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Timothy Snyder Gives Some Excellent Advice About What We Can Do Now [1]
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Date: 2025-03-05
Timothy Snyder, Yale professor and the author of On Tyranny , gave a Zoom talk last night to the organization Red, Wine, and Blue, and he had some very good ideas for how to fight back in these terrible times. Here’s some of his advice:
- Nothing about this will be easy or fast.
- Focus on supporting one or two candidates instead of dividing your efforts. Find candidates who share your vision, people who are pushing back, like AOC, Jamie Raskin, Jasmine Crockett.
- At the same time, don’t wait for the midterms — they’re too far away. Think in terms of next week. Call or write to your Congresspeople now.
- Work locally on small or medium-sized actions. Find groups that share your goals, so you feel less alone.
- Have a better time than your opponents are. (This is one of my favorites.) They are consumed with anger and grievance, so have fun.
- In the same vein: surprise people. Be creative. Organize flash mobs. Get people’s attention. Boycotts can work if you include pageantry. Snyder used the example of people protesting in front of Tesla dealerships with their messages projected on the building.
- Find a source of good information and support it by paying for a subscription. Look especially for local newspapers. Share what they say online. The examples he gave were ProPublica, Wired , The Philadelphia Inquirer , and viewers mentioned others in the comments.
- Say, and repeat often, that you believe in the truth. Don’t fall into cynicism.
- Join a union if possible.
- Normalize protests. As he said, “If you protest now you will be able to protest later.” You need to plan a protest out beforehand: where do you start, what are your goals, what do you do if the police come? People who are physically unable to join a protest can help with the groundwork.
- Instead of boycotting companies that have canceled their DEI programs, champion companies that still support them. His example was Apple, though he admitted that he didn’t know if that was still true.
- Repeat often: “The president is no longer the president.” “The president breaks laws and no longer fulfills the functions of the president.” Spread the idea that we don’t have a legitimate president in the White House.
Snyder quoted from his book On Tyranny twice:
- “Make eye contact and small talk.” People you talk to will see you as human, and you’ll feel better because you made a connection.
- “Defend institutions.” He emphasized that the courts especially need support these days, though he added that not all courts follow the law now.
- Work together.
- Do something!
Snyder spoke about other things, but since so many Kossacks have been asking for suggestions for things to do I thought I’d quickly summarize this part. The whole thing is here and is definitely worth watching.
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Wow, the Rec List! Thank you. And glad people are finding this helpful.
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