Books

[Reuben Walker]

Boost your autocracy fighting skills with these books.

[Reuben Walker]

Here’s a great book we all should read.

How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (Hardcover)

[Reuben Walker]

If you are in the web or app development field this is a good resource. You are on the front line for protecting our privacy.

Understanding Privacy

[Reuben Walker]

Here is another great look at what we are up against.

Autocracy, Inc.

[Reuben Walker]

I have started reading Autocracy, Inc. and it’s fantastic. So, I want to share some quotes.

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, jacket: Today’s autocracies are supported by a web of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists who operate beyond their own borders.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, jacket: The members of Autocracy, Inc. aren’t linked by a unifying ideology but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity, and by their belief that democratic ideas, whether from their own internal opposition or from the democratic world, must be destroyed.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 1: The propagandists share resources – the troll farms and media networks that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote another’s – as well as themes: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the Evil of America.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 2: Instead of ideas, the strongmen who lead Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Angola, Myanmar, Cuba Syria, Zimbabwe, Mali, Belarus, Sudan, Azerbaijan, and perhaps three dozen others share a determination to deprive their citizens of any real influence or public voice, to push back against all forms of transparency or accountability, and to repress anyone, at home or abroad, who challenges them.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 3: Autocrats bonds with each other, and with their friends in the democratic world, are cemented not through ideals but through deals.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 5: If their only enemies had been the Venezualan or Belarusian regimes, protests might have won. But they were fighting autocrats around the world who control state companies and can use them to make investment decisions worth millions of dollars.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 5: Autocracy, Inc., offers its members not only money and security but also something less tangible: impunity.

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by Reuben Walker.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 7: Autocrats employing the Maduro model of governance are willing to see their country enter the category of failed states, if that’s what it takes to stay in power. Al-Assad’s Syria and Lukashenko’s Belarus are comfortable ruling over collapsed economies and societies. #books # corruption #democracy #autocracy

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 10: Autocrats hate democratic principles because they threaten their power. If judges and juries are independent, then they can hold rulers to account. If there is a genuinely free press, journalists can expose theft and corruption. If the system empowers citizens to influence the government, then they can change it. #books #democracy #autocracy #corruption

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 10 – 11: Autocrats opposition to democracy has its roots in the very nature of the democratic political system, in words like “accountability, transparency, and democracy”. They hear that language coming from the democratic world, they hear the same language coming from their own dissidents, and they seek to destroy them both.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p 27: The last British governor of Hong Kong said that Britain was delusional for imagining a wealthier China would automatically become a democracy.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p 27: Everyone assumed that in a more open, interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to the autocratic states. Nobody imagined that autocracy and illiberalism would spread to the democratic world instead.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 29: From the beginning, Putin and his circle sought to create an authoritarian regime ruled by a close-knit cabal who used democracy for decoration rather than direction.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 30: Instead, it represented something new: a full-blown autocratic kleptocracy, a mafia state build and managed entirely for the purpose of enriching its leaders.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 37: 13+ people with proven links to Russia mafia are known to have owned or done business is Trump-branded properties. Even while he was president, companies with mystery owners were buying property in Trump’s buildings; if that was a form of campaign contribution, we will never know.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 41: To stay in power, modern autocrats need to be able to take money and hide it without being bothered by political institutions that encourage transparency, accountability, or public debate. The money, in turn, helps them shore up the instruments of repression.

[Reuben Walker]

Autocracy, Inc. Book quote, p. 42: Kleptocracy and autocracy go hand in hand, reinforcing each other but also undermining any other institutions that they touch.

[Reuben Walker]

This classic book looks at the economic changes that allow evil like the Nazis to develop.

The Great Transformation

[Reuben Walker]

An easy-to-read review from one of today’s leading economists.

A Brief History of Equality

[Reuben Walker]

Is this what we are going through? It seems spot on.

Technofeudalism – What Killed Capitalism

[Reuben Walker]

Do you work in the tech world? Get this book.

You Deserve a Tech Union

[Reuben Walker]

I am going to get this one.

Invisible Rulers

With its deep insight into the power of propagandists to drive online crowds into battle—while bearing no responsibility for the consequences—Invisible Rulers not only predicts those consequences but offers ways for leaders to rapidly adapt and fight back.

[Reuben Walker]

Yuval Noah Harari returns with a major new work in September 2024: NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.

Good info on the dangers of AI.

https://www.ynharari.com/book/nexus/

[Reuben Walker]

The Guardian reviews White Robes and Broken Badges, Infiltrating the KKK and exposing the evil among us.

FBI informant’s book predicts far-right violence: ‘we should be afraid’.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/25/joe-moore-white-robes-broken-bandages-kkk

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