This is November 2025’s book club book.
Applebaum walks readers through how autocratic states operate, and how they peddle their influence through the world. China subsidizes StarTimes for news so it’s a cheaper option than Western media thus Chinese ideals are spread. China, and other autocracies, don’t differentiate between government policy and business so they can and do use business to further autocratic ideals.
Many of the tactics seen are ones being used in the United States right now, Trump treating ICE and the National Guard as his personal police force, accusing others of corruption when his acts surface…Applebaum suggests that the US should lead the democratic world to an alliance of democracy that can work together, but it doesn’t appear to be in any condition to do that currently.
I wonder what Applebaum would write about the politics in the US now as it follows many of the methods outlined in her book.
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