
“Desecrationist” is a description that struck a cord with me. I feel like he is defecating on everything sacred to most people- with that big grin on his face. I can’t seem to get my head around how so many people like that about him.
Ginger. ( from Gilligan's Island...see a few posts back)
...the American Robespierre
Still to elitist, but...
Yes, your "Republic of virtue" reference is much more effective - if one explains the importance of the reference: i.e. Robespierre
Your fellow citizens voted for them. Unfortunately. Watching from Europe what is going on in the United States is pure madness.
What borders on insanity? Mexico and Canada!
(not mine)
That’s funny.
My Canadian granddaughter has suggested if there are any more school shooting in the US, we should “seriously” immigrate
Unfortunately Europe is not in much better shape. This is a western phenomenon, not just here.
It is a phenomena that shows the vulnerability of societies that value free thinking from social media, and especially the vulnerability of societies which on top do not value education. Giving citizens the right to vote without an education, will at the end lead to what is happening now - a manipulated electorate voting on false information.
I'm for legal immigration. But I'm also for a solid proof, beyond the ridiculous test now, that those immigrants value democracy and can distinguish it from autocracy. Wanting just a better life for you and your kids just does not cut it.
One part of me fears the boat as sailed.
One of the main reasons why immigrants want to come here is because they are fleeing from autocratic countries.
Giving citizens the right to vote ‘without an education’ is a curious thought. What kind of education did you have in mind? Autocratic states are often very careful to educate their children - in the ‘correct’ way of thinking.
What about that test for voters eligible to vote here before they can vote? Often immigrants are more aware about autocracy and appreciative of democracy than some of us here seem to be.
There are a number factors in USA and Europe moving to the right. 1. There are the overt and covert actions by autocratic nations especially Russia. 2. Growing wealth of middle class populations is reducing people's dependence on community and increasing their self reliance in meeting their needs beyond simple survival. 3. Self reliance as well as social isolation breeds competition with other humans for wealth, position and power. 4. Wealth enables greater consumption of entertainment, of which the vast majority is fiction. 5. Most human brains have a limited mental ability to resist repetitive fiction being accepted as truth but an almost unlimited ability to crave more material wealth.
The result? Imperialism, conquest, enslavement. And now the Earth's environmental limits are being pushed toward the breaking point by the growing middle class and unnecessary lavish consumption.
So why the anti-education thing? Because education is about truth and truth is dangerous in the hands of slaves. And breeds disrespect for fiction.
How about anti-immigrant actions? This is simply a generally accepted prototype test for a system to kill off the unneeded 95% of the population without poisoning the planet's ability to sustain life.
"So why the anti-education thing? Because education is about truth and truth is dangerous in the hands of slaves. And breeds disrespect for fiction”
Apart from the basics of the 3 R’s, education in and of itself is no guarantee of anything except the intent to sell one point of view or another. For example, there are a number of very highly educated Trump supporters who are apparently as indifferent to truth as they are to Trump’s manifest unfitness for the Presidency.
"apparently" The important word here. Fiction has many uses. Higher intellect usually knows he truth (excepting those who for whatever reason or influence have lost some truth). Knowledge of truth does not prevent the use of fiction as an influencer. Use of fiction can be good or bad. Or somewhere in between. I'm pretty sure that a lot has been written on the subject of truth vs. fiction. I'm in no position to teach the subject.
There’s a lot of verbal wriggling going on here. Knowledge of the truth may not prevent the use of fiction (in this case lies is a far better word - fiction denotes a literary form. Lying does not), but how does one say for sure that someone is using lies despite the fact they may know the truth or that they simply believe the lies despite whatever level of education they’ve achieved.
I prefer to be more active than passive. Truth, logic and objectivity are my things. As such I'm boring and have few followers. But I'm creative. And I'm "older than dirt with a body soon to wear out. I also own a California house.
So here I am looking forward to soon finalizing my living trust and will. Unless my lawyer convinces me otherwise I plan to leave approximately 10% to each of my two sons (both fairly well off) and the rest to the ACLU. This has always been my favorite in the fight for freedom for Americans.
