Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny presents 20 lessons from the 20th century, each a paragraph long in the article. The book devotes a chapter to each lesson; each chapter is 2-3 pages long. It’s a thin book!
I’ll list the points: click the link for the article.
- Do not obey in advance.
- Defend an institution.
- Recall professional ethics.
- When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.
- Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power.
- Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does.
- Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along.
- Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.
- Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you.
- Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.
- Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust.
- Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them.
- Hinder the one-party state.
- Give regularly to good causes, if you can.
- Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware.
- Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad.
- Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.
- Be reflective if you must be armed.
- Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
- Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.
SDMB discussion of points 17-18 here: So if Trump wins- do you arm yourself? So this doesn’t have to become a gun thread. Isn’t that great?