Notes from "Twilight of Democracy" by Anne Applebaum

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I gained several valuable insights from this book:

On page 16 she cites the work of Karen Stenner (https://www.karenstenner.com), a behavioral economist, who argued that about a third of the population in any country has what she calls an authoritarian predisposition, a word that is more useful than personality, because it is less rigid. Authoritarianism appeals to people who cannot tolerate complexity.

On page 29 she says "If you are someone who believes that you deserve to rule, then your motivation to attack the elite, pack the courts, and warp the press to achieve you ambitions is strong. Resentment, envy and above all the belief that the "system" is unfair--not just to the country but to you--these are important sentiments among the nativist ideologues of the Polish right, so much so that it is not easy to pick apart their personal and political motives.
Then she goes on to delve into a case study of this phenomena by looking at two brothers who went in opposite ways. Very interesting.

On page 38 she distinguishes between the "Big Lie" and the "Medium-Size Lie" use in propaganda. The effort to avoid the facts of reality, but still have the lies believed, lead to these lies.

On page 45 she continues a specific discussion of conspiracy theory in Polish politics by generalizing that "The emotional appeal of a conspiracy theory is in its simplicity. It explains away complex phenomena, accounts for chance and accidents, offers the believer the satisfying sense of having special, privileged access to the truth."

On page 144, she quotes others from de Tocqueville to Reagan "... that American patriotism is unique, both then and later, was the fact that it was never explicitly connected to a single ethnic identity with a single origin in a single ethnic identity with a single origin in a single space." {To me this seems like common sense, but apparently not if someone needs to emphasize it.}



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