#376 — How Democracies Fail

Sam Harris and Anne Applebaum discuss the nature of modern
autocracies and how democracies fail. They discuss the power of
ideas, why autocracies seek to undermine democracies, cooperation
among dictators, how Western financial experts and investors have
enabled autocracies, how Putin came to power, the failure of
engagement and investment to create political change, what’s at
stake in the war in Ukraine, Trump’s charisma, the current
symptoms of American democratic decline, the ideologues around
Trump, the hollowing out of institutions, how things might
unravel in America, anti-liberal tendencies in American politics,
the role of social media, the different pathologies on the Left
and Right, analogies to Vichy France, the weakness of the
Democrats, the political effects of the assassination attempt on
former President Trump, and other topics.


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