Authoritarianism in the US and Abroad (Robert Wright & Almut Rochowanski)

Robert Wright's Nonzero

Nonzero

News & Politics, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.7 • 618 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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0:28 Almut’s first-hand acquaintance with authoritarianism 2:24 Trump 2.0’s authoritarian hallmarks 19:37 What should worry us most about Trump 2.0? 26:15 Trump 2.0 vs post-Soviet oligarchy: compare and contrast 33:08 Is Trump an ethno-nationalist? 39:02 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Almut Rochowanski (The Quincy Institute, https://discomfortzone.substack.com/). Recorded April 1, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Robert Wright's Non-Zero Podcast.
0:27.7	Hello, Almut.
0:32.0	Hi, Bob.
0:33.0	How are you?
0:34.9	I'm okay.
0:36.2	Under the circumstances.
0:38.4	I know that feeling. That's what we're going to okay. Under the circumstances. I know that feeling.
0:39.8	That's what we're going to talk about.
0:40.8	The circumstances.
0:41.8	Let me introduce this first.
0:42.8	I'm Robert Wright, editor-in-chief of the non-zero newsletter.
0:45.8	This is the non-zero podcast.
0:48.1	And you are Almut Rojanski, give or take a mispronounced syllable.
0:53.6	I'll bet you say that to everybody. The... Give or take a mispronounced syllable.
0:56.9	I'll bet you say that to everybody.
1:02.0	Anyway, you've been on here once before.
1:10.8	And today what we're going to talk about, I think we talked a little more about foreign policy and Ukraine war before. Today we're going to talk about American politics largely, not exclusively.
1:18.3	And in particular, the issue of the Trump administration's authoritarian tendencies, how worrying they seem, uh, what, uh, maybe,
1:31.5	maybe what people, uh, can do about the situation if they are concerned. In any event,
1:36.7	you have a distinctive perspective on all this. Uh, for one thing, you're from Austria. So,
1:41.4	you're probably more conversant than I am in the kind of
1:45.8	versions of authoritarian drift that are said to be afoot in parts of Western Europe.
	...

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