Summary of Masha Gessen's Surviving Autocracy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The difficulty in absorbing the news is that the words we use have a way of making the outrageous seem normal. Thus, when we try to describe the exceptional, barely imaginable nature of Trumpian events, we are forced to use normalizing words.

#2 When we use the wrong language to describe what we are seeing, we cannot understand it. When some of the post-Soviet societies developed in unexpected ways, language impaired our ability to understand the process.

#3 The Obama story, which drew on the stories of previous presidents, was that American society was inexorably moving towards a better, more free, and fairer world. It may stumble, but it always rights itself.

#4 After the election, people were quick to compare it to the Reichstag Fire, which happened in Germany in 1933. The fire was used to create a state of exception, which allowed Hitler to expand his power unchecked.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350012880

IRB Media

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Insights on Masha Gessen's Surviving Autocracy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The difficulty in absorbing the news is that the words we use have a way of making the outrageous seem normal. Thus, when we try to describe the exceptional, barely imaginable nature of Trumpian events, we are forced to use normalizing words.

#2

When we use the wrong language to describe what we are seeing, we cannot understand it. When some of the post-Soviet societies developed in unexpected ways, language impaired our ability to understand the process.

#3

The Obama story, which drew on the stories of previous presidents, was that American society was inexorably moving towards a better, more free, and fairer world. It may stumble, but it always rights itself.

#4

After the election, people were quick to compare it to the Reichstag Fire, which happened in Germany in 1933. The fire was used to create a state of exception, which allowed Hitler to expand his power unchecked.

#5

The crackdown on speech that leads to tragedy is not new to America. During the Alien and Sedition Acts crisis of the eighteenth century, the Federalists and Republicans