37 Comments

Even if i had ten hands I still couldn't count all the lies told in this interview.

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It's alwasy interesting to read about my country (Hungary) as a exemplary.

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Any suggestions?

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Sad but correct....and it is more than fake news and propaganda because we should not underestimate the intelligence of the public in general . To me it looks like we are in a "Weimar" scenario where Democracy seems not be giving the people what they need in terms of security, health and quality of live and unhappy people end up fighting for themselves only to survive. The traditional democratic parties fail to offer real alternatives to offer to what they have preached and done for so long, which obviously is not to be working (anymore). There is no point in lecturing about basic rights, democracy, freedom, integrity etc if people are struggling to survive whilst the wealth divide is forever growing with the rich and powerful becoming richer and more powerful and seemingly directly linked. One thing about populism indeed is that they seem to have plenty of money available from their wealthy backers......can't really blame people to join them and try to get a share of that, even if it means giving in one democracy and basic right. Unfortunately history tells us that authoritarian rule in the end turns out even worse for the population but most people are not aware and think short term.

Talking to my children I get hope though because I am amazed how sharp this generation sees what is happening today and how it contrasts with what we tell them about almost unlimited growth, development , peace and basis rights we had in our youth growing up in the 60s,70s and 80s. Thus in their eyes the world seems to be getting less fair and more restricted in growth and we even allowed for a major war to start again in Europe . ...their outlook on live seems so much less favourable than ours at the same age. Why have we allowed for some the good things we achieved in past being eroded? My answer is that we have become complacent and actually have forgotten to recognise and nurture what we had achieved and through our increasing greed seem happy to throw some of it away again to the detriment of the next generations. Looks like the now upcoming generation is not very happy with how we have (mis)managed our legacy and they have all the reason to be so.

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Apr 14, 2022·edited Apr 14, 2022

It is disingenuous to try to whitewash the tight control of the Democratic Party by neoliberals and assign that ALL onto the GOP. This is a false dichotomy that appears to be setting the stage for a rerun of the 2016 play "Vote for the lesser evil!" that failed us all. Note that protests like this against neoliberalism are taking place independently of EITHER of the two cartel parties. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/12/poor-peoples-campaign-marches-wall-street-against-lies-neoliberalism

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It is unmistakable that the pandemic narrative first and the war now are in fact Technocracy’s global coup d’état. We see the global economic systems collapsing, rampant inflation, scarce energy and food shortages due to supply chains crumbling. Half of human population have been injected with experimental mRNA “vaccines”, which is a genocide of its own. Global human misery is at the highest and that is the Globalists goal, so they can swoop in and offer a solution - one world government and Fascist-Marxist Totalitarianism. May God and GOP save us.

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This piece was disappointing, in the folowing ways:

1. Interviewee Sexton is a professor of "writing and linguistics"?? So I can assume he's good at discussing nouns and verbs and the symbolism in Jane Austin's work and so on--but does he have any actual expertise in political science? Political psychology? History?

2. Sexton mentions an "article" by David Brooks. But Brooks is a COLUMNIST, that is, a person who writes Op-Eds, not a person who writes "articles". Surely a professor of "...linguistics" should be more accurate in his choice of words.

3. I stopped reading Brooks many years ago when I discovered through his articles and books that he was a sloppy thinker.

4. Prof. Sexton says of Brooks et al "These are people who are paid six figures to talk about this stuff."

WRONG. They are paid big bucks to give their OPINIONS and stimulate the thinking of readers. I am unaware of any expertise (e.g. education, serving in relevant positions at organizations studying politics, etc) Brooks has in politics.

Prof. ben-Ghiat, you are doing important work. Please, in future, limit your interviews with "experts" to individuals who really do have in-depth expertise in relevant subject areas.

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It is liberal democracy, not GOP, that failed by allowing raise to power of global technocratic elitist oligarchs, who proceeded to amass wealth by looting everything at the expense of working class. Big Tech manipulation of Democrats, not GOP, is leading humanity to post nationalism, one world government, austerity, totalitarian control, serfdom and transhumanism. GOP and other populist leaders like Putin and Orban are opening possible escape route for humanity from Marxist Fascism pushed by globalists running "Democratic" puppets like Biden, Macron, Merkel, Trudeau and many others.

