Month: August 2025
The end of the world as we know it from the home front.
anneapplebaum/p/autocracy-inc new book forward
****** NYTimes: America and China Have Placed Their Wagers. Now We Wait.
America and China Have Placed Their Wagers. Now We Wait. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/opinion/china-america-ai.html
How the Ivy League Broke America
America’s meritocracy is broken, @nytdavidbrooks writes. Here’s how to fix it:
**** Anne Applebaum on the Trump revolution
Anne Applebaum on the Trump revolution
https://youtu.be/AyUgoHZC7_M?si=_f4byz_Nk6QOOhNg
122,408 views Aug 27, 2025
Pulitzer-winning historian Anne Applebaum is releasing a paperback edition of her book Autocracy Inc., on the autocrats who are eroding democratic freedoms around the world. Her timing is impeccable: she says Donald Trump is moving the United States closer to autocracy. In this week’s episode she discusses all the ways Trump is undermining democratic norms, and explains why his attempts to stop the Ukraine war are coming up short.
****** The New Propaganda War
Autocrats in China, Russia, and elsewhere are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world. @anneapplebaum on how democracy is losing the propaganda war:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Antonio Gramsci
*** The View from NATO’s Eastern Flank
Chess grand master turned politician Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen of Lithuania tells Garry Kasparov that Europe must do more to support Ukraine against Russia, especially as America takes a step back.
Listen to the latest episode of “Autocracy in America”: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/08/resilience-face-russian-aggression/683960/?gift=yGKGqaI9BMfIDuch_TrGYeW4nSOOfdghJvte6yawSjA&utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social