Trygve's Rules for Fighting Autocrats, Pt. 4: Their truth-free present
On using history and the future to combat the authoritarian's constant attempt to live in a fogged and confused present
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So what’s the “Why?” behind the constant confusion (intentional or otherwise)? Well, the fog of stated chaos and confusion (especially when not reflected in reality) is part of the autocrats’ playbook for holding power.
As
notes in our fourth episode in Trygve’s Rules for Fighting Autocrats, autocrats work to live in a truth-free present. Fake pictures, contradictory comments, minute by minute “scandal” all work in service of this goal.The antidote, Trygve says, is discussing the past and the future. The reality of history and what will come in the future, he says, shakes their grip on the psyche.
“The future is problematic because all they can’t control it,” Trygve says. “They can only control in the moment by expanding fear and perceptions of inevitability and invincibility.”
The past, he says, breaks their grip by exposing the “big lies” they build their narratives on.
Trygve builds on decades of experience working in pro-democracy movements, including his work in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, helping nascent republics fight off the return of authoritarians.
Catch up on all of Trygve’s Rules:
Rule #1: Play the game you’re in, not the one you wish you were in
Rule #3: Don’t hand them the hammers to hit you with
Rule #4: Autocrats want a truth-free present, accurate history and talk of the future undoes this
Rule #5: Use autocrats’ tactics against them (the Judo rule)
Rule #7: Restore faith in each other, rebuild trust, one person, one day at a time. Autocrats use fear, pro-democracy coalitions must use hope and faith in one another.
And make sure to read this piece from Reed on What it means to actually fight.
And, of course, the OG himself, Trygve in his original longtweet on this here.
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