By Mark L. Taylor
The Commoner Call (5/14/18)
The Commoner Call (5/14/18)
The greatest risk we face in the slide to Trump authoritarianism is sinking into the normalization of the abnormal; growing numb to and accepting as normal what is not normal. Over and over I hear people talking about how numb they feel at the constant onslaught of the weird news, bizarre tweets, bullying, industrial scale lies and ongoing graft and greed of Trump’s arrogant kleptocracy.
Commoner Call columnist Dan Peak directed me to the website ‘The Weekly List’ documents “This Is How Democracy Dies’. As things grow more and more bizarre, the site notes: “Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.”
Remember, that is, what is normal and right.
We just got through Week 78 of Trump’s kleptocracy. It’s worth taking a few minutes to scroll through the week’s list and contemplate how if any one or two of these things happened in another administration it would have been extraordinary; shocking even. Now, it is a common weekly occurrence. The bizarre is becoming the routine.
The first act of resistance is not not accept the abnormal as normal. For a quick guide on the rules of resisting tyranny check out Timothy Snyder’s short handbook “On Tyranny”.
In the meantime, check out the list of what happened last week and get ready to not accept the absurdities to come this week as normal…
(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonerall.org )