Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Subversion of the West

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the author of several books—including the 2006 autobiography Infidel—as well as a fellow at the Hoover Institution She runs a foundation focused on human rights and, yes, she has a Substack. But Ayaan comes from a very different world from most of the people who inhabit our think tanks and ivory towers. Unlike those of us in the West who grew up with everything, Ayaan grew up in Somalia with. . . nothing. No liberty, no rule of law, no system of representative government, no pluralism, and no toleration for difference. Ayaan knows what it is like to live without those ideals, which is why she also has a particular instinct for when they are under attack. And that is exactly what she sees happening—all over the West. Today, you’ll hear Ayaan read the epochal essay she published this morning in The Free Press. She explains how subversion—the act of undermining a country from within—works gradually and sometimes invisibly, but can ultimately explode and destroy a society. And she argues that what’s at stake in our inability to see the threat plainly is nothing less than the preservation of our way of life. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through Bookshop.org links in this article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by M&M.
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0:30.0	From the free press, this is honestly. I am IAN Hersi Ali
0:36.8	And Barry Weiss here jumping in to say that you're in for something different and very
0:41.7	special for today's episode. As you all know, we usually do interviews,
0:45.8	debates, and round tables on this show, but not today. That's because this morning in the free press, we published an epical essay from Aeon Her Calee, and I really
0:56.6	wanted to share it on honestly for you guys today, so you could hear it in Ieon's voice.
1:02.4	Now I could introduce you to ION by her accolades.
1:04.8	She is the author of several important books including the unforgettable memoir
1:09.5	Infidel. She's a fellow at the Hoover Institute.
1:13.0	She runs a foundation focused on human rights, and yes, she's even got a sub-stack.
1:18.5	But Aeon comes from a very different world from most of the people who inhabit our ivory towers and our
1:24.2	think tanks. Unlike those of us in the West who grew up with every freedom, Ayan grew up
1:30.2	in Somalia with none of it. No liberty, no rule of law, no system of
1:35.9	representative government, no toleration for difference, no pluralism. So Aya
1:41.6	knows what it is to live without those ideals, which is why she also has a particular
	...

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