How to stop politics from controlling your emotions | Tim Snyder | Big Think
How to stop politics from controlling your emotions
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Has the constant barrage of political news got you down? Yale University historian Timothy Snyder reminds us that looking at things from a historical perspective—and comparing your own perspective to this—can help you from becoming overwhelmed… and keep your emotions in check when you browse your newsfeed. Snyder’s most recent book is The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America.
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TIMOTHY SNYDER :
Timothy Snyder is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University and the author of On Tyranny, Black Earth, and Bloodlands. His work has received the literature award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Hannah Arendt Prize, and the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Snyder’s most recent book is The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Timothy Snyder: History is actually the one thing I think which allows you to get out ahead. It’s very ironic, because when people think about history they think, “Well, history means that things are going on in the world and a historian is off reading dusty books,” which, fair enough, I would love to be reading lots of dusty books right now. I will concede the point.
But when you’ve read all those dusty books, what happens is that you have the ability to see certain patterns, you have a sense of what fits together and what doesn’t fit together.
Isaiah Berlin wrote an essay on the possibility of the scientific history, in which he said that “history is not about knowing what happens, it’s about knowing what can’t happen.” That is extremely useful.
So a historian will never look at a problem and say, “This is entirely new,” a historian will look at a problem and try to find the familiar aspects of it.
And that’s a very big advantage over other forms of analysis, because if you look at something and say that it’s totally new, that disables the mind right away, it also tends to disable, I think, political action.
Because if something is totally new it’s very easy to take the next step and say, “Well if it’s totally new then what can I do about it?” Or you can say, “Since it’s totally new all things are permitted,” which can also lead you in some really unproductive direction.
So the first thing the historian will do is we’ll say, “Whatever this problem is, it’s not entirely new.”
When a historian is confronted by something very surprising like the 2016 campaign in the United States, the historian is likely to say, “Well, the things that this candidate is saying aren’t true, but the possibility this kind of campaign could work is a real possibility.”
So the historian is freed from, or should be freed from the conviction of the day, and the historian automatically looks back to other moments where similar things like this coalesced.
So for example, we’re in a second globalization. There was a first globalization in the late 19th and early 20th century. The second globalization began, our globalization began, with all kinds of promises that technology and export-lead growth would lead to enlightenment and liberalism—the first globalization did too. The first globalization crashed. It crashed into the first World War, the Great Depression, the second World War, Stalinism, the Holocaust.
A historian looking at today won’t think “Well that whole pattern is going to repeat itself,” but the historian looking at it today can say, “Yeah, a politician who says that globalization is a problem not a solution, a politician who says that globalization is a matter of particular people plotting against us as opposed to objective threats to the country or objective problems, that kind of politician has a chance. That can work. Things like that have worked before.”
And once you see that it can come together that way, it’s not that you’re sure, it’s not that you predict it (although I have made some predictions that were right), but it’s more that you can see it coming together, and then that allows you to get out ahead, and you can think, “Okay, well, if this is going to come together this way then I can also steal from the past people’s correct reactions to it or people’s wise reactions to it. I can use those things from the failure of the first of globalization, I can just borrow them, I can now extract them and put them in the 21st century,” which is what I did in On Tyranny. So rather than saying, “…
For the full transcript, check out https://bigthink.com/videos/timothy-snyder-3-ways-to-avoid-the-emotional-drain-of-politics-today
@AFormOf_Life.sentient
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Why. Why. Why are we not taught this in school.
From seeing socioeconomic patterns through history, learning to figure out objective reality through science, understanding logical flow through math, and learning how to express ourselves and analyze abstract ideas through writing and reading….
We’re told how to do all these things in school, but never told why outside of “it’s the way the system works if you want to get a good job and make money”
@USAFamlo
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Let me get this straight. The guy who has spent over a decade fear-mongering and calling anything not Left is fascist and anything that looks like Trumpism is Hitler and Nazism is gonna tell people how “NOT” to let politics control your emotions!?! The guy who is moving to Canada cuz of his emotions over politics?!? 😂 Buh bye non-emotional shit for brains! Ya can’t make this shit up! Ha! Laaaaame!
