The Jordan Harbinger Show
1117: Anne Applebaum | Inside The Fortune 500 of Modern Dictatorships
18 Feb 2025
From Russia to China: Autocracy, Inc. author Anne Applebaum reveals how modern autocrats create a new world order by working together against democracy. What We Discuss with Anne Applebaum: Modern autocracies form opportunistic networks rather than ideological blocs, collaborating through financial interests, technology sharing, and mutual support against democratic ideals — despite having different political systems. Russia's invasion of Ukraine represents a deliberate challenge to international law and norms, with Putin demonstrating he can violate conventions without consequences. China's surveillance technology has evolved to potentially predict political dissent by combining online monitoring, real-world tracking, and AI analysis — and this technology is being exported to other authoritarian regimes. The decline of democracy is typically gradual, often taking decades as institutions are slowly undermined, while many citizens may not realize their democracy is eroding until it becomes impossible to elect alternative leadership. Citizens can strengthen democracy through active local engagement: participating in local politics, joining community organizations, and building real-world connections across political divides. This practical involvement in addressing concrete local issues helps counter online polarization and maintain democratic resilience. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1117 And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom! Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Look, I can do this. I can invade Ukraine. I can bomb civilians. I can kidnap children. He's kidnapped 20,000 children, taken them from occupied Ukraine to Russia. I can torture people. I can defy the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, all kinds of institutional language on human rights. I can do all of this, and you can't stop me.
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Today, historian, author, and journalist Anne Applebaum joins us to discuss dictators and autocratic regimes, how and why these regimes, these crazy, kooky governments work together against their own people, and of course, against the West, what communism might look like in America, propaganda, censorship, and more.
Anne is a great speaker and writer, and I know you'll enjoy this conversation, especially if you're paying attention to geopolitics and you like those episodes, like many of us do. Here we go with Anne Applebaum. This show doesn't fit neatly into a box. It's not like, well, we do right wing talking points or left wing talking points.
It's almost like, OK, well, this is a person who's a little bit progressive, but also has a firearm in the house and also believes in this, but also has these thoughts about immigration and these thoughts about the economy. And so if someone's getting their line of thinking exclusively from one side of the aisle or the other, they have so many issues with me that they don't stick around generally.
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