#1714 Trump's Anti-Knowledge Agenda is Inviting the Next Authoritarian Dark Age

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Jay Tomlinson

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4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 231 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Air Date 6/6/2025

Today, Trump's administration is doing everything in its power to end the era of educational dominance the US has enjoyed for decades. The simple fact that explains the change is that democracy used to be valued across the political spectrum while todays Republican Party is authoritarian and understands that an educated public is a public that demands democracy while an uneducated public is much easier to manipulate and oppress.

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Full Show Notes

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KEY POINTS

KP 1: How Trump has reshaped the federal workforce - The NPR Politics Podcast - Air Date 5-29-25

KP 2: As Trump cuts funding, researchers look for opportunities outside the U.S. - Soundside - Air Date 4-21-25

KP 3: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism - Citations Needed - Air Date 5-28-25

KP 4: Trump's Dark Age Admin is 'attacking the foundations of empirical knowledge', journalist says - MSNBC Reports - Air Date 5-28-25

KP 5: Trumps Rants about Harvard Get Darker as He Loses a Big One in Court - The Daily Blast - Air Date 5-29-25

KP 6: Prof Jason Stanley Trump is targeting the three pillars of democracy as he follows fascist playbook - The Dean Obeidallah Show - Air Date 6-1-25

KP 7: Worse Than McCarthyism Historian Ellen Schrecker on Trumps War Against Universities & Students - Democracy Now! - Air Date 5-30-25

KP 8: Tanya Clay House on Freedom to Learn, Danaka Katovich on Attacks on Activists - CounterSpin - Air Date 5-2-25

(01:00:04) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

On what will fill the gap left by anti-intellectualism

DEEPER DIVES

(01:07:27) SECTION A: ANTI-SCIENCE

(02:27:53) SECTION B: ANTI-HIGHER EDUCATION

(02:56:38) SECTION C: ANTI-PUBLIC GOODS

SHOW IMAGE CREDITS

Description: An illustrated image of an arm and hand holding up a protest sign with an image of a brain on it.

Credit: “brain icon mind thinking” via Mohamed_hasan, Pixabay | Pixabay license

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast.
0:07.0	There are a lot of links between the mid-2020s that we're living through now and the mid-1950s.
0:12.9	Trump is bringing back McCarthyism.
0:15.6	He's invoking the manufacturing culture of the period and promises to bring that back to.
0:22.5	All while a major world power run by a communist government is seen as international enemy number one.
0:28.3	The big difference is that in response to the perceived threat of the Soviet Union, the country
0:33.1	poured investment into education, resulting in things like the space program. Today, Trump's
0:39.7	administration is doing everything in its power to end the era of educational dominance
0:44.3	the U.S. has enjoyed for decades. The simple fact that explains this difference is that in the
0:49.5	1950s, democracy was valued across the political spectrum, while today's Republican Party is authoritarian
0:56.4	and understands that an educated public is a public that demands democracy, while an
1:02.8	uneducated public is much easier to manipulate and oppress.
1:07.3	For those looking for a quick overview, the sources providing our top takes in about 50 minutes today includes the NPR Politics podcast, Soundside, Citations Needed, MSNBC Reports, The Daily Blast, the Dean Obadiah Show, Democracy Now, and Counterspin.
1:23.8	Then in the additional deeper dives half of the show, there will be more in three sections.
1:28.4	Section A, anti-science, followed by Section B, anti-hire education, and Section C, anti-public goods.
1:36.8	But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of the Left YouTube channel.
1:42.2	We're really proud of the show we're making and think it's actually fairly unique for a political talk show. We're all about quality
1:47.8	over quantity and focus on developing unifying themes for our discussions. Plus, we animate
1:54.2	ourselves and produce songs about our conversation each week, just for fun. Our latest episode
2:00.1	that's going out on YouTube is all about the old guard of the Democratic
2:03.2	Party that's standing in the way of the new political strategies we need to adopt in order
2:08.5	to confront new political challenges.
	...

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