THREAD

DENIALISM—PART III: DENIALISM KILLS

Unless we bring our denialism under control, our descent into an authoritarian abyss is bound to continue largely unimpeded.

Will we find the courage and wisdom to change course? Or will we march like a colony of ants into a trap?

1/
As I detailed in Parts I and II of this series, there are concrete steps we can take to overcome denialism.

The task of regaining our mental clarity and focus at this time could not be more emergent.

https://twitter.com/1JoshGreenberg/status/1296519922525319169

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Let’s be clear.

This is not about alarmism. This is about doing the RIGHT thing. This is about saving lives.

Rather than ostracizing the “alarmists,” we should be educating the denialists.

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Rather than promoting discourse on denialist minutiae, such as the @nytimes op-ed featured in Part I, we would do well to give more voice to those who specialize in areas such as authoritarianism, conflict, and atrocity and who analyze the broader sociopolitical context.

4/
Call me crazy. I hope I am wrong. If that is the case, so be it.

But it is better to be wrong in prediction than wrong in denialism.

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Indeed, the entire purpose of prediction is to enable us to avert the worst-case scenarios.

We don’t want the predictions to come true! But they may well come true if we deny them.

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Denialism is what killed the Jews.
Denialism is what killed the Cambodians.
Denialism is what killed the Armenians.
Denialism is what killed the Tutsis.
Denialism is what killed the Rohingya.
Denialism is what killed the Bosniaks.

9/
So we must accept a hard, critical truth: Our greatest enemy is not the oppressor. Our greatest enemy is we ourselves.

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In the end, denialists go down in history as unwitting enablers—the type of enabler that every autocrat finds most valuable.

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So as we turn the current pages of history, you must ask yourself this:

What will my role in history be? Will I be on the side of freedom and justice? Or will I be on the side of oppression?

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Who would want to live the rest of their life regretting that they could have done more?

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Don’t deny.

Don’t get lost in the minutiae.

Don’t lose your focus.

Don’t get distracted by the noise from the latest scandal or the tweet of the day.

Don’t lose sight of the depth of Trump’s oppression.

Don’t forget what we are fighting for.

14/END
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