@emmalleedoublev7138
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Could you please recommend d some dusty books to read?
@rizmacadillac
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
One thing you can do to keep politics from controlling your emotions is to run for political office. This is an opinion only. A teacher used to hit me up with talk about various issues – including, for example, Unions and over time he seemed to be encouraging me to get involved. So I ran for a Class Office and Ran again for an office when I got to College. I lost the election in High School and I have had people trying to claim that since I had been talking to this teacher that maybe I supported Unions or something. Look I lost a High School Election. I think the girl who won – who beat me – supported labor Unions because of her family ties and all. But teachers aren't necessarily your friend even if they are friendly and working for a Union is something separate. I participated. I lost. People had a chance to tell me what they thought of me. Why would I want further involvement as a loser? Do I become a winner if someone else wins? NO, Of course not. Have I won an election if I join a Union? No, of course not. To be honest, involvement with Unions might prevent me from have a decent career in the future? I don't know what to think about the 2024 Election Cycle. I'm not sure I trust any of them and I wonder if maybe I could have improved things if I had been able to win. The teacher was a Democrat and quite honestly I believe the politicians he knew wanted to hurt me. Why else would he convince me to run for a political office he expected me to lose? And i particular why would he try to get me involved with harmful and destructive Labor Unions? I can't say being helpless makes me feel happy. But maybe I know what democracy really is and what people are trying to do to me.
@bavarian11
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
When you see so much being taken away and so many policies changed, wasted money and deceit, it SURE is hard to control our anger!
@powerline530
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
This is why you should quit politics, I hope everyone that is into politics are reading this.
1) It can change your mind of certain things in life
2) when a party loses or wins, you could get anxious over it.
3) when it comes to political beliefs, it can cause you to hate over different people over their beliefs.
4) it can break your relationship with different people just because they are classed as certain people.
5) when it comes to media, there may be misinformation, it is best to ignore the media
6) when there is discrimination in politics, it can cause turmoil
7) politics can trigger other addictions because of the anxiety you are getting
8) politics can manipulate you
9) politics can cause racism because of different opinions.
10) it can change your opinions on certain characteristics like race, religion and gender.
Here how to quit politics:
1) Delete all social media
2) delete any accounts (facebook, twitter, etc.)
3) don't look at any political news articles
4) distract yourself from politics
5) minimize your time being alone
6) speak to a friend, family etc.
7) start doing new things
8) don't follow political youtube channels, Facebook pages or twitter accounts
9) meditate
10) refrain from getting into political discussions
I may be incorrect or may not have put much tips, if there is anything wrong, let me know
@markhagnaya8463
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Fūck politics
@JohanCruyff-wj4pf
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
If everyone stopped politics from controlling their emotions, you and your pseudo-intellectual pundit friends would be out of a job.
@maximilian3394
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
im not kidding when i say this, if trump gets re elected the country has to split, thoes who want to live under tyrannical fascist violent trumpism can live in Trump's part of the country and everyone else who actually cares about freedom and democracy and peace can live in the other part of the country. nazi fascist hitler tyrannical traitor trump will NEVER be my president, trump, trumpism, trump followers, voters, defenders and supporter are traitors to this country and always and forever will be, i will NEVER live under trumps tyrannical fascist dictatorship, we NEED to either never allow trump to ever get back in and never allow trumpism fascism to exist in this country ever again or people like myself will go live where trump and trumpism and trump supporters,voters, followers and defenders tyranny/fascism ARE NOT WELCOME!
ANYONE and i mean ANYONE who supports trump and his fascism in ANY WAY are 100% unquestionable undeniable TRAITORS TO THE U.S! FUCK Trump! FUCK trumpism FUCK trump fascism, and FUCK trump supporters,followers, defenders and voters!