This is a deliberate "kiss my ass" for the dirt bags of our species who want to control the rest of us as they play their games of dominance. $1 million at today's prices from a single donor.
It won't take many Blue Americans doing what I am doing and donating to one or more activist causes of their choice to scare the "BG's" out of trump, musk and the rest of the dark side.
Money talks, bullshit walks and if they try to throw my dying body into the back of a truck I'll get even, just a little sooner.
I was going to leave a good portion of my money to my 2 nephews & Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, & my local animal rescue. However, one of those nephews is a trump voter & forced birther; so I will now be leaving his share to organizations that provide assistance to people needing abortions.
Thank you for the term “performance addicts”. A stern reminder how important it is to see all our kids and make sure they know that they matter.
I’ve just shared your description with every member of my family. Good work
Yep. You are right about the Apprentice D.C. A wrestling exec in charge of Education? What an insult! This may be what people voted for. The excitement of a coming drama to watch their own conflicts played out for them as opposed to figuring out life for themselves. Examining: men vs women; strong vs weak; attractive vs unattractive; street smarts v book smarts; talented v untalented; ambitious v lazy; etc. Watching it all unfold on one’s TV screen, with popcorn and blanket, watching it all as a football game where you have a favorite team and hate the other team. Lots of us (as many as half of us?) untethered from reality right now. I don’t see how this ends well.
In fact the rest of the world is preparing to operate now in an environment where Amerino longer exists. They are reworking their strategies to protect themselves from russia assuming the dissolution of NATO. They are rethinking commerce in an environment where they will no longer import American goods. They may go through the motions of convening international conferences like the G7, but will design policies in sessions closed to American delegates or absent their opinions and votes. Asia and the far east are already in conference about how to protect Taiwan w/o American help. So the world is already geared up to isolate America from meaningful involvement in global affairs just as they have isolated russia, china and n korea, the other fascist authoritarian regimes.
Cathy, I agree with much of what you wrote but think some further impetus is needed to make it happen, and have grave concerns about the implications for climate change. Perhaps the impetus for providing an effective defense against Russian and Chinese aggression will be provided by the tariffs proffered by the MAGAts. But the withdrawal of the US from the climate change fight has worldwide consequences. Only Saudi Arabia exceeds the US in greenhouse gas emissions per capita, and those will increase further as the already pitifully small measures in place are rolled back.
From a climate perspective the best thing that could happen is a collapse of the US economy, although it represents a cruel injustice for the 50% who voted Blue in 2024
The concerns about reducing US efforts to battle climate change cannot be understated for Canada. We already have non-believers and I fear that trump’s affront on the progress achieved under Biden will reverberate throughout my nation. So we’ll be back to square one, anew.
Canada's only response to the imposition of tariffs will be to erect a wall to American imports equally punishing. This will reverberate in every other relationship. You must expect and develop strong resistance to US interference in next year's federal elections to keep P and the CFC as far away from a majority as possible. Yo can expect interference from musk who will do his best to rig the election and install fascist lapdogs that will destroy Canada's democracy and turn it into a mere handmaiden to US interests.
Canada will never close the door on tariffs, either under a Liberal or Conservative government. The 🇺🇸 is 🇨🇦 major trading partner, and in 2022, it enjoyed some $357.3 B in goods and an additional 7.3B in services. That’s a huge loss for Canada, so although it might cross some minds, I can’t see it happening.
If that's what it will take to save the world from an environmental collapse, then I am willing to make the sacrifice. In his first term, TFG alienated the world. But they were able to cooperate because of the guardrails they knew checked his insanity. This time is different, no guardrails and he is backed by bona fide nazis! The only world powers that will be willing to cooperate will be other countries where their leaders are on their way to becoming authoritarians. The rest will quietly shun the US and thwart their ambitions at every turn. His administration will be proactively shunned and punished at every turn.
When the Soviet Union “collapsed” (which did happen overnight), American specialists from Harvard University were welcomed to advise the transition. “The shock therapy “, they proposed furthered the economic and social crisis for ordinary citizens of Russia.
Beware specialists with “good intentions!”
