I find it difficult to write blogposts these days, mainly because every time I form a coherent thought I want to express, something else crazy happens and makes whatever I was about to say seem suddenly irrelevant. I frequently find the current state of my country and the world infuriating and/or terrifying, although I am still optimistic about the future, at least most of the time.

Since I can’t seem to write anything of much use, I thought I would just link to a few things other people have written that I have found most informative, explanatory, and otherwise helpful.

First on the list has to be Timothy Snyder’s indispensable, pocket-sized book, On Tyranny. I’m glad to see it is a bestseller right now. Everyone should read it.

Next would be the work of Sarah Kendzior. She knows authoritarianism very well, and she analyzes, explains, and predicts clearly and accurately.

The third that comes to mind is an article I read last week that has stayed with me. It is by Adam Gopnik, published in the New Yorker on May 25th, and called Emmanuel Macron’s French Lessons for Donald Trump. Here is a brief excerpt:

“What’s needed against Trump now is what has been found in France — not an ideologically narrow, politically focussed opposition but the widest possible coalition of people who genuinely value the tenets of democracy, meaning no more than the passionate desire to settle differences by debate and argument, rather than by power and cruelty and clan.”

I am hoping to remain optimistic.