"American exceptionalism teaches people that history doesn't touch us or taint us, that somehow we're free of the weaknesses of other countries. But we're not different or better; in some ways, we tend to be worse." -- Timothy Snyder on @gaslitnation patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
"Post-Cold War complacency goes with American exceptionalism. After 1989, the US was coasting morally, intellectually, politically. We had forgotten we are part of the larger world, in which people can do things to us." -- Tim Snyder on @gaslitnation patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
Kendzior: "Did the US win the Cold War?"
Snyder: "Oligarchy won the Cold War. Americans did not win the Cold War. The post-Soviet oligarchy won the break-up of the USSR, and that oligarchy went on to disproportionately influence a complacent US." patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
Snyder: "Oligarchy won the Cold War. Americans did not win the Cold War. The post-Soviet oligarchy won the break-up of the USSR, and that oligarchy went on to disproportionately influence a complacent US." patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
"Complacency leads to inequality which makes democracy harder. If you say 'History is on our side', you're saying 'We don't have to do the right thing, we don't have to have values, capitalism will just take care of everything." -- Snyder on @gaslitnation patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
"Democracy means having to be an unpredictable individual actor in history. It means being aware of unpredictable things that could happen, good and bad outcomes, and being able to react to them. That's an art that we lost." -- Snyder on @gaslitnation patreon.com/posts/oligarch…