Currently studying Post-Soviet Russia at Queens College. Hope I’m getting my facts right.
Harvard, like all the Ivies, for years then, and now, has produced nihilist M.B.A.s.
Roughly half of all the Ivies major in finance, biz ed, and other forms of service to big money, dark money.
Through the 1990s these Ivies turned up en masse over there to help the former Soviet nomenklatura seize, steal, and pilfer all state assets in order to form the kleptocrat oligarchy that would soon, as you say, Babette, be furthering "the economic and social crisis for ordinary citizens of Russia."
Check out American Paul Klebnikov's "Godfather of the Kremlin" on this era, Babette. (Putin had him killed for it, and other things he was then unearthing.)
I understand that McDonald’s was co-opted and known as Bling-Donald’s at that time!
I think you've hit on the biggest story we face, Cathy.
The U.S. will soon be run by a cabal of sexual deviants, incompetents, patently ignorant fools, social media hate profiteers, the neutered, dehumanized standardized testers, and knaves to Putin and the world's related murderous, dystopian criminal classes.
What parts of the world may unite for rule by law and whatever vestiges of human decency and democracy some may yet cherish?
We could be surprised, particularly by some South American countries, and ones more impacted by both climate and emissions etc
Oh dear, not another Utopia.
We know where that has lead.
I wish them well.
When the San Francisco opera announced this fall its premiere production of an operatic version of The Handmaid’s Tale, I belatedly read the novel. And decided that I wouldn’t be able to bear the opera — the story is so utterly bleak, weirdly improbable and highly possible at the same time. During the week or so that I was reading it, I took a 20 minute city bus ride, taking advantage of the good public transportation system that we have here in San Francisco. The bus was crowded that day, and it was just a single car, rather than a double car. I was really wishing for a nice long double car, because I needed a place to get away: The man sitting across from me had a Bible open on his lap. He was loudly, aggressively, angrily explicating his version of the Scripture to the woman sitting next to him. She was submissively nodding at every phrase. I had the chilling feeling that this bus ride was an extension of the novel I was reading. Professor Snyder, you remind me of that happening, and I realize that the entire nation desperately needs a place to get away, and does not have one.
You describe Religious fanatics very well by describing this man. They are mentally ill.
A neighbor of yours, Cheryl -- Rebecca Solnit -- has written similarly of her disappointment.
Rebecca has lived in San Francisco many years. Has done much walking of its streets. Has written many books full of love for your city. But sees the massive changes there.
Not good. Basically, as U.S. schools have dehumanized, so, too, have the people she's seen. No one greets anyone anymore. All but glom onto their "smart" phones. Drug stores and grocery stores lock all goods away behind glass panels, in fear of customers as if all were thieves anymore.
Rebecca didn't write the last point. It's mine from observations I've made myself in trips downtown and to neighborhoods to the west of downtown. And I could add the pervasive smells on urine on the streets. The trash. The feces. The homeless. And the flash mobs so ransacking and stealing from brand name stores that dozens have had to close down and leave the city.
America. Down the tubes.
I feel the USA is now a declining power. It has'gone down the tubes' since the neoliberalism "reforms" of Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980's. Naomi Klein' s 'The Shock Doctrine'is a massive expose of its far-reaching consequences The UK became a declining power after the end of WW2. The unpredictable climate patterns world wide is the wild card in the pack i feel your distress and hope you remain unbowed and unbroken. I come from the land of the compulsory vote (even for local council/municipal elections.) Fun fact: South Australia gave women the right to vote in the 1890's.
I’ve heard so many White Nationalist Christians say things like, “I don’t want Shariah Law in America”, not realizing that what they want is exactly that under a different extremist religion.
Right. I’ve been calling these religious creeps the U.S. Taliban since that so called “preacher” in FL took it upon himself to set fire to the Koran. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I certainly loathe, hate and detest those who are so hatefully vile, racist and willfully ignorant and who in some god’s name throw invective around like verbal grenades in a crowd. They are the lowest of the low.
Having only read Handmaids Tale, I’m thinking that what may possibly emerge from the smoldering rubble of what our shining city on the hill used to be, might look like a cross between Handmaids Tale and The Man in the High Castle(Prime); neither of which is good.
