A Word: The Cruelty Was the Point. Is It Still?

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to the Slate News feed! We’ll be sharing daily episodes from Slate’s podcasts What Next, What Next: TBD, The Waves, and A Word. Listen for everything you need to know about the news this week. Donald Trump’s combination of bigotry, lies, and meanness led to a victory that stunned political pundits in 2016. Atlantic writer Adam Serwer would go on to coin the phrase that summed up Trump’s appeal: the cruelty is the point. Serwer has collected his essays chronicling the Trump era in the new book, The Cruelty is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America, and joins host Jason Johnson to discuss it on this week’s episode of A Word. Guest: Adam Serwer, staff writer for The Atlantic and author of The Cruelty is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America. Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel and Jasmine Ellis You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson.
0:06.8	For years, Donald Trump's political success stumped observers who believed his vicious rhetoric
0:12.3	and behavior were turned off voters. But Atlantic writer Adam Surah explained Trump's appeal
0:17.2	in one simple sentence. The cruelty is the point.
0:21.4	He highlighted this politics of cruelty, but it's a false sense of comfort to believe
0:26.6	that it's all behind us and it's a misinterpretation to think that it started with him.
0:30.2	It neither started nor ended with him.
0:32.0	Adam Surah on the rise of Trump's America, and if we can never get past it, coming up
0:36.7	on a word with me, Jason Johnson. Stay with us.
0:42.0	This episode is brought to you by Instax.
0:44.6	Life is a ride meant to be captured, but most importantly, shed.
0:49.0	So snap those iconic moments instantly.
0:51.5	Relive your most precious memories forever.
0:54.4	Instax, Instan, cameras and smartphone princes let you give your take.
0:58.8	Give something real to those you love the most.
1:03.0	Don't just take, give, Instax. Learn more at Instax.co.uk.
1:16.2	This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson.
1:20.4	Donald Trump's path to the White House bewildered much of the political establishment.
1:24.6	He was unqualified, dishonest and nasty, running to lead a party that had prided itself on
1:29.5	so-called traditional family values.
1:32.1	Through the lens of the pre-Trump era, the venom he spewed about immigrants, black folks
1:36.2	and women should have sunk his candidacy dozens of times.
	...

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