This wildfire season, Smokey Bear has a reminder for all of us.
Only you can prevent wildfires.
For more than 80 years, he 's taught us how to prevent unwanted wildfires through his tips,
like using the drown, stir, drown, feel method for putting out campfires.
Every responsible action makes a difference.
Learn wildfire prevention tips at SmokeyBear. com.
Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council.
This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion.
You've heard the news.
Here's what to make of it.
I'm Em Gessen, an opinion columnist at The New York Times.
I often write about autocracy and what it's like to live under a totalitarian government.
I spent my childhood in Russia and later went back as an adult and reporter from the country
through the rise of Vladimir Putin.
Now in the United States, I often write about what's happening during the Trump presidency.
So I've been writing about autocrats and aspiring autocrats for most of my professional life.
I often find myself thinking about a lecture I happened to listen to several years ago.
It was a talk by a psychologist about a completely different subject, domestic violence.
As she talked about the way abusers control their victims,
I kept noticing how much overlap there is between that experience