How America Is Committing “Superpower Suicide” ft. Timothy Snyder | Shane Smith Has Questions

Historian and bestselling author Timothy Snyder joins Shane Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about what he calls America’s “superpower suicide” and what it could mean for the future of the United States and the world.

Snyder explains why he believes the U.S. is voluntarily giving up many of the advantages that made it powerful, while Russia has followed its own path of self-destruction through the war in Ukraine. They discuss how drones are changing modern warfare, the threat of nuclear proliferation, Russia’s influence on the American right, and why Snyder sees the war in Ukraine as part of a much larger global struggle between democracy, oligarchy and authoritarianism.

The conversation also turns to the upcoming midterm elections, foreign interference and propaganda, the relationship between corruption and affordability, the power of billionaires, and Snyder’s concerns about artificial intelligence making people less capable rather than more capable. Finally, Snyder shares what worries him most about the years ahead, along with the political movements and democracies that still give him hope.

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