Politics and Prose: Timothy Snyder- The Road To Unfreedom

Source: Politics and Prose– Author Timothy Snyder

Source: The New Democrat

Timothy Snyder seems to be arguing that the reasons why voters in America and in Europe, have turned to nationalist-authoritarianism instead of liberal democracy, has to do with what’s called inequality. That people who are voting for what’s called strongmen or at least people with strongmen authoritarian leanings ( like Donald Trump ) is because they’ve seen their incomes decline while their taxes have gone up and then they see someone come in and essentially say that if you give them all of this power, they’ll fix your problems for you.

Source: Writers Bloc Presents– Author Timothy Snyder

Left-wing socialist and communist authoritarians, make these promises all the time. We saw that with Hugo Chavez and now Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela and we’re now seeing that with Vladimir Putin in Russia and seeing it in Poland and Hungary today, and Donald Trump in America. Right-wing nationalist authoritarians coming into power and saying that if you give them all this power and don’t question them, your lives will improve.

Which tells me that when people’s lives seem so dark and without hope and they just can’t seem to get ahead and their bills start piling, they become so desperate that they’re willing to try anything to improve their lives. Including authoritarianism whether it’s right-wing or left-wing authoritarianism.

Politics and Prose: Timothy Snyder- The Road To Unfreedom

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