4.8 β’ 861 Ratings
ποΈ 19 November 2025
β±οΈ 47 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Autocrats are famous for enacting vague laws with specific punishments β and if people preemptively overcorrect their behaviors, all the better. Matthew Purdy is editor at large and writer for The New York Times Magazine. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why the Trump administration has intentionally created vagaries around tariffs, D.E.I. and other areas so that it is difficult to know if one is breaking the law β and how that helps to consolidate presidential power. His article is βIn the Trump Presidency, the Rules Are Vague. That Might Be the Point.β
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| 0:48.1 | If it seems to you like the best way to gain maximum control over people is to crank out a bunch of highly specific rules, Dwight Shrut style. |
| 1:01.0 | I'm sorry to say it, but you will never hack it as an autocrat. |
| 1:04.0 | To get people to not just follow your orders, but try to anticipate your wishes before you can even articulate them. It helps to keep |
| 1:12.1 | policies imprecise, but make punishments crystal clear. From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm |
| 1:19.2 | Chris Boyd. These tactics have been deployed a long time in places ruled by dictators. But as my |
| 1:25.6 | guest will explain, the Trump administration's unprecedented |
| 1:28.7 | executive authority over everything from tariffs to education policy to immigration has been |
| 1:33.8 | enabled in part by declarations that certain poorly defined infractions will not be tolerated. |
| 1:40.0 | Like, for example, illegal DEI. But what exactly makes DEI either legal or illegal? |
| 1:46.5 | If the boundaries are legally arbitrary, people and organizations have to guess what crosses |
| 1:51.8 | the line and can never relax in the knowledge they won't be penalized. |
| 1:56.1 | Matthew Purdy is editor-at-large at the New York Times Magazine where you can read his article |
| 2:00.1 | in the Trump presidency, the rules are vague. |
| 2:03.1 | That might be the point. |
| 2:04.4 | Matthew, welcome to think. |
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