This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our supporters at patreon.com and by Verso Books, which has

loads of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you. One that you might like is

Being Numerous, Essays on Non-Fascist Life by Natasha Leonard. Being numerous shatters the mainstream consensus

on politics and personhood, offering in its place a bracing analysis of a perilous world

and how we should live in it. Beginning with an interrogation of what it means to fight

fascism, Natasha Leonard explores the limits of individual rights, the criminalization of political

descent, the myths of radical sex, and the ghosts in our lives. At once politically committed and philosophically capacious,

being numerous is a revaluation of the idea that the personal is political

and situates as the central question of our time,

how can we live a non-fascist life?

Being numerous, essays on non-fascist life by Natasha Leonard, out now from Verso Books. Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin Magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm temporarily broadcasting from Santiago de Chile.

There is perhaps no more depressing situation in Western Europe than that which prevails in Italy,

a coalition government between

the far-right Lega Party and the now subordinate, bizarre, amorphously anti-corruption, internet fetishist,

pseudo-directly democratic, five-star movement. In other words, Italian politics is dominated by a viciously racist

anti-immigrant politics. The left, along with most traditional forces, is in disarray.

Today, Lega, led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, runs Italian politics.

And after the recent EU elections, they also form part of a sizable block of far-right parties in the EU parliament.

But the bad news is also, I guess, the good news.

Salvini has not solved Italy's deep-rooted economic

problems, and so it's quite possible that the very same instability that abetted his rise

...