Dirty deals with demagogues: ANNE APPLEBAUM on democracy’s betrayers

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why do former democrats and intellectuals so often make the squalid journey from liberalism to hardline nationalism? Historian ANNE APPLEBAUM’s new book Twilight Of Democracy: The Failure Of Politics And The Parting Of Friends describes why once-liberal people make deals with devils of demagoguery. She talks to Nina Schick about the revenge of the second-raters, the lure of performative rage, how toxic nostalgia feeds authoritarianism and worse… and what we can do about it. “If you despair that your society is coming to an end, you will embrace desperate measures.” “When Trump tweets ‘LAW AND ORDER’ what he’s saying is, I can shut these people up.” “Brexit was a coup carried out by one part of the elite against another part of the elite.” “The defeat of Donald Trump is absolutely the most important thing that needs to happen for the world to move forward.” Presented by Nina Schick. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
0:22.0	Phoenix Group is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business.
0:28.0	Search Phoenix Group living longer.
0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
0:32.0	From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa
0:36.7	so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so
0:55.3	look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Welcome to the bunker daily with me Nina Schick. I'm a political broadcaster and author focusing on how technology is reshaping politics in society.
1:17.0	My own book, Deep Fakes and The Foculips, is coming out next month and is relevant to the many themes which we'll be discussing today.
1:23.8	If in the early 90s with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union,
1:28.1	you'd have said that only two decades later, liberal democracy itself, the model of freedom, would be in danger, few people would have
1:36.0	taken you seriously. Since then, successive failed wars in the Middle East, the global financial
1:41.3	crisis, an increasingly isolationist America and the
1:44.2	fracturing of the transatlantic alliance have been slowly chipping away at the
1:47.8	notion that we had come to the end of history with the defeat of communism.
1:51.2	20 years into the new millennium,
1:53.5	populists and strongmen are in power across the world.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.