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Jared Yates Sexton has been sounding the alarms on rising autocracy since he blundered into the first Trump rallies in 2015. With another insightful historian, Nick Hauselman, their twice weekly MUCKRAKE podcast offers much - like Lucid, independent journalism at its best and most valuable

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The neoliberal order in this country needs to recognize that it has caused our deindustrialization and that this has disenfranchised the working class to the point of wanting authoritarianism. The advent of neoliberal economics, circa 1980 has been a failed experiment, just like it was in Chile and Argentina. It needs to be abandoned here, as it favors the oligarch class at the expense of the working class. It reeks of feudalism.

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One element in creating a better positive future is understanding how social media is epistemologically undermining the structures of democracy. In what I believe to be one of his most important essays, Jonathan Haidt explains in The Atlantic just what is at risk. I cannot recommend this essay too highly. It is one that should be discussed seriously and widely.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20220411&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily

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I spent a lot of time reading JYS's front matter in his book, American Rule. He is truly Ruth's soul brother. Thanks for introducing him, Ruth. When one thinks about the damage done by Citizen's United, unlimited money in politics, and Mitch's, shall I call it unprincipled action, disallowing Garland's appointment to the Supreme Court, and the Court's corruption in the form of Clarence Thomas, and DOD's capture of votes for the defense budget, it is easy to be demoralized. Remember it was John Roberts who spearheaded the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, which the democrats seek unsuccessfully to restore. The Canadian, Stephen Marche's The Next Civil War, makes a case, in the same way Heather Cox Richardson points out, how the South vs. the North conflict is still with us. Ay, these are trying times! Not a time to sit on the sidelines.

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The sweeping vision of Biden's BBB—all of it—was remarkable (e.g., the concept of social services/issues such as eldercare, schools, broadband, climate, and childcare regarded as 'infrastructure') and obviously shook up the 'powers that be,' unfortunately with talons in two Democratic senators. Imagine if the Dems had had a safe majority in the Senate: that vision would have been implemented and a quite stunning shift of budgetary values put in place that could have demonstrated more viscerally in people's daily lives the difference between the parties. We were So Close, and that is the bad/good news. In the US I feel we are still on a knife's edge (as in: there is still a chance), and for the moment/midterms we must give this fragile system as much support as we possibly can. Can we deliver safe majorities in Congress to the Democrats in November? That would give us two more years. It's not much, but worth an honest try. The alternative is surely worse.

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Neoliberalism is failing, its fall out is stratospheric levels of inequality (joy rides in space for billionaires) but the billionaires and oligarchs have found a potent weapon to protect their vast wealth and power. The formula is white christian nationalism enforced through authoritarianism.

Its transnational and Vladimir Putin is its leader in chief, spreading subversion if not brutal killing and war every where he can. Its a world historical battle of epic proportion between Democracy and freedom vs. tyranny and right-wing authoritarianism.

The old liberal world order since WWII is under assault. The implications of Maria Le pen possibly winning in France are so huge in this struggle. As well, the implications of Ukraine's resistance to brutal Russian aggression from V.D. are also huge in this struggle.

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

― Antonio Gramsci

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Pretty much every modern industrial(izing) state/region - including China, India, Russia, the EU, US, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Australia - have failed to do anything near enough to prevent both a looming climate catastrophe and an energy emergency (due to depreciating supplies of cheap energy). As a consequence for the democracies and anocracies (like the US), the middle classes are getting seriously squeezed while the political leadership struggles to make affordable supplies of oil and natural gas available (without committing obvious moral compromises).

So as our world heads straight into the twin emergencies of climate catastrophes and the end of the oil/gas age, the democracies & anocracies remain unwilling to shoulder the sacrifices necessary to allow for some kind of plausible transition to a post-carbon future. As a result, democracies will be experiencing further stresses and inevitable contraction.

This tragic situation creates a near "open door" for authoritarians who insist that "Only I can fix it" and are quite willing to assign blame to designated scapegoats. In the US, this includes anyone not white, not conservative and not christian.

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