#1391 The Road to Sedition
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2021
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 1/10/2021
Today, in our 15th-anniversary episode, we take a look at the the years and years of warning signs we having been highlighting since 2006 that collectively predict the armed insurrection against the government as the natural end point for a radicalized, conspiratorial, White/Christian-supremacist, permanently-minoritarian political movement that has lost its ability to win power by legitimate means.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: American Fascists, Chris Hedges - Ring of Fire - Air Date 2-12-07
Chris Hedges explains the decades-old prediction of the rise of Christian fascism
Ch. 2: Ginsberg and O'Connor death threats - Rachel Maddow - Air Date 2006
Ginsberg and O'Connor deal with detailed death threats as part of the effort to take over the judiciary
Ch. 3: O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts - NPR Morning Edition - Air Date: 3-10-2006
Sandra Day O'Connor warns of creeping dictatorial tendencies referencing efforts to control the courts
Ch. 4: Avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings - The Young Turks - Air Date 3-22-2006
Cenk Uygur highlights the need to prevent dictatorship by avoiding the first steps that can lead to it
Ch. 5: Tim Wise on How Donald Trump Legitimizes Racist Ideas - @DavidPakmanShow - Air Date 01-07-16
Tim Wise explains what drives Trump supporters and the burgeoning Trumpism movement
Sasha Abramsky speaks with Trump supporters, many of whom ask him his ethnicity before being willing to speak with him
Ch. 7: Thirty Black People Booted From Trump Rally - @theyoungturks - Air Date 03-02-16
Secret Service agent choke-slams a journalist at a Trump rally. What will Trump do if he actually wins?
Ch. 8: CNN's morally bankrupt hiring of former Trump campaign staffer - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date 7-1-16
CNN profits from the Trump campaign to the detriment of the country
Ch. 9: Trump Victory Inspires Acts Of Hate Against Minorities - @RingOfFireRadio - Air Date 11-11-16
Post-election rash of hate-crimes spike after Trump victory.
Ch. 10: You Will Not Believe This Insane Antisemitic Email - @DavidPakmanShow - Air Date 11-14-16
David Pakman shares an email he recieved and vandilism he witnessed in the wake of Trump's victory
Ch. 11: A White Nationalist Will Be Advising Trump's Administration Air Date 11-14-16
Steve Bannon tapped to join the Trump administration
Ch. 12: How to fight our enemies, the blacks and jews - A real-life White supremacist podcast - Air Date 11-10-16
Clips from an unabashedly White-nationalist podcast in the wake of Trump's election win
Ch. 13: It can't happen here - Ideas from the CBC - Air Date 1-17-17
A look at the long history of racial grivance that fuels fascist tendencies in the US
Trump issues an executive order effectively banning Muslims from several countries
Trump's treatment of the media is precisely in line with the strategies of dictators around the world
Trump doubles down when criticized for his comments in the wake of the Charlottesville White supremacists rally
Ch. 17: Donald Trump Puts Our Democracy and Our Lives in Serious Danger - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date 01-13-18
Not a single president has met more than one of the four qualities identified by political scientists as warning signs of an authoritarian or fascist leader. Trump meets them all. Is this how our Democracy dies?
Scott Crow explains why the rise of progressive-left movements are always countered by a rise in right-wing conspiracy theories and why fascism downright requires conspiracies to survive.
Donald Trump is "stoking and inciting - for the purposes of political power - the worst amongst us to take action in his name," says Steve Schmidt.
Ch. 20: Violent Extremism in the U.S. - NowThis World - Air Date 11-4-18
White supremacist and other right-wing violence are currently the deadliest active domestic extremist movements in the U.S., according to data from several civil rights groups that track hate crimes and extremist violence.
Ch. 21: Corruption of Department of Justice Sets Off Alarm Bells - Rachel Maddow Show - Air Date 2-12-20
Rachel discusses the crisis in the justice department and the authoritarian actions of Trump.
President Trump claims without evidence that anti-fascists are inciting riots at protests against police brutality, but has downplayed groups like the “boogaloo” movement, which are using the protests as cover to carry out violence, even murder.
Ch. 23: Marjorie Cohn on Portland Secret Police - CounterSpin - Air Date 7-24-20
While we wait to see if corporate media can decide which optic is an optic too far, we talk about the legal, constitutional elements of the fight for our right to protest, including against the forces that are sent to police the protesting. Marjorie Kohn.
Ch. 24: Trump Caravans and the Threat of Sectarian Violence - The Muckrake Podcast - Air Date 9-1-20
Right Wing vigilantism turns to roving bands of MAGA supporters driving into cities and doling out violence.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 25: Final comments to wrap up this anniversary episode
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of a Left Podcast. |
| 0:07.5 | First though, just to address the major news of the week right up front, we are in fact |
| 0:12.2 | marking our 15th anniversary since the launch of this show. |
| 0:17.2 | I'll assume you're applauding. |
| 0:18.4 | So thank you for that. |
| 0:20.0 | For that reason, it seems particularly fitting that we would be marking the occasion with |
| 0:24.9 | an episode in which we shall learn about the years and years of warning signs we have been |
| 0:30.8 | highlighting since 2006 that collectively predict the armed insurrection against the government |
| 0:36.8 | we have just witnessed as the natural end point for a radicalized, conspiratorial, white, |
| 0:43.6 | Christian supremacist, permanent minority of a political movement that has lost its |
| 0:49.1 | ability to win power by legitimate means. |
| 0:51.9 | I will be your guide as we make our way through the years and we will start with an interview |
| 0:56.1 | with Chris Hedges from 2007 discussing the rise of Christian fascism. |
| 1:07.4 | He joins us now to talk about his new book, American Fascist, The Christian Right and the |
| 1:12.2 | War on America. |
| 1:13.6 | Chris on back of your book, you say that a professor at Harvard Divinity School told you |
| 1:18.7 | that when you became his age, you said in this excerpt, he was 80 years old, but he told |
| 1:24.0 | you when you were in Harvard Divinity School that when you became his age, that you would |
| 1:28.1 | be fighting something called Christian fascism. |
| 1:32.4 | Have you found that to be not his age? |
| 1:34.4 | You're half his age. |
| 1:36.7 | But are you already seeing that start develop? |
... |
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