Thinking about...

At Tuesday’s presidential “roundtable” on “antifa,” the villain du jour, one of the speakers said that its origins were to be found in Weimar Germany. The wrongdoers of history, we are instructed from the White House, were those who tried to prevent Hitler from coming to power. In a busy week, this is a statement worth noting — not just for its shocking character, but for what it reveals about the...

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Dear Friends, One of the many wrongs of this last week has been an attempt by the Trump administration to destroy American higher education: by way of “compacts” in which universities and other institutions would sacrifice their independence and the freedoms of the students, staff and faculty in exchange for essentially nothing — a meaningless assurance though not a binding obligation that the gov...

Basic points on the rule of law, phantom conspiracies, big lies, and civic action. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe

I spent the first few days of the month on or near the front in Ukraine and then in Kyiv, and now find upon my return an American reality that needs analysis and action. A few ideas here. Feel free to share. Thanks for being with me. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode....

How do Ukrainians endure? When will the war end? What kind of war is it? Fresh from travels in southeastern Ukraine and meetings with soldiers, officers and other Ukrainians, I try to give some answers to these questions in this nine-minute video, filmed at sunrise a couple of days ago in Dnipro. We, beyond Ukraine, are not merely observers who can ask questions, but responsible parties whose acti...

It took me a while, but I can now see a purpose in speaking to the discussion of my departure from Yale University for the University of Toronto. Hence this video. I moved with the family last year, largely for family reasons, attracted personally by the prospect of a change to Toronto and to its Munk School in particular; both Yale and the University of Toronto dealt with the transition very grac...

As the assault on American higher education continues, I’ve been asked to explain why I believe this policy is antisemitic. A new video is above. The Trump people claim to be fighting antisemitism, and the media often accept that framing. I believe, on the contrary, that these actions are antisemitic in intention and in execution. The use of the word “antisemitism” as a covering pretext for defund...

The president has issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Like most of these executive orders, it seems illegal on its face: the president can only execute the laws; he cannot just himself decide how our museums and parks will work or look. But perhaps the deeper problem is the implicit claim: that the president himself has a monopoly on truth and sanit...

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of On Tyranny : Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Millions of you, around the world, have put these lessons to good use; it has been humbling to learn how from courageous and creative dissenters, protest...

I was asked to make a shorter video summarizing the logic of negotiation. Here it is: five basic tests to establish whether what is proposed by Americans can be regarded as a Ukrainian-Russian peace process. I hope you find it useful, for example in evaluating claims made by the American president in his speech this evening. At the moment, American policy seems to meet none of these tests; it seem...

Wars are hard to end. Peace is easy to say but difficult to achieve. In this video, about ten minutes long, I spell out five logics that a successful mediator seeking peace would take into account: the state of law; the beginning of the war; calculations of the future; paper vs. reality; and ceasefire vs. peace. I have in mind the present Russo-Ukrainian war. But sometimes it helps to recall the f...

In this, my first substack video, I react to the shameful encounter between American leaders and media and the Ukrainian president. No doubt there were more, but I saw five failures on our side: of hospitality, decency, democracy, strategy, and independence. Please watch and share. If you are thinking today about how to help Ukrainians, here are some possibilities: Come Back Alive (Ukrainian NGO t...

This is the podcast version of an essay I published on 16 February at the end of the Munich Security Conference. Since then, its thesis has been confirmed by the Russian-American talks in Saudi Arabia, American slanders of Ukrainians, and the Russian-American concord at the United Nations. The original text begins below. As a television show, American foreign policy is about strength. In reality,...

This is the podcast version of an essay I wrote a week ago, before the Munich Security Conference brought some of the explanation points. Since then, the thesis has only been confirmed by the disastrous Russian-American talks and American slanders of and threats to Ukrainians. Please share this with those who might want or need to hear this. If you are thinking about how to help Ukrainians, consid...

This is the podcast version of an essay I wrote on the night train from Kyiv to Zaporizhzhia a week ago. Please feel free to share this with those who might want or need to hear this. If you are thinking as I am about how to help Ukrainians just now, consider Come Back Alive (Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers on the battlefield and veterans), United 24 (the Ukrainian state platform for donation...

This is the podcast version of my written post “Of course it’s a coup” of 5 February. Please listen or share with those who prefer to listen. Coming posts will be about the weak strong man, lessons from Germany, and the lines we cross from one form of regime to another. Excellent journalist work on the coup is meantime being done by Mother Jones, Wired, and Notes on the Crisis. Thinking about... i...

This is the podcast version of my post on the logic of destruction behind the ongoing digital coup inside the US government. Please listen and share. Forthcoming posts will be about German lessons (just left Berlin) about fascism, and about Trump as a weak strong man. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid sub...

I brought a coat for the trip through Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas, but never wore it once. The drought in Ohio was painfully visible in the cornfields. A relative was able to come a talk in Ohio because she had fled a hurricane in North Carolina. In Ohio the days started out in the high 30s but then cleared 70. I ran a 5k in Ohio with people who were struggling in the sun and hea...

(Trying to fulfill my promise of translating all of my text posts into audio or video. This seemed like an important one to do before the election. Please think about it and share it. And vote!) We have seen this show before.  We know what Trump losing looks like. Three Trumpian actions are predictable.  We know them from the last election.  Last time around, when Trump lost, when Trump knew that...

I wrote this in March, with the text as below, and am posting this recording now, in the hopes that it can be useful. Please share it. TS 1/11/2024 Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule.  Why not a dictator who will get things done?  I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh.  I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime.  I hav...

Some people talk about Trump’s economic plans; others about his intention to undo the rule of law. In this five-minute video, I try to explain how the two relate: how lawlessness will wreck the economy. Please consider and please share. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe

Given where we are just now, there have been quite a few questions about my book On Tyranny, and in particular about the first lesson, which is “Do Not Obey in Advance.” The violations of that lesson of the twentieth century have been so flagrant that they are, at least, serving as an education in how not to behave. In this setting I thought I would review some of the lessons in a little talk (hal...

Greetings from Oklahoma. Here are a few thoughts from here on video about the decisions of the owners of the Washington Post and the LA Times to suppress their editorial boards’ decisions to endorse Kamala Harris. A problem with the very wealthy is that, alas, the least vulnerable have a tendency to think of themselves as the most vulnerable. And from that position they harm everyone else, while p...

A few thoughts for Americans for whom the survival of Ukraine is an electoral issue. Please watch and share. If you’re in Michigan and it’s 23 October, you can catch me live in Detroit at noon and in Kalamazoo at 7:00pm . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe