Crucial point made here — we should learn from others rather than imagine that everything is new and therefore shocking and impossible to resist. www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee... - ThreadSky

timothysnyder.bsky.social • 51 days ago

Crucial point made here — we should learn from others rather than imagine that everything is new and therefore shocking and impossible to resist.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/so-you-want-to-be-a-dissident

Comments

retiredslp.bsky.social•51 days ago

Thank you!

sarahgrc.bsky.social•51 days ago

You moved to Canada.

dvbee.bsky.social•51 days ago

Exactly! Timothy, Thank you for posting this insightful and informative article. Friends, I created a slide show based on the main points. I hope I captured the vibe of this brilliant piece. My hat off to the Authors and the New Yorker for printing this information. Support Independent Journalism

heart-pages.bsky.social•51 days ago

Thank you!

dvbee.bsky.social•51 days ago

Thank you! Stay safe

barbie68.bsky.social•51 days ago

Absolute must read!!❤️

askmehow.bsky.social•51 days ago

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/13/the-reactionary-international-how-three-ideological-families-are-united-in-hating-progressivism_6740182_23.html

rosemmason.bsky.social•51 days ago

📌

paginini.bsky.social•51 days ago

Ripping power back from right extremist to replace it with its opposite (thought police with a different agenda) will solve nothing and will likely only inflame things.

paginini.bsky.social•51 days ago

People need to recognize extremism on both sides for what it is, and isolate it. Then work harder on things almost everyone already agrees on, and work for some sort of consensus on what we can. The extremes argue for things people can’t agree on to create profound division and to conquer.

adriana1o5.bsky.social•51 days ago

Keep going
Keep protesting peacefully
#NoKings

deborahelizabeth.bsky.social•49 days ago

Erica Chenoweth has cautions about the "3.5% rule:"

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/publications/questions-answers-and-some-cautionary-updates-regarding-35-rule

This is a quantitative research finding that has no predictive power.

However, we can win this. Chenoweth expresses hope in this Resistance Lab training:

https://www.youtube.com/live/_xMpZmLwdHw?feature=shared

limot.bsky.social•51 days ago

If only Democrats, NYT et al had honesty rather than pretense of it.

https://limotsnewsletter.com/2025/03/24/the-russian-thought-invasion-of-usa/

unfreshener.bsky.social•51 days ago

Не, тімоті, почитала я тут нарід, перебирайся з Канади, гаплик розплещеться від полюса до полюса.

strappohughes.bsky.social•51 days ago

Have none of our ignorant countrymen ever read history? I despair.

wokepatriotusa.bsky.social•51 days ago

Oorah. Thanks for the share.

cindyruiz10.bsky.social•50 days ago

Peaceful Protest APRIL 19!
Please repost
FIND A LOCATION:
https://www.mobilize.us

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-

mesmerizedbyyangon.bsky.social•46 days ago

Nothing but contempt for these Johnny come lately to being dissident.

The policy to burn to death 20000 Palestinian children touched their capacity for dissidence, not a jot.

Now the maw chews you up. But you never cared for others before so you don't know how to care for yourself now.

mesmerizedbyyangon.bsky.social•51 days ago

So where were all these earnest dossidents when Gaza was being annihilated?

Nowhere to be found. They all refused to be dissident.

I'm buying none of this.

chrisdavislens.bsky.social•51 days ago

good question
exhausted, demoralized
and mostly just cruising along, indifferent

mesmerizedbyyangon.bsky.social•51 days ago

I doubt that. Most people were indifferent whilst getting 8 hours sleep and were not partial much to being morsl. I lost my job in Cairo because of my dissident views...not a squeak from supposed grown ups in schools there,most especially school 'leaders'.

chrisdavislens.bsky.social•51 days ago

which goes with the current cave in of the US's most prestigious ivy league uni's, more financial institutions in fear of losing federal funding that spaces of liberal minds

which is my questions, can you really have dissidence of any critical mass in a country with such affluence?

mesmerizedbyyangon.bsky.social•51 days ago

Affluence for those who got lucky. Not a general, public affluence. Not an affluence of moral feeling. You lot got voting for all in '65. You lock up one in five of blacks under 20. Armed guards in every school. There's barely any social cohesion.

chrisdavislens.bsky.social•46 days ago

an ethical low
and for many a soul searching of what it means to be citizen, how many degrees of separation the individual is from those deported without any due process

what was once the out loud part, people have become strangely quiet

mesmerizedbyyangon.bsky.social•51 days ago

They caved in long ago, and institutionalized the caving in, as is now everywhere obvious. Now, it's just out in the open.

chrisdavislens.bsky.social•46 days ago

yeah, I agree, the quiet part is now a media feast, almost a competition to be the most inhuman

I found this to be a good starting point to think through what causes migrations and how it super charges politics of fear and greed

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/17/opinion/global-migration-facebook-data-interactive-tool.html

ericbono.bsky.social•51 days ago

https://archive.ph/nzClx

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

I agree we shouldn't get caught up in shock and awe. But chenoweths data in particular is suspect and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

equality-for-all.bsky.social•51 days ago

This is the book everyone will wish they'd read sooner. Very scary. I am starting to see the kind of public calls for violence-on Bluesky! This is what she and Maria Ressa warned about-radicalization on social media and "loss of hope" DT wants this! Excuse for martial law and suspension of elections

kimhendersonart.bsky.social•51 days ago

This is helpful

upwardfalling13.bsky.social•51 days ago

We could also implement a loyal opposition including your ideas about a “shadow” government. See my extension of these thoughts below.

