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jenny_islander"Lesson 4: Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself, and set an example for others to do so."
I think the beginning of Snyder's expansion should be quoted in full: "Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote, making it more or less likely that free and fair elections will be held in the future. In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much."
In the run-up to the full power of tyranny, Snyder says, a symbol can be used to divide and conquer. It can be used to incite angry or fearful resentment of one group by another. Then the resentful group is willing to accept, even commit, illegal and immoral actions in service of their anger or fear, while the targeted group is full of entirely justifiable fear that drives them from public life even before they are forcibly scattered and driven out or killed. And then the tyrant can do whatever they like to all of them, because the social contract has been broken so thoroughly that there is no group left that can enforce it.
Again, I remind people that one dead-eyed creep flourishing the Hitler Salute on every screen in the country does not mean that he is actually in your room. That is an instinctive reaction. It is, unfortunately, a universal human reaction--one that your local haters and wannabe tyrants capitalize on when they leave their creepy little signs everywhere. The symbol or image stands for the presence of the person who wants to do harm.
Deny them that.
If you have to show someone a sign or gesture of tyranny, make a bare link to it--to a news story or what have you. If your software can't do that, make a spoiler overlay. Don't spread their symbols around for them.
If you see something weird in a post--a symbol, some initials--look up a list of symbols of hatred. If you find it there, block and mute that person. Feel free to tell them and others why, but don't reblog or repost what they did. Also feel free to block sites and blogs that regularly show such things in order to be angry at them, so they don't show up on your media for you or others to see. The thing exists; continually looking at it, or training yourself not to look at it, on your own page does not fix that.
The same goes for graffiti. Cover up or tear down whatever you can. If feasible, post a picture of the result.
If you have the power to tell people to leave, and they walk in wearing the paraphernalia of tyranny, tell them to leave. That is not the time to explain or educate. Simply tell them that you will not tolerate Nazi bullshit. Refuse to argue. Be calm but firm. Do not give them the luxury of thinking they unsettled you. Defang their fantasies of power.
But there is a Nazi in the White House now, elected or no, and he is trying very hard to be Emperor of the World, and he has frightened yes men and eager followers. So it's important to consider what to do when people whose power is not a mere resentful fantasy do impinge on your life.
When tyranny has been established, symbols of loyalty become more important than the target markers of previous years. Here, Snyder says, is another trap. He quotes Vaclav Havel, who observed that nobody believed in the glorious communist revolution in Czechoslovakia thirty years later, but everybody displayed the usual symbols of loyalty to the Party. This, he said, was to keep the Party off their backs so that they might "withdraw into daily life." Disunity and inaction, he said, were thereby made habitual, because everyone was still "making it possible for the game to go on."
Havel went on to ask what might happen if people decided that the only winning move was not to play.
He also went on to become the first, democratically elected, president of the Czech Republic.
You don't have to be another Havel. Again: look around you, and pay attention to the immediate events of your offline life. "You might someday be offered the opportunity to display symbols of loyalty," says Snyder. "Make sure that such symbols include your fellow citizens rather than exclude them." For example, if you are encouraged or voluntold to display a flag, make it the actual flag of our nation, displayed in a manner that predates whatever tyranny has done with it.
EDITED TO ADD: Rereading this post, I realized that I had omitted something.
For years, now, I have been hearing stories about successful responses to boots-on-the-ground displays by people who want to live under tyranny--people who think that they will be important and powerful if tyranny has its way.
Here's the thing: When the camel's nose is just poking into the tent, a hearty smack will make it go away. I don't just mean punching a Nazi, as satisfying as it was to see whatsisface--Spencer--dwindle to insignificance after somebody made him look weak on camera. I mean things like the fellow in Scotland who heard a tyranny fan bloviating on his local speakers' corner, so he decided to warm up his bagpipes. Or the other fellow who looped "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" and played it on a boombox directly behind the head of another tyranny fan. Or the other other fellow who simply stood next to his local tyranny fan and shouted gibberish every time the fan opened his mouth.
And I mean the people who use collective action to throw joyous block parties, or collectively heckle, or throw joyous block parties that include collective heckling, wherever they hear that their local tyranny fans are planning to gather. Note that these collective actions don't fall into the trap of debating tyranny fans. They just show up, and keep showing up, outnumbering the tyranny fans, until the tyranny fans leave.
Do these actions affect Musk et al directly? No. But, again, the more heartened and unified a community is, the more able it will be to resist national tyranny when it decides to show up at their doorstep. And part of that is refusing to allow tyranny fans to leave their mark on the face of the world.
