Episode 58: Preparing for Constant Struggle Against Rising Authoritarianism and Continuing Chaos

The episode focuses on Marxist-Humanist Initiative’s recent editorial, “Drumbeat for Authoritarianism = Triple Threat to Civilization,” which warns, “We need to prepare for a future of continuing chaos, in which the need for struggle is constant; and we need to remember that progress is not inevitable at all.” Brendan and Andrew interview Anne Jaclard, the editorial’s principal author and MHI’s organizational secretary. They discuss the “triple threat to civilization”––the climate crisis; the subversion of liberal democracy; and the lack of standards of truth and decency, which facilitates Trump’s Big Lie and authoritarianism generally––and how to fight this triple threat.

Key questions addressed in the discussion include: Why is so little being done to confront the worsening environmental crisis? Why is the threat of Trumpism intensifying despite Trump’s big loss in the 2020 election? How can the right to abortion be taken away even though a solid majority of American are pro-choice? Jaclard and the co-hosts also discuss “culture war” talk––in the media, on the right, and on “the left”––and the editorial’s insistence that “[r]eproductive and gender and racial freedom are not matters of culture, but of human rights.”

 
Plus current-events segment: Jacobin writer Liza Featherstone’s left-populist defense of Josh Hawley’s “crisis of American men” propaganda. Real (wo)men don’t normalize the Big Lie and far-right misogyny.

 
Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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