1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:04,960 Speaker 1: Cool zone Media. 2 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:10,000 Speaker 2: Welcome to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. Amidst 3 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 2: attempts by President Trump to seize control of Greenland last 4 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 2: month during the World Economic Forum, administration officials started posting 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,320 Speaker 2: images of a penguin. On January twenty third, the White 6 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,599 Speaker 2: House shared in artificial image of Trump walking hand and 7 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:30,080 Speaker 2: flipper alongside a penguin holding an American flag across a 8 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 2: snowy tundra towards mountains bearing the flag of Greenland. The 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:40,879 Speaker 2: caption read, embrace the Penguin. The flags look like poorly 10 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:44,559 Speaker 2: photoshopped stock images, while the rest of the image appears 11 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:49,239 Speaker 2: to be generated by AI. Immediately, this post sparked ridicule 12 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 2: across various online platforms based on the fact that there 13 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 2: aren't any penguins in Greenland. Erm Penguins don't live in 14 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 2: the Northern Hemisphere save Zoos and the Glapcos Islands of Ecuador. 15 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 2: So haha, the foolish Trump has been bested once again 16 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 2: in the arena of facts and logic. Except this White 17 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 2: House penguin post was actually in reference to a TikTok 18 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 2: meme that was currently going super viral in mid January. 19 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 2: Remixed footage from Werner Herzog's Arctic documentary Encounters at the 20 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 2: End of the World, featuring a lone penguin breaking off 21 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 2: from the flock and marching towards some icy mountains, started 22 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,400 Speaker 2: spreading around. TikTok synced to an organ cover of Lemour Tejoure, 23 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,560 Speaker 2: a song which has been adopted by far right anti 24 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 2: immigration groups in Europe the past few years. This combination 25 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 2: of music and footage soon spread to other short form 26 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 2: video platforms like Instagram reels, with the featherless subject being 27 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 2: dubbed the Lonely Penguin. On January twentieth, a more explicitly 28 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 2: political version went kind of viral with over twenty thousand 29 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 2: likes with the addition of a Frederick Nietzsche quote, I 30 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 2: know of no better life purpose than to perish in 31 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 2: attempting the great and impossible unquote, with the caption save 32 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 2: Europe hashtag remigration. That same day, an edit with thirty 33 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:29,079 Speaker 2: six thousand likes by the TikTok account epic History thirty two, 34 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 2: captioned do the Hard Thing played the documentary footage with 35 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 2: herz Aug generation overlaid with images of historical figures and 36 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 2: pop culture characters like Alexander the Great, Caesar, Joan of Arc, 37 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 2: King Richard First King Baldwin Fourth, Genghis Khan Aragorn, John 38 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:50,640 Speaker 2: snow Luke, Skywalker, and Spider Man. An op ed and 39 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,520 Speaker 2: Fox News by the daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy 40 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:58,800 Speaker 2: referred to these as quote unquote Western heroes. To quote 41 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 2: this op ed, in the film, Herzog shows a lone 42 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 2: penguin peeling away from the safety of its colony and 43 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 2: heading inland towards certain death according to Herzog, but the 44 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:13,680 Speaker 2: online right saw something else. Users, mostly male, saw the 45 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,960 Speaker 2: penguin as a powerful rebuke of secular modernity. They interpreted 46 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 2: the penguin not as lost, but as a free thinker. 47 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 2: To them, he was rejecting the colony. In today's terms, 48 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 2: that means rejecting secular postmodern orthodoxy and marching toward a 49 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 2: greater purpose. So though Herzog in this documentary refers to 50 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 2: this penguin as deranged as a meme, users identified with 51 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 2: the penguin as a symbol of masculine rebellion against what 52 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 2: they view as mainstream culture and the solitary trek up 53 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 2: the mountains as a metaphor for the struggle of individual greatness. 54 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 2: Clips of men on outdoor adventures and climbing mountains Zarathustra 55 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 2: style with the caption be the Penguin spread wildly online, 56 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 2: the most popular reaching four point two million likes, and 57 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 2: oother penguin themed videos getting hundreds of thousands of likes. 