The People Struggle Against Tyranny by Thomas Zimmer. ⇒
26 January 2026, lunch time
What’s happening in the US now feels like it is spiralling faster and faster. All this death feels the the natural place all of this would end up, but now that it’s here it’s shocking all the same. I thought this summary from the NYT was also apt:
French: We’re living in a version of the dual state. Not to the same extent as the Nazis, of course, but Fraenkel’s framing is still relevant. The Nazis didn’t create their totalitarian state immediately. Instead, they were able to lull much of the population to sleep just by keeping their lives relatively normal. As you say, they went to work, paid their taxes, entered into contracts and did all the things you normally do in a functioning nation. But if you crossed the government, then you passed into a different state entirely, where you would feel the full weight of fascist power — regardless of the rule of law.
One of the saddest things about the killings of Good and Pretti is that you could tell that neither of them seemed to know the danger until it was too late. They believed they were operating in some version of the normal state (what Fraenkel called the “normative state”) where the police usually respond with discipline and restraint.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.