{"id":54266,"date":"2021-12-09T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54266"},"modified":"2021-12-14T17:20:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T21:20:41","slug":"donald-trump-authoritarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is Donald Trump an authoritarian? What signs of authoritarianism does Trump exhibit? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, the authors of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-democracies-die-book\/\">How Democracies Die<\/a><\/em>, Donald Trump exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies. They state that such a figure becoming the nominee of a major political party was an unprecedented development in American politics. Further, they state that<strong> <\/strong>GOP leaders faced a choice in the general election: to stand with Trump or to stand for democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll take a look at what makes Donald Trump authoritarian, according to Levitsky and Ziblatt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-standing-with-trump-vs-standing-for-democracy\"><strong>Standing With Trump vs. Standing for Democracy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that the final failure of the GOP to stop Donald Trump\u2014a candidate whom they regard as deeply abnormal and authoritarian\u2014came in the general election against Hillary Clinton.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They posit that Trump satisfied all four of their criteria for authoritarianism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>He rejected the rules of normal democratic competition<\/strong> by accusing the Democratic Party of using illegal immigrants to perpetrate a massive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-voter-fraud-real\/\">voter fraud<\/a> scheme and indicated that he would not accept the results of the election if he lost.<\/li><li><strong>He denied the legitimacy of his political opponents<\/strong> with his embrace and spread of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/barack-obama-and-donald-trump\/\">birtherism<\/a> (the conspiracy theory alleging that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States), and his calls for Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned.<\/li><li><strong>He openly encouraged violence at his rallies<\/strong>, on several occasions even offering to pay the legal fees of supporters who beat up anti-Trump protestors.<\/li><li><strong>He advocated the curtailing of the civil liberties of his opponents<\/strong> with his promises to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton and his announced intention to change libel laws to make it easier to sue journalists who criticized him.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Although he knew that the claims made by \u201cbirthers,\u201d like Donald Trump, were unfounded, President Obama understood that racialized fearmongering directed at himself\u2014the nation\u2019s first African-American president\u2014could be a potent political force. In an attempt to confront the charges head-on, Obama famously mocked Trump for his birtherism (to Trump\u2019s face) at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/2011-white-house-correspondents-dinner\/\">2011 White House Correspondents Dinner<\/a>. To learn more about Obama\u2019s reflections on his presidency, including his response to the birtherism charges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/a-promised-land\">read our guide to his memoir, <em>A Promised Land<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-trump-and-the-2020-presidential-election\"><strong>Trump and the 2020 Presidential Election<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the book, the authors mainly cite examples of Trump\u2019s statements and behaviors as a presidential <em>candidate<\/em> (like calling for Hillary Clinton to be jailed or encouraging his supporters to rough up protestors at his rallies). With the Trump presidency now concluded and with the benefit of hindsight, we can look back at how now-former President Trump behaved <em>in office.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2020\/12\/31\/trump-has-yet-accept-election-results-months-after-republicans-said-he-would\/\">refused to acknowledge<\/a> the legitimacy of the results of the election, in which he lost to Joe Biden by a margin of seven million votes and was defeated in the Electoral College 306-232, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/resources\/cms-content\/documents\/2020presgeresults.pdf\">official results from the Federal Elections Commission<\/a>. By Levitsky and Ziblatt\u2019s signs of authoritarianism, these actions would appear to indicate 1) a rejection of democratic competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump further alleged that Biden was an illegitimate president who owed his victory to voter fraud and vote tampering, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-technology-49a24edd6d10888dbad61689c24b05a5\">presenting no credible evidence<\/a> to back this assertion. This would similarly indicate 2) a refusal to accept the legitimacy of political opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And on January 6, 2021 a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the certification of Biden\u2019s victory, resulting in four fatalities (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2021\/03\/24\/us\/officer-sicknick-capitol-riot.html\">including a U.S. Capitol Police officer<\/a>) and hundreds of arrests. In the aftermath of the attack\u2014whose perpetrators repeatedly cited Trump\u2019s assertions of a stolen election as their rationale\u2014Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-capitol-riot-says-zero-threat\/\">minimized its seriousness<\/a>, claiming that the rioters were essentially harmless protesters. This episode seems to fit Levitsky and Ziblatt\u2019s third sign of authoritarianism\u2014a willingness to encourage or condone violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Anonymous Warnings From Inside the Trump Administration<\/strong><br><br>Concerns about Donald Trump\u2019s authoritarian tendencies did not come solely from outside critics like Levitsky and Ziblatt. People <em>inside <\/em>the Trump administration itself were sounding the alarm bells about his presidency as well.<br><br>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/a-warning\"><em>A Warning<\/em><\/a> (2019), an anonymous senior Trump administration official published an insider account detailing the president\u2019s chaotic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/methods-of-decision-making-crucial-conversations\/\">decision-making<\/a> process and lack of focus, moral and intellectual unfitness for high office, desire to use the powers of his office to punish and harass those he perceived as his enemies, and general lack of respect for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/democratic-norms\/\">democratic norms<\/a> and institutions.<br><br>The central thesis of the book is that a committed group of senior aides (including the anonymous author) thought of themselves as a \u201cSteady State\u201d whose mission it was to keep the <em>institution <\/em>of the presidency on track, while restraining Trump\u2019s more dangerous instincts and impulses. The anonymous author warns, however, that these internal guardrails had largely come loose by the time of the book\u2019s publication in late 2019 (on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic), with Trump having largely replaced his more principled advisors with loyalists and sycophants.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?<\/strong><br><br>Despite Levitsky and Ziblatt\u2019s assertion that candidate Trump exhibited clear authoritarian tendencies, some commentators\u2014even on the left\u2014questioned his authoritarianism as <em>president<\/em>.<br><br>Shortly after Trump became president, liberal political theorist Corey Robin argued that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/06\/yet-another-week-trump-failing-be-actual-authoritarian\/612829\/\">Trump\u2019s alleged authoritarianism was more talk than action<\/a>, citing Trump\u2019s failure to fill the overwhelming majority of offices in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-executive-branch\/\">the executive branch<\/a>, leaving 85% of jobs either vacant or staffed with holdovers from the Obama administration. Robin argued that if Trump truly wished to subvert democracy, he and his allies would have made seizing control of key positions at the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, and the intelligence agencies one of their top priorities. Their failure to do so indicated that Trump\u2019s often bombastic remarks were more bluster than statements of intent.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Donald Trump an authoritarian? What signs of authoritarianism does Trump exhibit? According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, the authors of How Democracies Die, Donald Trump exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies. They state that such a figure becoming the nominee of a major political party was an unprecedented development in American politics. Further, they state that GOP leaders faced a choice in the general election: to stand with Trump or to stand for democracy. In this article, we&#8217;ll take a look at what makes Donald Trump authoritarian, according to Levitsky and Ziblatt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,275],"tags":[291],"class_list":["post-54266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-politics","tag-how-democracies-die","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\"},\"wordCount\":973,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"How Democracies Die\"],\"articleSection\":[\"People\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\",\"name\":\"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg\",\"width\":1220,\"height\":650},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian? - Shortform Books","description":"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?","og_description":"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1220,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?","datePublished":"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/"},"wordCount":973,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","keywords":["How Democracies Die"],"articleSection":["People","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/","name":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","datePublished":"2021-12-09T19:28:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-14T21:20:41+00:00","description":"Is Donald Trump really an authoritarian? Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump indeed exhibits clear authoritarian tendencies.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","width":1220,"height":650},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/donald-trump-authoritarian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Donald Trump Really an Authoritarian?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/donald-trump-graffiti.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54266"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56141,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54266\/revisions\/56141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}