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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics,

power and prejudices. It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States. We will, of course,

be following the moves of the Donald's and his second administration very closely. However,

it won't just be politics for us this year. We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture,

life and the arts. I should also remind you, because my producer,

Natasha, will not let me hear the end of it, that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube

channel to watch that. Today we're going to be talking about violence on the political left because the new edition of Spectator's World, which is out now.

We only have this version of it because the printers have not sent us back the cover quite yet.

It's called Assassin's Creed and it's a brilliant and fascinating piece by Max Horder,

who joins me here at the Spectators Office.

Max is a senior fellow at the Network Contagion Institute and an anthropologist,

and Max, in this fascinating piece, which I urge all viewers to buy the magazine, subscribe and so on, you talk about

this sort of network effect that's going on on the political left, and it's terrifying, frankly,

because there is a, as you say, permission structures are being granted in online culture for quite appalling acts of

violence. And it seems to be happening. After I commissioned this piece from you, you filed a piece

and then there was a killing that was inspired by exactly what you're talking about.

So explain your thesis to us first.

Absolutely.

...