I think the whole thing about "Shariah Law" boils down to not wanting the competition on some level. Many are 100% on board with a theocracy as long as it's the "right" kind, even if they can't articulate it as such.
Pre-modern historian weighing in here. (n.b. I read The Handmaid's Tale decades ago and it amuses me that it took a tv series to put it in front of people so that mansplainers can tell Margaret Atwood about her own novel. Anyone ever read Rebecca Solnit's essay "Men Explain Things to Me"? Similar situation; equally both hilarious and infuriating)
So the rhetoric surrounding the origins of Islam, which is the youngest of the world's most influential religions, is complicated by the tendentious self-description of its origins by Muslim scholars themselves. They have claimed that the animist systems of Bedouin and other nomadic groups in the late 6th century (Mohammed had his first visions at the age of 40, sometime around 610 CE) were highly restrictive of women and that Islam "liberated" women from legal statuses as non-persons. But there are problems with that narrative, even within the legendary stories of Mohammed's life--his wife, Khalifa, owned her own business, which he ran as her husband, for instance. But what Islam did indeed do was borrow heavily from Byzantine Christian traditions, themselves derived from pre-Christian so-called classical Greek culture--the society Tim loves to mention--that was just about as misogynist a culture as you could ever see. Where did the hijab and the burka come from? The Byzantine-cum-Greek requirement that "respectable" women be completely invisible and so had to be veiled from head to foot in public. Laws permitting women to divorce their husbands, but only if they can manage to escape the home and plead to the authorities for the right to be separated? That would be Hellenistic-era and Athenian laws' influence. Consideration of women as biologically deformed? Aristotle.
Margaret Atwood is a very well educated Canadian woman (yup: Canadian, in case you didn't know that) with an excellent background in classics and the history of Christianity. She knows whereof she speaks. So for all the folks who think Athens in the 5th century BCE was paradise, I can tell you that you are misinformed. It was very comfortable for about 10% of the population: those men with citizen rights who had access to the plebiscite. Yup: Athenian Democracy was not very democratic. And man oh man, did they hate women. It's one of the reasons why "Socrates" (in actuality Plato for the most part inventing Socratic philosophy) was so challenging to the powers that be. Because in every Platonic dialogue, especially the early ones (like Symposium), Socrates obliterates every man's argument by talking about being inspired by a conversation with a woman, or an experience with a woman. Hmmmmm. If you want a different view of the ancient Greco-Roman world in the age of Marcus Aurelius (another fave of white boyz) that reflects on all of these aspects of how law linked up with misogyny, I recommend Sarah Pomeroy's (a very famous historian of the ancient world) book, The Murder of Regilla. It lays it out in stark terms.
As to Christians themselves. Well, like the adherents of all religions, the problem comes when human beings take hold of any given faith, whoever or whatever it’s ‘founder’ may have said or done, and make of it something conceived in their own far less than divine minds.
Christianity was a faith created to benefit the rural poor in a small country largely controlled by a local Jewish hierarchy and what was then the world’s greatest empire. Once it really caught hold, of course, human beings took it over, girding it with earthly riches and temporal power far beyond anything Christ envisioned. But it was also well within the tradition begun when ‘the kingship descended from heaven’ in ancient Sumer - a political power based on the idea that some ‘higher' power dictated who should be in charge and how things should go.
This is exactly what Christian nationalists have in mind for us. It is a story as old as civilization itself.
There are honorable, civic minded Christians out there, along with Rs who are hiding. I think we need to urge them to join the good fight.
Of course there are, just as there are good, civic minded Muslims and Jews and all the rest. In fact, the problems in all faiths will only be solved from within. But that is not being done nearly well enough.
I think the term “people of faith” must include those who have faith in doing right, caring for each other, and defending truth. Religious fundamentalism must be addressed from within those organizations in order for their members to truly join in the fight for a fair society now, here on Earth. Maybe this is a turning point?
Please remember in
Handmaid's Tale, there was a
Resistance.
