Masha Gessen on Recognizing an Autocrat
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 22 June 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the past month, President Trump has cleared peaceful demonstrations with tear gas, told governors to “dominate” protesters, and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. The staff writer Masha Gessen argues that transgressions like these are signs that the President’s mind-set is fundamentally not democratic but autocratic. “Polarization and violence and high anxiety are all things that benefit an autocrat,” they warn David Remnick. Gessen’s new book, “Surviving Autocracy,” draws on their experience as a targeted journalist in Russia, and Gessen sees troubling similarities between Trump and Vladimir Putin.
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| 1:11.6 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, David Remnick talks with |
| 1:17.4 | New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen about her new book, Surviving Autocracy. Gessen, who has |
| 1:23.7 | lived and worked in Moscow, discusses what her time as a journalist in Putin's Russia |
| 1:28.8 | has taught her about Trump's America. |
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| 1:38.4 | If people aren't calling them up, you have to dominate. |
| 1:40.7 | If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. |
| 1:42.8 | They're going to run over you. |
| 1:43.8 | You're going to look like a bunch of jerk. |
| 1:46.3 | You'll get to dominate. |
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