58 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 2: The Herzog penguin meme piggybacked and partially merged with an 59 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 2: older right wing penguin based meme video from two years 60 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:22,479 Speaker 2: ago of a drag queen asking a kid about boys 61 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 2: wearing makeup. The kid responds that boys can't wear makeup, 62 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,039 Speaker 2: So the drag queen asks the kid who told him that, 63 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 2: and this confused child looks around and sees a cartoon 64 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 2: penguin on the wall, points to it and says that 65 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 2: penguin over there. Six hundred and eighteen thousand likes. 66 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: What do you think about men wear who wear makeup? 67 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 3: To boys who said the penguin? Is there the penguin? 68 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 2: This video and this figure of the has since been 69 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 2: used as a symbol for masculine resistance to the LGBTQ agenda, 70 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:11,159 Speaker 2: and this new penguin meme pertains to tap into a 71 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 2: uniquely masculine urge, as explained by this TikToker who racked 72 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 2: up forty two thousand likes. 73 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:20,479 Speaker 4: I hate to be the one to say it, but 74 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 4: the penguin didn't make it. But does that mean he 75 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,040 Speaker 4: died in vain? No, his life was not a tragedy. 76 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 4: It was an inspiration. He left a legacy most of 77 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 4: us could only hope for. It would be easy to 78 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 4: quote Nietzsche here, but that wouldn't do it justice. That 79 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:40,159 Speaker 4: penguin spoke to something inside all of us men, a 80 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 4: desire for more, to push our limits and see what 81 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 4: we're truly made of. Sometimes our purpose is the impacts 82 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 4: that we leave behind. 83 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:53,120 Speaker 2: On January twenty third, the Department of War Rapid Response 84 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:57,920 Speaker 2: account posted be a Warrior Embrace the Penguin with NAI 85 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,480 Speaker 2: generated image of five men wearing the uniform of each 86 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:05,840 Speaker 2: military branch walking towards the mountains alongside a penguin. Secretary 87 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 2: Kennedy posted a make America Healthy Again edit of the 88 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:13,839 Speaker 2: penguin meme with the organ music over an AI video 89 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 2: of RFK Junior and a penguin walking to the mountains 90 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 2: on screen. Text reads the mainstream made us sick. Choose 91 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 2: the healthier path. The Health and Human Services government account 92 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 2: quote tweeted this video with the caption locking in after 93 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 2: watching that penguin edit unquote, soy occupied Government, an anti 94 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 2: immigration advocacy account, created a viral aiimage of a large, 95 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 2: evidently prosperous colony of penguins gathered under the banner of multiculturalism. 96 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 2: It reads that as a giant banner, juxtaposed to a 97 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:56,239 Speaker 2: lone penguin facing the mountains and a sign reading remigration 98 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:01,159 Speaker 2: now across the pond. The London mayor candidate for the 99 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 2: far right Reform Party in the UK, Lila Cunningham, copied 100 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,239 Speaker 2: Trump's version of the penguin meme with an artificial image 101 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 2: of her holding hands with a penguin walking towards some 102 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:17,400 Speaker 2: snowy mountains surrounding the Tower Bridge in London. The caption reads, 103 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 2: choose a new path for London before it's too late. 104 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:26,920 Speaker 2: The last penguin post will consider is a video edit 105 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,960 Speaker 2: from the Department of Homeland Security. It starts, like many 106 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 2: of the viral TikTok and reels videos with footage and 107 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 2: narration from Herzog's documentary, which I will finally play here. 108 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,200 Speaker 5: But one of them caught our eye. The one in 109 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 5: the center, he would neither go towards the feeding grounds 110 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 5: at the edge of the ice nor return to the colony. 