At the very beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, one of the "aunts" (aunt Lydia) tells the women selected for their status as breeders: "Ordinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time, it will. It will become ordinary." Which is what happened to millions of Germans between 1933 and 1945. Resisting the "ordinary" - that will be the real challenge in the coming months and years, in the USA and over here in Europe also. (Leaving a copy of the graphic edition of On Tyranny casually lying about may prove useful as a reminder - also available in French :-) https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny
I'm no longer on X, but used to encounter such people there all the time. Just encountered the first of such people on bsky.social a few days ago. What is so irritating about them is that they don't read/understand before posting, thus making themselves look ridiculous without knowing they've done so. And their inscience can be dangerous.
Because, like so many of us, I don't know what my near future will be, I wanted to tell you that "The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999" is such a fine work. You were so young when you finished it, and many of the ideas in "Bloodlands" and "Black Earth" are already present in that book, but are (I think) the most fully worked out in "Black Earth." "The Reconstruction of Nations" is a dense work, but well worth the effort. The relationships between Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus are exceedingly complex, and the story of Kultura and Poland's approach to the end of the Soviet Union left me nearly breathless.
Quick question; what is “inscience”? My dictionary has no such word so I’m hoping it’s just a typo.
Hi, SPW. I'm a word person and sometimes like to use words that have become archaic/obsolete. The modern word "science" < the Latin "scientia" < "scire," meaning "to know." The prefix "in-," in this case, attached to "science," means "not." So "inscience" means literally, "not knowing," in other words, "ignorant" or "ignorance." I pronounce it "IN-shence." The word "ignorant" has a different etymology, but the archaic "inscience" means "ignorant."
There's a video podcast on youtube in which the host and guests discuss archaic words in middle and early modern English that they wish to bring back. Because that happens to be my thing, I occasionally watch it. "Inscience" is not one of the words they discussed; I don't remember where I ran into it the first time.
Thank you, Rose, for this info
BTW, I was delighted to encounter an archaic word in Prof. Snyder's 2003 book, "The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999," which I just finished. Now I can't remember what it was or where it is in the book. I think it's in either Pt. 1 or 2.
Thank you for this, Ms Mason.
The construction of our sentences and the constitution of them with meaning is all about word choice and common sense clarity [brevity is not my capacity, yet].
I forgot about Prof Snyder's The Reconstruction.... Thanks for that reminder.
In re the events at hand, our effectiveness together in using the Constitution to preserve each other's legitimacy and Constitution-based governance system and civil society citizen protections and institutions, e.g., diverse free press media outlets, will in large measure depend on our conservation of words while we carefully and effectively choose to use them.
I am grateful to someone, of whom I am often reminded and for whom I have respect more than words can express, who has assisted focus my public participation, and whose public expressions stand with the one's referred to in this letter to the editor:
'Americans need to choose together to resist the incoming Trump Admin and its racist and xenophobic policies.
Exiled Chinese dissident Wan Yanhai, naturalized American citizen who witnessed the brutality at Tienanmen Square reminds us, “This is the essence of democracy. You present all information and debate in a peaceful way to influence people and bring changes, not that you walk away from people you don’t agree with. ... But when Trump dims the beacon of freedom and democracy in this country, people like me have nowhere to go. That was the moment I realized that I have to fight for America.” https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/10/29/tiananmen-trump-queens-man-chinese...
The Constitution speaks for all Americans in its 'We the People of the United States...'' Preamble, In novel and yet unrealized capacities to improve and amend this formal constitution of our political and civil society, we must act in willful solidarity together to use the Constitution to defend ourselves. '
Thanks for this useful question, SPW.
A useful source for construction of words is, in this instance [pun intended, pun again chosen], for 'in-', at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inscient
and
again at
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in-#h1
This is so right-on in relationship to Prof Snyder's comment in the essay presented here,
"...he felt qualified to say what the book was about without having read it." We in America are educated without even a beginning educational effort at coming to terms with the words we use. It is extra-ordinarily useful to find reliable sources of linguistic construction of our languages.
