[Interview] Timothy Snyder: Today’s global conflict is humanity vs. technology and billionaires vs.

The US historian explains how to survive hell, why Americans elected US president Donald Trump, and why we should not auto-submit to billionaires masters. Respekt: I would like to start with a silly question . Snyder: It’s okay, just be ready for a silly answer.

According to one popular conspiracy theory, we all died during the Covid pandemic and have been living in hell ever since. Why do you think some people feel that way? As a matter of philosophy, even if that were true, it wouldn’t matter. All of these ideas that we could be in an alternative universe, or this could be a simulation, it doesn’t matter what we choose to call this thing we’re living in. We’re still living in it, and we still bear responsibility for what it’s like, and we still bear responsibility for how we treat each other. And so, imagining that it’s hell, or it’s an alternative reality, or we’re all dead, or whatever, doesn’t really mean anything, because we still are here, and we still do the things that we do. But why do some people – even if only half-jokingly – compare the years after 2020 to hell? Of course, I think there’s something, it’s an understandable idea though, because Covid taught us that we can only really be free when we’re together. And if we’re in a situation where we have to be separate, we become unhappy, and we don’t know exactly why, and we become less functional, and we lose the skills that we need to be together. So, the idea that hell is a place where no one can understand you, hell is a place where you can’t be heard, hell is a place where you can see people, but you can’t understand them, that makes sense to me. Covid taught us that we can only truly be free when we are together. (Photo: Tim Dennell, Flickr) Humanity has already gone through many crises, wars, tragedies, and dark periods — and many people surely felt during those times that they were living in hell.

Key points

• According to one popular conspiracy theory, we all died during the Covid pandemic and have been living in hell ever since.
• Why do you think some people feel that way?
• As a matter of philosophy, even if that were true, it wouldn’t matter.
• All of these ideas that we could be in an alternative universe, or this could be a simulation, it doesn’t matter what we choose to call this thing we’re living in.
• We’re still living in it, and we still bear responsibility for what it’s like, and we still bear responsibility for how we treat each other.