New from Timothy Snyder: Oligarch's Island
Snyder uses Gilligan's Island as an analogy to the T Whitehouse.
"Oligarchy is an island. Aristotle knew that oligarchs from various countries will have more in common with one another than they will with their own people. This is all too true of Trump and the oligarchs he brings to power in America.
The White House will become an island of international oligarchs. It will be an island in the sense of distance and obscurity: we will have a hard time seeing what the billionaires are doing there. But it is also an island in the sense of isolation: the oligarchs will be stuck there with one another.
So how to think about the island? Well, these are serious matters, and the ancient Greeks have had their say. So let us add some contours to the island from a gentler source, American pop culture. Let us consider Oligarchs' Island on the basis of Gilligan's Island."
The characters:
Gilligan - Elon Musk
The Skipper - David Sachs
The Millionaire Thurston Howell - Peter Thiel
Lovey Howell - JD
Ginger - DJT
The Professor - Putin
Mary Ann - Usha Vance
The pilot episode:
"Ginger (Trump) has just won an election, thanks to her own charisma and the efforts of Gilligan (Musk) and the Professor (Putin). Ginger had promised to profile herself by making peace between Russia and Ukraine right after the election, "within twenty-four hours." Behind her back, the oligarchs laugh at this. They allow her to push forward as the nominal heroine the story. Ginger (Trump) wants to talk to the Professor (Putin) to get instructions personally, but he ignores her. Instead, his state television back in Russia airs a series of naked photographs of Ginger. While Ginger (Trump) makes a phone call to the Ukrainian president, zany Gilligan (Musk) grabs the phone and steals the show. Looking on, the Skipper (Sachs) writes stern tweets about staying on Russian message."
The article is a good read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-strongman-fantasy-text-and-audio?r=i894e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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