Background Briefing: February 10, 2025

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Has Fascism Already Arrived in America? 

We begin with the clear and present danger of fascism in America as the Musk/Trump juggernaut rolls over the government replacing competence with loyalty in a combination of plutocracy and theocracy making Sinclair Lewis’s warning that “when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross”, a reality. Joining us is Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and the author of How Propaganda Works and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. His latest book is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, and we discuss his article at The Guardian, “We are witnessing the rise of a new Republican ‘Southern Strategy.’”

 

The MAGA Christian Nationalists’ War on the Separation of Church and State

Then we examine the MAGA Christian nationalists’ war of the separation of church and state undoing the American revolution with the likes of Leonard Leo, Russell Vought and JD Vance fulfilling Tom Paine’s nightmare that “belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.” Joining us is Jacques Berlinerblau, a professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University. He has authored numerous books about the subject of secularism, including the recent book Secularism: The Basics. He has also written about American higher education in Campus Confidential: How College Works, and Doesn’t, For Professors, Parents and Students. With Professor Terrence Johnson, he is a co-author of Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue and his current research concentrates on the nexus between literature and comedy on the one side and cultural conflicts on the other. We discuss his article at MSNBC, “Trump’s prayer breakfast remarks clarify his dangerous intent.”

Musk and His Techies Are Purging Workers to Replace Them With Automation and AI Which is Why He’s Buying OpenAI For $97.4 Billion

Then finally as Musk and his techies purge government workers to have them replaced by automation, AI and other Silicon Valley techno-fantasies, we speak with Allison Pugh, a Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and the Vice President of the American Sociological Association. She is the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity and Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Her latest book is The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World.