As well-meaning publishers try to navigate the coming storm of state laws against diversity, I hope they'll consider Timothy Snyder's Rule #1 (from his slim book ON TYRANNY).
Yep. The trajectory is most often:
- progressive social change
- cishet conservative anxiety over privilege loss
- rising authoritarians promise return to golden age,
- simplify complex social issues into us/them scapegoating,
- insist on suspension of democratic norms to eliminate threat
I'm going to need some proof for this one.
Hitler's rise was not predicated by progressive social change.
Quite the opposite, it happened in the wake of Germany's impoverishment by the debts imposed in the treaty of Versailles.
We had the 2008 Great Recession, 9-11, Global War on Terror, Clinton's Impeachment, SARS, 24 hour news cycle, the internet and social media, etc.
I'm sure there are more I've forgotten.
All are big stressors that affected us.