Again i repeat if trump gets re elected the country needs to split i ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO ACCEPT AND NEVER WILL ACCEPT A LEADER WHO IS
A NAZI
A FASCIST,
A BIGOT,
A WHITE SUPREMACIST,
A SEXIST,
A TRANSPHOBE,
A XENOPHOBE,
A HOMOPHOBE,
A TERRORIST,
A ANTISEMITE,
A SUPPORTER OF ANTI FREEDOM,
A SUPPORTER OF ANTI DEMOCRACY,
A COMPLETE AND TOTAL AND UTTER FRAUD,
A COMPLETE AND TOTAL AND UTTER FAKE,
A COMPLETE AND TOTAL AND UTTER PATHOLOGICAL LIAR,
A PEDO,
A RAPIST,
A SUPPORTER OF TOTAL ENDLESS WAR,
A SUPPORTER OF ENDLESS BLOODSHED, A SUPPORTER OF ENDLESS VIOLENCE,
A SUPPORTER OF ANTI HUMAN RIGHTS,
A SUPPORTER OF ANTI UNIONS,
A SUPPORTER OF BEING COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AGAINST WORKERS,
A SUPPORTER OF BEING COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AGAINST ANY AND ALL REGULAR NORMAL EVERY DAY PEOPLE!
I WILL NEVER LIVE UNDER TRUMP! I WILL NEVER LIVE UNDER TRUMP TYRANNY! I WILL NEVER LIVE UNDER TRUMP FASCISM! I WILL NEVER ACCEPT TRUMP AS A LEADER BECAUSE TRUMP ISN'T A LEADER HE IS A DICTATOR HE IS A FASCIST! FUCK TRUMP!
IF TRUMP WINS, WE ARE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AND UTTERLY FUCKED! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE UNDER FASCISM YOU CAN GO LIVE UNDER TRUMPS BANNER OF FASCIST TYRANNY! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE UNDER FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE YOU BETTER VOTE TRUMP ANDTRUMP SUPPORTERS,VOTERS, DEFENDERS AND FOLLOWERS AND THEIR FASCISM OUT IN THIS NEXT ELECTION!
IF TRUMP AND TRUMP SUPPORTERS, FOLLOWERS,VOTERS AND DEFENDERS WIN THIS NEXT ELECTION THEN THE U.S AND DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM AND PEACE AS WE KNOW IT WILL BE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY GONE PERMANENTLY FOREVER!
VOTE TRUMP, TRUMPISM/TRUMP TYRANNY, TRUMP FASCISM, TRUMP SUPPORTERS, VOTERS, DEFENDERS, FOLLOWERS OUT PERMANENTLY FOREVER!
EVERY DAY THAT TRUMP AND HIS FASCISM AND HIS TYRANNY AND HIS FOLLOWERS VOTERS SUPPORTERS AND DEFENDERS REMAIN A THREAT THE FASTER THIS COUNTRY WILL CONTINUE TO ENDLESSLY HURDLE TOWARD COMPLETE AND TOTAL AND UTTER PERMANENT FASCISM AND TYRANNY AND ENDLESS BLOOD SHED AND ENDLESS VIOLENCE! TRUMP, HIS FASCISM, HIS TYRANNY AND HIS FOLLOWERS VOTERS SUPPORTERS AND DEFENDERS HAVE TO BE STOPPED NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES! AGAIN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE UNDER FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE YOU THEN BETTER VOTE TRUMP AND VOTE TRUMP SUPPORTERS,VOTERS, DEFENDERS AND FOLLOWERS AND THEIR FASCISM AND THEIR TYRANNY AND THEIR ENDLESS BLOODSHED AND THEIR ENDLESS VIOLENCE IN THIS COUNTRY COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY OUT PERMANENTLY FOREVER IN THIS NEXT ELECTION AND EVERY ELECTION UNTIL TRUMP AND HIS FASCISM AND HIS TYRANNY AND HIS FOLLOWERS VOTERS SUPPORTERS AND DEFENDERS ARE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY GONE PERMANENTLY FOREVER FOR GOOD! FUCK TRUMP, FUCK TRUMPISM, FUCK TRUMP FASCISM,FUCK TRUMP TYRANNY AND FUCK TRUMP SUPPORTERS VOTERS FOLLOWERS AND DEFENDERS!
