“On Tyranny” - Chapter 17: “Listen for dangerous words”
By now, many of us are aware of the various “dog whistles” in use along the political spectrum. However, there are a few that bear special attention. Snyder points to “exception” and “extremism” as two major terms to keep an eye out for. An authoritarian will not flinch at declaring a state of emergency and use that as an exceptional circumstances to suspend the rule of law. As for extremists and extremism, this refers to any and all whose views are in opposition to the regime’s. Anyone holding those views is a de facto extremist. “ Extremism certainly sounds bad, and governments often try to make it sound worse by using the word terrroriism in the same sentence.” However, as Snyder points out, “there is no doctrine called extremism .” Again, tyrants only use the term to isolate and target those whom they deem outside their mainstream. Dissidents in the twentie...