On Tyranny….Timothy Snyder
Editor’s note: this is the ninth in a series of summaries based on author and professor of history, Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny”. The goal is to pass on his insights, wisdom and forecast to those who have not read his works.
In Chapter 11 (Investigate) of On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder delivers potent and topical “standards” of sending/receiving information. Although written in 2017, his message is even more topical, timely and important in today’s political climate, both nationally and worldwide.
He reminds us that, in 2016, an “American presidential candidate claimed on a Russian propaganda outlet that American ‘media has been unbelievably dishonest’ ”. This candidate preached suppressing freedom of speech laws. Anything he didn’t like was “a lie” and, copying Hitler’s tactic, called journalists enemies of the people.
The root problem, Snyder feels, is that this candidate’s source for news was the internet. He states “for many Americans, the two-dimensional world of the internet has become more important than the three-dimensional world of human contact” making speaking with people face-to-face to discuss politics, an uncomfortable challenge for many. “Within the two-dimensional internet world, new collectivities have arisen…tribes with distinct worldviews, beholden to manipulations.” And the conspiracy being heralded online is designed “to keep you online, looking for conspiracies.” The goal is for the reader to “subliminally accept that we are watching a reality show… (so) no image can actually hurt the president politically.”
Snyder urges us to follow “real” journalists who “… allow us to consider the meaning, for ourselves and our country, of what might otherwise seem to be isolated bits of information...It is derision that is mainstream and easy, and actual journalism that is edgy and difficult.” He feels that although “journalists are not perfect…the work of people who adhere to journalistic ethics is of a different quality than the work of those who do not.” He reminds us of those brave people who kept journals and spread the written word during Nazi rule and the Czech dissent to Communism in the 1970’s. They told the truth and made a difference.
Recognizing how many of us tweet, retweet and spend hours on the internet, he claims this makes “us all publishers, each of us bears some private responsibility for the public’s sense of truth.” Seek facts, verify information for yourself so you won’t send fake news to others. Choose to follow reporters you feel you can trust and you are “less likely to debase your brain interacting with bots and trolls.” Even though we don’t see those in front of their screens, “we have our share of responsibility for what is on the screen.”
He reminds us, almost poetically, that “if we can avoid doing violence to the minds of unseen others on the internet, others will learn to do the same…and perhaps our internet traffic will cease to look like one great, bloody accident.”
Liz Moore, Editor