" in·science ˈinsh(ē)ən(t)s,
ˈin(t)sēə-
: lack of knowledge "
In John Milton's works, as in Shakespeare's works, we often meet exemplary formulations of statements that use words in ways that slightly recontextualize a potent conscious alternative use, much to the useful understanding of a reader. We often also use verbal puns or verbal plays-on-words to suddenly and revealingly provide novel meaning or context
Dear Dr. Snyder. I read The Handmaid's Tale, saw the original movie, became a fan of the television series, and read the sequel The Testaments upon release. What attracted me to the story was how misguided, delusional people took control of a society and how many others tried to adapt to the idiocy, not outright supporting the power holders while not doing much in opposition. Others just fell into line.
The Morning Joe's hosts appear to fall into this third category. As most observers have witnessed, Joe and Mika made the pilgrimage to the White House south Florida to bend the knee to the President elect. During this morning's broadcast, which I habitually watch while exercising, Joe alluded to and proclaimed he is a conservative following his years of denouncing Trump. One of his guests, Donnie Deutch, stated that the major problem of the Democratic problem is they have moved too far to the left center on the political spectrum and need to move to the center right in order to attract voters. Has Morning Joe got the message?
I do not agree with Joe at all, I’m supremely disappointed in the Democratic Party because they moved too much to the center. The white man that I just this minute saw on msnbc running to be chair of the DNC is an absolute hard NO from me. Tax cuts for the wealthy down to 15%?!?! Hell no, may as well bring back Reagan & his stupid trickle down nonsense.
I recall Morning Joe in 2015 allowing Donald Trump to talk to them by phone, day after day, and treating him like any other candidate; brown and cyan graphics at the time, so long ago. They need to go back to a two-hour show. It's becoming so-much-the-same-all-the-time. The uber owners won't allow them to even glance in the direction of true left. There is no left in this country, except for my own home state—But Gov. Tim Pawlenty undid what he could and now it costs $55 to have my well water tested, when once this service was free.
My fear isn’t when America falls and no longer exists;!this blatant authoritarian takeover will cause rest of the western world will follow suit; and no safe haven will exist anywhere, including Canada which was the safe haven for American refugees.
Trumpism is a virus that spreads almost as fast as lie spreads around the world. Ironically, most of our allies are looking for a safe haven from America, and the only alternative is to kowtow to another, possibly less dangerous version of authoritarianism; only because we know what China stands for, and what they covet most (Taiwan, and control of the S. China Sea). With Trumpism and a MAGA mob filled with mindless sheeple; not so much..:)
The CFC Party in Canada, led by a TFG minion names Poilievre, has been spouting pure American fascist rhetoric since 2016. They have been undermining Trudeau's leadership to take down the Liberal Party in 2025. musk has stated he will throw the election to the CFC just as he has done for TFG now. I just hope to god the Canadians read the rails on this and vote the CFC into oblivion. So far, though as usual there is little interest in the upcoming election and that lays the groundwork for a fascist takeover.
I think you mean CPC, Conservative Party of Canada
Thank you! Absolutely brilliant. It is of course about authoritarian "Kristianity" and how we are challenged to respond to it, rather than casting stones or blame elsewhere. The cabinet picks seem to be designed to destroy our government as quickly as possible, and I wonder what we can do to protect it, now that the SCOTUS has caved? On a slightly less serious note, I have noticed an uptick of mansplaining since the election, and while this example is almost laughable, it is exactly the twisted logic that we're seeing so much of. Other women I have spoken with are noticing it, too. The patronizing and dismissive attitudes. In the past week alone, two men have either explained (to me!) what I meant by something I wrote, or told me what and how much I could and couldn't say. But saying this to Margaret Atwood herself? That takes the cake.
In Casting the First Stone, Timothy Snyder wrote, ' I want to make the case that The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel we need to read.'
I believe that Timothy Snyder is correct. Before reading Handmaid's Tale, I read his 'The American Abyss'. I recommend that you read it as well if you have not..
'Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump — like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia — is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.'
'Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. These last four years, scholars have discussed the legitimacy and value of invoking fascism in reference to Trumpian propaganda. One comfortable position has been to label any such effort as a direct comparison and then to treat such comparisons as taboo. More productively, the philosopher Jason Stanley has treated fascism as a phenomenon, as a series of patterns that can be observed not only in interwar Europe but beyond it.'
'My own view is that greater knowledge of the past, fascist or otherwise, allows us to notice and conceptualize elements of the present that we might otherwise disregard and to think more broadly about future possibilities. It was clear to me in October that Trump’s behavior presaged a coup, and I said so in print; this is not because the present repeats the past, but because the past enlightens the present. __ From Timothy Snyder's 'The American Abyss' (NYTimes) See gifted link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bk4.KOWx.rNyMHtU4HErW&smid=url-share
I am nearly through Prif Snyder’s “On Tyranny” audiobook updates edition. The lengthy history of Eastern Europe & specifically Ukraine, is fascinating. Yes, as he tells the story there, it enlightens & reveals what is happening today.
I have read the Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments (and all of the MaddAdam trilogy, etc). What strikes me most about the difference in our reality and these books is the strength of women in the world today - particularly in the US - vs in these books. In fact, the strength of women in my every day life vs what is portrayed in media and politics is also striking. If you "just" watched national media including most social media you wouldn't understand that women are absolutely critical to the US economy and society. Step into the world of healthcare and education particularly and you will find women basically running those sectors. They may not be in charge but they are certainly critical. So this reality and the rapid move toward a Gilead type of existence don't come together for me for this reason. It's not that I don't think it can happen but I think there are a lot of societal barriers that may in fact hold up that are somewhat under the radar because they are the stuff of mundane every day reality.
I read Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and also her sequel The Testaments. The Handmaid’s Tale was written in the 1980s. I believe Atwood used elements that are already fact or established history to construct these stories. Another series worth looking is her MaddAddam Trilogy: The Year of the Flood, Oryx and Crake, and MaddAddam.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake are 2 books that I heard have been banned by School Boards in various parts of the US.
Planning to suggest "The Handmaid's Tale" to my book club soon. I have been avoiding it for decades because I was afraid it was too depressing. But it can't be any more depressing than real life right now.
I live in a rural county in TN, where there is already a kind of theocracy, especially at the level of the state legislature, but also locally: drag shows were banned for a while here about two years ago, even on the college campus. A regular drag brunch had been happening at a local bar for months, when the Religious Right suddenly decided it should not happen. They summoned Proud Boys and other hate groups, who came out in force on a day when I attended the drag brunch. There were about 30 "protesters" on the sidewalk across the street, yelling and holding hateful signs. One guy had a Nazi flag. The bar owners and their landlord got death threats, and so the bar closed, and the bar owners lost their business for good. They have not reopened elsewhere. It was a great bar and the drag shows were a small part of the good they did in the community, hosting local bands, etc.
I see a lot of bumper stickers warning you that you will burn in hell forever unless you get right with god, for example. Our TN license plates say "IN God We Trust," unless you request the atheist tags without that motto on them. Our courthouse recently got giant letters on all four sides saying "In God We Trust." Even the local diner in a tiny town in the county has a sign about that!
Kids grow up here learning a very Calvinist and joyless form of Christianity that teaches them that just about every form of sexuality imaginable is sinful. As a teacher at the community college, I heard a lot about that: I taught art history and so of course, there were nude human figures involved. It wasn't unusual for students to say they could not in good conscience look at, say, Michelangelo's David, because it "inspired lust." I felt very sorry for them. Some actually refused to look at it and stared at their notebook the whole time the slide was up. They seem to know almost nothing about sex, even in their early 20s, unless they got pregnant at 17.
There were also Saudi students in some of my classes. They couldn't get enough of that stuff! So that's one difference between the Religious Right here and in Muslim countries: the Muslim students relish any chance to see some nudity, whereas the Christian students have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that they censor their own desire to look at beautiful human bodies.
The American Christian male / incel youth is the most impotent pathetic creature on Earth.
Shannon - they sound like the stories coming out about the North Korean soldiers who discovered porn when they got to Russia. These kids are the future hypocritical, toe-tapping Republicans! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Craig_scandal