Fascism says what you and I experience as facts or what reporters experience as facts are irrelevant. All that matters are impressions and emotions and myths.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
If we don't have access to facts, we can't trust each other. Without trust, there's no law. Without law, there's no democracy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Trust relies on factual access, and without it, society collapses into disorder.
This quote by Timothy D. Snyder articulates the critical connection between access to facts, trust, and the foundation of democracy. It suggests that without factual information to establish trust among individuals, societal structures like law and democracy can dissolve, resulting in chaos and instability.
Themes
TrustFactsDemocracyLawSociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be quoted in a discussion about the importance of journalism and truth in politics.
More from Timothy D. Snyder
All quotes βDefend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of 'our institutions' unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.
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Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.
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Totalitarianism is not about some state that appears out of nowhere and suddenly is all-powerful. There can't be any such thing. Totalitarianism starts when the difference between your public life and your private life is effaced.
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The 20th century shows that the form of government that we take for granted, a constitutional democratic republic with checks and balances and a rule of law - that form of government is usually temporary.
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Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
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