“On Tyranny” - Chapter 6: "Be wary of paramilitaries"
This might seem obvious, but Snyder’s points are subtler. Would we know when a paramilitary or a troop of assembled paramilitaries has decided to secure a neighborhood, town, region? We think so, of course. Even absent Trumpian direct support, there’s a good likelihood that in some parts of the United States, people would actually be supportive of an occupying force to enforce the rampant scourges of liberals, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and BIPOC people. With government support? Then we’d be very much in SS territory. Is this and the following chapter alarmist? It’s difficult to say. We live in a country where guns outnumber people, where the Second Amendment is enshrined as a religious text and where we have grown inured to mass shootings. In areas where gun owning and open carry or even concealed carry without a license is a sign of vigilance and damn near a moral duty, is it really such a stretch to imagine seeing a militarized “neighborhood watch”? Snyder opens th...