@DieHappy_onTT
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Liberal or conservative politics are evil
@SantaFe19484
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Great video! Hardly anything is brand new, like Russia bullying its neighbors, something that has been going on for over 500 years.
@-nick-421
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Yeah politics can also effect the people you love
@Jesse_Richardson08
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Dropped two sided ideologies and became a monarchist. Best political decision ever. Hate Biden? hate Trump? hate Sunak? hate Starmer?
@DrSanity7777777
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
"Political conflict is not like an intercollegiate debate in which the opponents agree in advance on a definition of the issues. As a matter of fact, the definition of the alternatives is the supreme instrument of power; the antagonists can rarely agree on what the issues are because power is involved in the definition. He who determines what politics is about runs the country, because the definition of alternatives is the choice of conflicts, and the choice of conflicts allocates power." – E.E. Schattschnieider
@wesleywright13
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Long winded way of saying history repeats itself
@jackwilley9847
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
You are helping me!
@JonEPC364
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
I am so tired of this shit, why can't we just live normally, like it was before, we had different opinions but we didn't destroy our life's in name of a "cause". I am tired, I hope we can live peacefully again.
@DDCrp
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
I can't stand it when people tell me that I ought to be indignant or upset or angry like it's their business to tell me what to feel. It's just a lack of boundaries and self awareness that I think puts people at the mercy of 'historical patterns' rather than being helpful towards something better
@nikkivielerNLEU
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for this, it helps with the ukraine war and the depressing story it tells… Hopefully humanity will move on from that…
@blade5291
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
IMAGINE how much lives people would be if they didn't thrive and let their anger off on politics. For example. If news outlets like CNN or MSN told you to jump off a bridge. Would you???? –– I think we would all be better off with out politics and toxic media tbh. Its Making people hate each other. Can we all just get along? Instead of divide and conquer? 🙁 That's what these politicians and news media outlets want. Don't feed into their BS LIES. ––
@discontinuedchannel9957
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Watching South Park is more fun and a great way to make friends all around the world, or just wanting to not do anything and continuing to push carts is a way to make friends especially romantic relationships
@Crazyboy48263
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
I'm just gonna come right out and say. Trump is basically the history of Hitler repeating itself
@bds6934
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
if you don't understand why trump was elected and just think people are racists or cheap then you really are not helping this country.
@rushparul
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Thank you 🙂
@Surrealist4Hire
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
What he means to say is a day is coming without Donald Trump hogging the news.
@jamaalrosen4068
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
How do you separate your emotions from anything you feel strongly about? How do we get the American revolution, abolition, and the civil rights movement without emotion tied into politics?
@sophiaisajiw1076
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
So, basically, critical thinking skills…
@maxw383
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
7:10 for a summary of his point that he keeps repeating for 7 minutes.
@nathan6705
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
This guy would love Asimov's Foundation series. His first point was pretty close to one of the main plot points (written over 70 years ago!).
@jakomean
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Very good talk! This kind of objective, informed reflection is what the current political climate needs. It's not about what's "right" or "wrong" (although objectively provable facts should not constantly be called into question), it's about gaining perspective and looking at different angles. "This is a problem" –> "Why? Is it? If so, what can we do? If not, what is/are the problem/s?". Whenever someone confronts me with an already solidified solution to what they perceive to be a problem (Solution "Build wall" to stop Problem "illegal immegration"), I take a step back and ask "What is the problem?" and then "assuming it is a problem, how do we fix it? What are the different dimensions of the problem and can we approach one of them?"
