Autocracy Inc - Anne Applebaum

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.

• Purchase from Bookshop.org - support local bookstores

• Purchase from Amazon

> All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. The army and the police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. Pg 1
- Sounds like what [[Donald Trump]] is trying to do with [[ICE]] and the National Guard

- today's autocrats are willing to rule a broken country as long as they stay in power. They are willing to destabilize neighbours, kill their citizens, and destroy the lives of ordinary people. Pg 7

**Purpose** #17
- to explore the rise of [[autocracy]] in the world today. Where did it come from? How does it persist? How did the [[democracy|democratic]] world help consolidate it?

### 1 - The Greed that Binds

- talks for a pipeline to bring [[USSR]] [[natural gas]] to [[Europe]] started in 1967. The [[United States|US]] worried it would give the USSR influence over the economy in [[democracy|democratic]] Europe. [[Germany]] and Europe in general, thought economic deals would export [[democracy]] to other countries. Pg 20-23
- [[Apple in China - Patrick McGee]] shows how this didn't happen but [[Apple]] continues to bend further to [[China]]'s government

- almost everyone assumed that more open trade would export democracy. No one thought [[autocracy]] would spread to the democratic world. Pg 27
- hubris that "our" ideas are good and right thus they'll win over the "bad" ideas of those we don't agree with. But remember the other side thinks the same thing most of the time.

- Karen Dawisha, one of the first to write about [[Vladamir Putin]], says that he always sought to build an [[authoritarian]] regime with the desecration of democracy. Pg 29

- [[Putin's Kleptocracy - Karen Dawisha]] cited Pg 29
- describes the origins of [[Vladamir Putin]]'s kleptocratic regime

- Western democracies preach liberal values at home but are happy to build regimes in other countries where Western businesses want to make money. Pg 33
- see [[The Fish That Ate the Whale]] for how the US "sold" a warship to Samuel Zemurray who then had it taken by the dissedent group that he supported and would let him have rights to banana farms
- see [[The Devils Curve - Arno Kopecy]] for more examples of Western powers tossing countries into war and regimes that will allow those Western countries to export industries they don't want at home, due to pollution, wages...or whatever.
- see [[Apple in China - Patrick McGee]] for terrible working conditions so a Western consumer can have a cheap price and a [[United States|US]] company can earn huge profits

- [[American Kleptocracy - Casey Michel]] Pg 36
- a look at how the [[United States|US]] championed rights, while leading the offshoring charge in a quest for cheaper labour that could be exploited on foreign soil so it's citizens could get cheaper prices on the back of those exploited and poisoned workers

- at least 13 people with proven or alleged links to [[Russia]]'s [[mafia]] are known to have owned or done business in [[Donald Trump|Trump]]-branded properties. Pg 37
- there is no rule about where real estate investment dollars come from, so this can serve as illicit campaign financing while keeping the autocratic roots of the money supporting a politician secret

- [[Moneyland - Oliver Bullough]] Pg 39
- a look at the secret lawless finance state of the super-rich
- [[Kleptopia - Tom Burgis]] Pg 39
- a look at how [[kleptocracy]] doesn't just make people rich, it's how they use power to influence politicians and make laws that favour them and their money

- the many financial vehicles around the world and in our own Western countries mean that there is always an easy way to hide the funds of [[kleptocracy]] and these funds and greed are everywhere

## 2 - Kleptocracy Metastisizes

- - as sanctions were levelled against the [[Venezuala|Venezualian]] regime other autocratic states stepped in to support it. Cheap grain from [[Russia]], essentially free money from [[China]] Pg 50, 51
- at least until China realized it wasn't ever going to see the money back at all
- autocrats support their own kind

- the chapter was full of examples of sanctioned countries and autocrats helping each other out so they could all stay in power and keep the money flowing back into their accounts, with some little bit heading towards their country

### 3 - Controlling the Narrative

- we once thought the [[internet]] would open up repressive countries but really it allows them even more control over information in their country and their people. Western countries make $ doing this by selling tech to [[China]] and other countries then washing their hands of the results. Pg 67, 68

- "safe city" tech can easily be turned into repression tech if the right leader is in power. Pg 69

- [[democracy|democracies]] are now using many of the technologies that [[autocracy|autocrats]] use in their countries. We use it to keep people "safe" thus removing moral grounds for objection. Pg 70, 71
- this is Doctorow's [[shitty technology adoption curve]] in [[Enshittification - Cory Doctorow#^0c6e9f]]

- the goal of the autocrat is no longer to tell you how good your country is. YOu can see the fiction in that statement when you look around yourself. Instead they try to convince you that all the other democratic countries are far worse by cherry picking any unrest and highlighting it as the inherent lack of safety in a democracy. Pg 74, 76

- [[fire hose of falsehoods]] Pg 79
- a parade of lies used to distract from the truth. Given so many options people drift to [[nihlism]]...who can know what the truth is so why even bother.

> If you can't understand what is going on around you, then you are not going to join a great movement for [[democracy]], or follow a truth-telling leader, or listen when anyone speaks about positive political change. Instead you will avoid politics all together. Autocrats have an enormous incentive to spread hopelessness and cynicism, not only in their own countries, but around the world. Pg 79

- [[China|Chinese]] backed [[StarTimes]] satellite programming is cheap in many countries while Western options are far too expensive. Thus [[China|Chinese]] and autocratic stories and news are taken as truth in countries like Africa, Latin America because that's what people can see. Pg 79, 80
- the [[StarTimes]] acts as a subsidized arm of the government so they can charge little to support the political goals of China

- the anonymity of [[social media]] and the proliferation of "news" sites means it's easy to send [[propaganda]] that gets picked up by mainstream journalists looking to publish fast with little ability to fact check. Later investigations and corrections never gain the same traction as the falsehood spread at first. Pg 94
- this erodes trust in mainstream media as well

- autocratic influence campaigns seek to exaggerate the divisions normally present in politics and pay to promote the most extreme views to help spread them and spread division. They want people to question the state, doubt its authority and truthfulness, and eventually question if democracy is right. Pg 97

### 4 - Changing the Operating System

- [[China]] uses media influence to popularize mutual respect because no one should criticize anyone else. Pg 103
- but this follow the [[paradox of tolerance]]. They want us to tolerate their oppression of their people because it's "their choice" and we shouldn't we should continue to condemn it.

- autocrats commit heinous acts of violence and approve of them in other countries. They want to normalize violence the and change the way the world thinks about what behaviour is acceptable. The want to move the [[overton window]] towards their point of view

### 5 - Smearing the Democrats

- smear campaigns work to silence democratic voices in an autocratic regime. Their followers stop believing in them because with all the accusations flowing, something must be true...right? Pg 138

- you don't have to kill all journalists to get them to tread carefully. A few just need to have accidents...make a few quiet examples. Pg 139
- too many dead heroes create martyrs
- the journalists getting pepper shots in the [[United States|US]] seems to fall into this playbook. Make some journalists hurt so others maybe stay quiet

- corruption allegations against dissidents distract from the corruptions of the regime. You wonder if there is a kernel of truth to the accusations. Pg 142
- that is a tactic of Trump. He points the finger elsewhere saying that other person is doing bad stuff you should pay attention to them.

> However fantastical or hypocritical they may be, corruption allegations also deepen the natural cynicism that autocracies cultivate in their citizens, reinforcing the public's conviction that all politics is dirty, including opposition politics and that all politicians, even dissident politicians, should be treated with suspicion. Pg 143

- on Pg 148 Applebaum speculates that if [[Donald Trump]] is elected and then starts using Federal Courts and Law Enforcement directed at his enemies we will have a full blending of autocratic and democratic worlds. I wonder what she'd write now as he uses [[ICE]] and the National Guard as a personal police force only answerable to him.

### Epilogue - Democrats Unite

- Feb 4 2022 [[Vladamir Putin]] and [[Xi Jinping]] denounced interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations under the pretext of protecting democracy and [[human rights]]. Then Putin invaded [[Ukraine]]. Pg 156
- I must admit that the [[United States|US]] and it's Western allies have a terrible track record of jumping into other nations for "democratic" reasons, that really amounted to profiting for themselves an the expense of the country they're invading. Think of [[Iraq]] and the search for [[weapons of mass destruction]] which were never present

- we could require that all [[real estate]] transactions are transparent. But how many law makers are benefiting from the trusts and other secrets built into transactions? How much money do they earn from that? They have no incentive to change laws that would mean they make less money. Pg 160

- Applebaum says the [[United States|US]] and it's allies can build an anticorruption alliance, much like the democratic alliances they built after [[WWII]] but I wonder if that's really possible? Is the US a trustworthy partner to build anything with? Pg 163
- [[Donald Trump|Trump]] is acting like an [[autocracy|autocratic]] leader as much as possible and his corruption is huge

- the democratic world relies on the manufacturing power of [[China]] and the low prices we pay due to cheap [[China|Chinese]] labour which is subsidized and forced by the government. This reliance gives them power over us economically, and politically. We should work to supply more of our own stuff and make China just another one of many suppliers. Pg 170, 171