A review of Anne Applebaum's new book.
The author of the review is largely unsympathetic to her, on the grounds that her center-right/centrist politics are too easily aligned with what he calls the "far right," by which he means governments like Poland's or Hungary's. He notes that she is still a friend to Christian Hoff Sommers, and so how can she critique her former friends if she can't see the problems with her current ones?
I'm poorly placed to enter the discussion, since I think Poland and Hungary and Sommers are all better characters than he believes them to be. Poland, I hear, is considering using its power to restrain social media giants like Facebook from censorship; that's hardly the side of oppression. Where I would look for dangerous authoritarianism is the People's Republic of China and those doing business with it or currying its favor.
Still, both Applebaum and the author have some points that are worth considering in our fraught present moment.
3 comments:
I wonder if Applebaum, like Timothy Snyder, has spent so much time reading and studying dictators and the USSR that they interpret everything through that view. I've been increasingly puzzled by how their work has shifted. Granted, my take understanding has shifted as well, partly because of watching how the former Warsaw Pact countries have reacted to events since 2015.
I appreciate her early work, and her look at how civil society clung on in the shadows during Stalinism was fascinating. _Red Famine_ is hard, but so is the subject matter. There's some overlap with Snyder's _Bloodlands_.
LittleRed1
Ditto about the good work in her previous books. I stopped reading her more recent articles upon finding out she was an anti-Trumper. No the Donald wouldn't go over well at Sidwell Friends, Anne's alma mater.
Regarding the "triumph of authoritarianism" in the book's title, there is no mention of Chinese money, Chinese IT, or Chinese spying influencing politics outside China. There is no mention of Jeff Bezos whose stake in Amazon is, I believe, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. For years,it has been apparent that Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, uses the WaPo as a propaganda outlet, not as a news outlet. Amazon's recent treatment of Parler indicates that Bezos is also using Amazon as a political tool. But Anne Applebaum makes no mention of Bezos, who is using his oligarchic power to grossly interfere in politics by decapitating Parler, an alternative to lefty dominance.
And the book reviewer is concerned about Applebaum's friendship with Christina Hoff Sommers? Bit of blindness there.
Ignore her and let her live the good life on her Polish estate/hacienda.
Little Red1 - good pickup on Snyder being a similar presentation, and I think you are correct that they see everything through that prism now.
As for The Nation, it never writes reviews, it applies filters.
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