@secularraygon791
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
My Grandmother needs to watch this. She wakes up to see what Trump has done and is pissed the entire day like everyone is Trump…
@zenon3021
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
but you SHOULD be outraged at what the Republicans have done with Trump at the helm.
–a trillion dollars in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires
–blatant lies from the administration every damn day
–ramming through the appointment of a tempermentally unfit judge with a history of sexual violence
–Russia, Russia, Russia (what is it, 4 guilty pleas and counting from Trump campaign officials?)
–denying climate change then passing environmentally destructive policies to exacerbate the damage
–separating Mexican children from their parents
–the Muslim ban
–Trump's spreading of conspiracy theories
–Trump's eroding of the public's trust of Media (all media except FOX is 'fake news')
–Trump's eroding of the public's trust of the FBI (the Mueller investigation is a 'witchhunt')
–Trump's eroding of the public's trust of the judicial system (all judges who disagree with me are 'activist')
@VickiBee
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
The only thing I've ever known about historians is that they can't agree with each other on anything, especially about things I'M interested in, which are probably more ANCIENT history than history. I have a fascination with what happened at Pompeii and in Egypt before A.D. The only historic event I like that's close to modern history is what happened on the Titanic and Lusitania. I was a paramedic/firefighter, which is why I'm interested in these tragedies.
@VickiBee
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
I did it by stopping listening. Turned them off. Never want to hear them for as long as I live. My boyfriend's grandfather actually lived through WWII in Germany and they've found 12 exact matches between Trump & Hitler. His Grandfather was 13 years old when Hitler became Chancellor and 24 when Hitler killed himself to avoid taking responsibility for what he'd done.
@joryjones6808
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
@joryjones6808
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
It’s like Plato said, if we let our emotional and not rational part of our soul control us, our republics will eventually fall into tyranny.
@MythicalVigilante
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
But what if something actually IS entirely new? Like the internet… And I've heard it compared to when the printing press was invented, and surely that is the closest comparison we can make, but the two technologies are far more different than they are similar.
@awuma
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
The point is that one needs more reasoning, less emotion to sort out one's position.
@tylergherman
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
It isn't politics it's everyone media addiction. Get 2 people together and talk about politics and you'll probably be fine. Watch half an hour of MSNBC or FoxNews and you'll want to kill someone.
@RichardRagan
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Tim, I like what you said, but you should have given an example telling us what Trump has done/said, what the common reaction was, and then how you could use history to re-understand it while controlling your emotions.
@raypeterman8778
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
it's called Elliot Wave…get off your high horse it's basic human emotions
@drdurgeshmodi7106
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for the insight
@oodlesofnoodles4660
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
How to stop religion from controlling your emotions.
Because politics = religion (or at least is cut from the same cloth, i.e. collectivism).
@1Fresh_Water
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
this video went in an entirely different direction than I thought it would
@tznwyvuk471
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
I just realised that Trump politics are like poetry. Thank you #MAGA #TRUMP2020
@JayZondi-cd8jj
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
A lot of comments here saying that they're done thinking or being involved in politics. That would be like saying they'd rather not have anything to do with how the society they live in is organized and how that affects them. Good luck with that.
@ellana2402
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
were can i find the transcript of this video of mr. snyder? pls..
@jamessutton9476
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Nihil novi sub Sole / There is nothing new under the Sun
To borrow a phrase from the Romans, who were some of the most prolific chroniclers.
@chrispy_091
August 5, 2025 at 2:56 pm
Its nice and all that you are talking about Trump, but, you did see the news the night Trump won the election, right? You saw all those CNN and NBC commentators having literal mental breakdowns over the fact that their person lost? Seriously, this video would have been more relevant if you showed pictures of them crying at the beginning instead of a smiling Trump.
Comments are closed.