https://bsky.app/profile/upwardfalling13.bsky.social/post/3lklxyjxta22p

infosecafrica.bsky.social•51 days ago

If only the 🇺🇸 would learn from the communities that were on the frontline of the Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the passing of the Voting Rights Act 6️⃣0️⃣ years ago - “The further backwards you look, the further forward you can see”
#MobiliseStrategiseImprovise

persicaria267.bsky.social•51 days ago

Also, Gene Sharp’s book From Dictatorship to Democracy (Guerrilla warfare, coups and violent revolutions are the least successful ways to counter a dictatorship, while organized sustained mass resistance is the most likely to succeed)
Also Maria Ressa’s How to Stand Up to a Dictator is worthwhile.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

Can we please stop with this. Fascism is encroaching and there's always one person out that it's okay to resist only if we're polite, and citing statistical nonsense to back their cowardice that yes, things may actually get bad.

sweetestsound.bsky.social•51 days ago

You might benefit from learning how India gained its independence from the British Empire through nonviolent resistance under Mahatma Gandhi.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

Was it anything like how France gained its freedom from Nazi Germany? Which seems closer to our problem, do you think?

sweetestsound.bsky.social•51 days ago

Not even close. If you don’t like reading, try watching the Oscar winning film, “Gandhi”.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

Or, yknow, you could ask the Indians about it rather than waiting for Hollywood to tell a feel good story about how the UK has morals. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/the-1946-naval-uprising-in-bombay-a-forgotten-chapter-in-indias-fight-for-independence/articleshow/107806145.cms

sweetestsound.bsky.social•51 days ago

Nothing “polite” about dying for your principles.

johnturing.bsky.social•51 days ago

Gene Sharp's argument for nonviolent struggle isn't one of politeness... but one of effective strategy and tactics. e.g. his book "Waging Nonviolent Struggle" addresses that question head on right off the bat... with more Clausewitz than you'd expect.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

I'll let the Ukrainians know that they should lay down their arms and try a general strike instead after the Russians take over. That's sure to be effective.

johnturing.bsky.social•51 days ago

Literally nobody is arguing that.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

The post we're both threading under argued nonviolence is more effective than the alternatives. This myth comes from chenoweths work, which called anything that killed fewer than 1k people nonviolent, and anything that killed more violent. Which, hopefully you see, is absurd.

johnturing.bsky.social•51 days ago

i.e. not always the best or only option, but knowing how to effectively wage nonviolent struggle opens up a lot more options / opportunities to fight back.

It's not nonviolence for nonviolence's sake. It's to weaken a regime's pillars of power, and eventually bring it to its knees for a deathblow.

austinwiltshire.bsky.social•51 days ago

Look I'm not gonna argue that nonviolence isn't effective or shouldn't be tried first. But it's the peace at all costs folks that would rather see trans kids die than be willing to push and shove a little.

johnturing.bsky.social•51 days ago

I'm not a "peace at all costs" folk. You should take your argument up with them... not argue with a straw man as if it's something anybody here suggested.

deborahelizabeth.bsky.social•51 days ago

I think that to undermine the pillars upholding him, we need to make a dictator look like loser in the eyes of the world. The desired outcome is to get everyone actively or passively supporting him to say, "This guy is a failure. He's on his way out. If I don't bail out now, I'll be a loser, too."

johnturing.bsky.social•51 days ago

A lot of Gene Sharp's materials on waging nonviolent struggle is available for free on the AEI digital library: https://www.aeinstein.org/digital-library

marmom.bsky.social•51 days ago

Maria has said that once the military is under control - it is too late!

strappohughes.bsky.social•51 days ago

Rick Wilson once said that the military always serves whoever is in power. If so in this case, we’re truly boxed in by this dictatorship.

marmom.bsky.social•51 days ago

very scary…. his paramilitary

bluesumari.bsky.social•51 days ago

But Tim, Millennials and Gen Z believe they invent everything, why burst their bubble

etienneguy.bsky.social•51 days ago

📌

comen-tator.bsky.social•51 days ago

😑

standforukraine.bsky.social•50 days ago

📌

steve001.bsky.social•51 days ago

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

barbtries.bsky.social•51 days ago

We have to keep on coming out and getting bigger. #SaveDemocracy

juliecochranereal.bsky.social•51 days ago

If you are in Atlanta, come out on Sat. 4/19 1-3 pm to the sidewalk in front of Liberty Plaza at the Georgia state capitol, 1 block from the Piedmont entrance of the Georgia State MARTA station.

It is smaller because of short turnaround time. Come make friends with dedicated people who resist.

tomas3221.bsky.social•51 days ago

Fascinating article.

Thank you so much, @timothysnyder.bsky.social .👍🏽

#RESIST🇺🇸

filmmakermicah.bsky.social•51 days ago

Now is a time for courage.

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