I think the beginning of Snyder's expansion should be quoted in full: "Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote, making it more or less likely that free and fair elections will be held in the future. In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much."
In the run-up to the full power of tyranny, Snyder says, a symbol can be used to divide and conquer. It can be used to incite angry or fearful resentment of one group by another. Then the resentful group is willing to accept, even commit, illegal and immoral actions in service of their anger or fear, while the targeted group is full of entirely justifiable fear that drives them from public life even before they are forcibly scattered and driven out or killed. And then the tyrant can do whatever they like to all of them, because the social contract has been broken so thoroughly that there is no group left that can enforce it.
Again, I remind people that one dead-eyed creep flourishing the Hitler Salute on every screen in the country does not mean that he is actually in your room. That is an instinctive reaction. It is, unfortunately, a universal human reaction--one that your local haters and wannabe tyrants capitalize on when they leave their creepy little signs everywhere. The symbol or image stands for the presence of the person who wants to do harm.
Deny them that.
If you have to show someone a sign or gesture of tyranny, make a bare link to it--to a news story or what have you. If your software can't do that, make a spoiler overlay. Don't spread their symbols around for them.
If you see something weird in a post--a symbol, some initials--look up a list of symbols of hatred. If you find it there, block and mute that person. Feel free to tell them and others why, but don't reblog or repost what they did. Also feel free to block sites and blogs that regularly show such things in order to be angry at them, so they don't show up on your media for you or others to see. The thing exists; continually looking at it, or training yourself not to look at it, on your own page does not fix that.
The same goes for graffiti. Cover up or tear down whatever you can. If feasible, post a picture of the result.
If you have the power to tell people to leave, and they walk in wearing the paraphernalia of tyranny, tell them to leave. That is not the time to explain or educate. Simply tell them that you will not tolerate Nazi bullshit. Refuse to argue. Be calm but firm. Do not give them the luxury of thinking they unsettled you. Defang their fantasies of power.
But there is a Nazi in the White House now, elected or no, and he is trying very hard to be Emperor of the World, and he has frightened yes men and eager followers. So it's important to consider what to do when people whose power is not a mere resentful fantasy do impinge on your life.
When tyranny has been established, symbols of loyalty become more important than the target markers of previous years. Here, Snyder says, is another trap. He quotes Vaclav Havel, who observed that nobody believed in the glorious communist revolution in Czechoslovakia thirty years later, but everybody displayed the usual symbols of loyalty to the Party. This, he said, was to keep the Party off their backs so that they might "withdraw into daily life." Disunity and inaction, he said, were thereby made habitual, because everyone was still "making it possible for the game to go on."
Havel went on to ask what might happen if people decided that the only winning move was not to play.
He also went on to become the first, democratically elected, president of the Czech Republic.
You don't have to be another Havel. Again: look around you, and pay attention to the immediate events of your offline life. "You might someday be offered the opportunity to display symbols of loyalty," says Snyder. "Make sure that such symbols include your fellow citizens rather than exclude them." For example, if you are encouraged or voluntold to display a flag, make it the actual flag of our nation, displayed in a manner that predates whatever tyranny has done with it.
EDITED TO ADD: Rereading this post, I realized that I had omitted something.
For years, now, I have been hearing stories about successful responses to boots-on-the-ground displays by people who want to live under tyranny--people who think that they will be important and powerful if tyranny has its way.
Here's the thing: When the camel's nose is just poking into the tent, a hearty smack will make it go away. I don't just mean punching a Nazi, as satisfying as it was to see whatsisface--Spencer--dwindle to insignificance after somebody made him look weak on camera. I mean things like the fellow in Scotland who heard a tyranny fan bloviating on his local speakers' corner, so he decided to warm up his bagpipes. Or the other fellow who looped "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" and played it on a boombox directly behind the head of another tyranny fan. Or the other other fellow who simply stood next to his local tyranny fan and shouted gibberish every time the fan opened his mouth.
And I mean the people who use collective action to throw joyous block parties, or collectively heckle, or throw joyous block parties that include collective heckling, wherever they hear that their local tyranny fans are planning to gather. Note that these collective actions don't fall into the trap of debating tyranny fans. They just show up, and keep showing up, outnumbering the tyranny fans, until the tyranny fans leave.
Do these actions affect Musk et al directly? No. But, again, the more heartened and unified a community is, the more able it will be to resist national tyranny when it decides to show up at their doorstep. And part of that is refusing to allow tyranny fans to leave their mark on the face of the world.
