Juan Abarca

“To some, the precariousness of the current moment seems frightening, and yet this uncertainty has always been there. The liberalism of John Stuart Mill, Thomas Jefferson, or Václav Havel never promised anything permanent. The checks and balances of Western constitutional democracies never guaranteed stability. Liberal democracies always demanded things from citizens: participation, argument, effort, struggle. They always required some tolerance for cacophony and chaos, as well as some willingness to push back at the people who create cacophony and chaos.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

“he is a man who wants the power and fame that he feels he has been unjustly denied.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

“Democracy itself has always been loud and raucous, but when its rules are followed, it eventually creates consensus. The modern debate does not. Instead, it inspires in some people the desire to forcibly silence the rest.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

“Modern democratic institutions, built for an era with very different information technology, provide little comfort for those who are angered by the dissonance. Voting, campaigning, the formation of coalitions—all of this seems retrograde in a world where other things happen so quickly.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism