America Under Occupation: Truth, Power, & Imperial Decline | Jonathan Kirshner
Hidden Forces
Demetri Kofinas
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Episode 435 is the eighth episode in the Hundred Year Pivot podcast series. In it, Demetri Kofinas and Grant Williams speak with leading realist scholar Jonathan Kirshner about how eroding cultural norms, weakened political guardrails, deepening polarization, and the collapse of shared narratives and belief structures are leading to a break-down in the American-led order, paving the way for a new moneyed elite to seize power in Washington.
Their discussion begins with a deep dive into the realist tradition: its origins, how it differs from other ideological schools, its various interpretations, and why classical realists grant primacy to uncertainty and the inherently unpredictable nature of world events.
They explore what it means for states to define and pursue their national interests at a time when the American-led world order is fragmenting and deep domestic polarization is weakening the institutional checks and balances that once constrained presidential power.
Jonathan also educates the audience on the parallels between the United States today and France in the 1930s—politically fractured, inwardly focused, and increasingly unable to act with purpose on the world stage—and why Kirshner believes the situation may now be closer to France in the 1940s, marked by a willingness to collaborate with the occupying forces of a new plutocracy.
Grant, Demetri, and Jonathan also grapple with how the politics of scapegoating, the collapse of shared narratives, and the deliberate erosion of truth claims are undermining the foundations of participatory democracy. Jonathan explains how this epistemic breakdown accelerates America’s imperial collapse, undermining its political influence abroad, weakening its alliances, and threatening the long-term stability of the dollar-based global financial system.
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Episode Recorded on 08/07/2025
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's up, everybody? My name is Demetri Kaffinus, and you're listening to Hidden Forces, |
| 0:06.0 | a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens, to challenge consensus |
| 0:12.6 | narratives and learn how to think critically about the systems of power shaping our world. |
| 0:18.4 | What you're about to hear is the eighth episode in a podcast series hosted by |
| 0:22.5 | me and my co-host Grant Williams, titled The Hundred Year Pivot. In it, we speak with some of the |
| 0:28.6 | smartest and most plugged-in people we know to help position ourselves, our organizations, |
| 0:34.6 | our families, and our portfolios for the once-in-a-century economic, political, |
| 0:40.3 | and geopolitical reordering that we believe is currently underway. |
| 0:44.7 | In today's conversation, Grant and I speak with leading realist scholar Jonathan Kirchner |
| 0:49.3 | about how eroding cultural norms, weakened political guardrails, deepening polarization, and |
| 0:56.1 | the collapse of shared narratives and belief structures are leading to a breakdown in the American-led |
| 1:01.5 | order, while also paving the way for a new moneyed elite to seize power in Washington. |
| 1:08.5 | Our discussion begins with a deep dive into the realist tradition, its origins, |
| 1:13.2 | how it differs from other ideological schools, its various interpretations, and why classical |
| 1:18.5 | realists grant primacy to uncertainty and the inherently unpredictable nature of world events. |
| 1:25.3 | We explore what it means for states to define and pursue their national |
| 1:29.2 | interests at a time when the American-led order is fragmenting, and deep domestic polarization |
| 1:34.1 | is weakening the institutional checks and balances that once constrained presidential power. |
| 1:40.7 | Jonathan also educates us on the parallels between the United States today and France in the 1930s, |
| 1:47.0 | politically fractured, inwardly focused, and increasingly unable to act with purpose on the world stage, |
| 1:54.0 | and why Kirchner believes the situation today may be closer to France in the 1940s, |
| 1:59.0 | marked by a willingness to collaborate with the occupying |
... |
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