111 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 5: Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight towards the mountains, 112 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 5: some seventy kilometers away. Doctor Ainley explained that even if 113 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 5: he caught him and brought him back to the colony, 114 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 5: he would immediately he right back for the mountains. But why. 115 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 2: After the narration cuts out, the music continues as a 116 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 2: fan cam style montage plays Trump, military helicopters, swat style 117 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,199 Speaker 2: home raids, and ice and Border patrol arresting people. The 118 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:39,840 Speaker 2: video is captioned, Americans have always known why. In response 119 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,560 Speaker 2: to Herzog's query, this post from the DHS asserts that 120 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 2: part of the essence of America is breaking away from 121 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 2: the herd and forging your own path. Those who don't 122 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 2: understand Trump's desire to control Greenland at the risk of 123 00:08:56,679 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 2: further damaging our geopolitical standing just suffer from heard mentality 124 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 2: and will never be strong enough to take the kind 125 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 2: of risks that are core to the existence of this country. 126 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 2: On January twenty fourth, the White House posted the penguin 127 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 2: does not concern himself with the opinions of those who 128 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 2: cannot comprehend. For Trump, Venezuela Greenland imperial expansion is an 129 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:26,560 Speaker 2: existential mission to achieve some mythic frontier greatness, and only 130 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 2: true Americans can understand why the Fox News penguin op 131 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 2: ed by Christian nationalist Sean Duffy's daughter, Wow, that's a 132 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:40,440 Speaker 2: nightmare sentence reads quote for Trump, the penguin is an 133 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 2: apt symbol for the President's decade long fight against the 134 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:47,800 Speaker 2: radical left. Everything Trump does is opposed by the global 135 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 2: power brokers. Even the President's pushed to obtain Greenland has 136 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 2: been fanatically opposed by hysterical European elites. America was built 137 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 2: by penguins, and by that I mean pilgrims, frontier men 138 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 2: and women, conquistadors and cowboys. We are a nation founded 139 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,160 Speaker 2: by risk takers who left the colony for the mountains. 140 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:11,680 Speaker 2: We are descended from men who suffered and died to 141 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:19,080 Speaker 2: carve civilization out of wilderness. It is our inheritance unquote. Now, 142 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 2: what this DHS penguin video doesn't include, but has already 143 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:27,120 Speaker 2: been alluded to by some of the other videos I've played, 144 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 2: is the actual context of this lone bird's journey and 145 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:37,760 Speaker 2: its sad fate. We will return to discuss penguin insanity 146 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 2: after this ad break. We're back, though. The twenty twenty 147 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:56,800 Speaker 2: six version of the penguin meme was dubbed the Lonely Penguin. 148 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 2: Earlier meme videos of this documentary foot from years past 149 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:07,120 Speaker 2: carried the titles deranged penguin or nihilist Penguin. Before the 150 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 2: footage of this lone Penguin plays in the documentary, Herzog 151 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 2: asks a penguin expert if they can experience insanity? 152 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:22,079 Speaker 3: Is there such thing as insanity among penguins? I try 153 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:26,079 Speaker 3: to avoid the definition of insanity a derangement. I don't 154 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 3: mean that a penguin in might believe she's lending a 155 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:32,800 Speaker 3: Napoleon Bonaparte. 156 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,079 Speaker 5: But could they just go crazy because they've had enough 157 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,679 Speaker 5: of their colony? 158 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 6: Well, I've never seen a penguin bashing his head against 159 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 6: the rock. They do get disoriented, they end up in 160 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 6: places they shouldn't be, long way from the ocean. 161 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:02,400 Speaker 2: The political invocations of this foot largely ignore Verner Herzog's 162 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 2: own speculation on why the penguin is marching towards the 163 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,439 Speaker 2: mountains in the far off distance and its inevitable fate. 164 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 5: One of these disoriented, deranged penguins showed up in the 165 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 5: New Harbor diving camp, already some eighty kilometers away from 166 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 5: where it should be. And here he's heading off into 167 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:31,679 Speaker 5: the interior of the vast continent with five thousand kilometers 168 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 5: ahead of him. He's heading towards certain death. 169 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:41,959 Speaker 2: The penguin is not the uber match. The penguin will 170 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,079 Speaker 2: not achieve individual greatness at the summit of the mountain 171 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 2: because it's never going to get there. As Front of 172 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:53,079 Speaker 2: the Pod Dan Olsen so eloquently put it, the penguin 173 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 2: is going to die. Though the penguin does not bash 174 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 2: its head on a rock, this separation from society is 175 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 2: still an act of suicide. The deranged penguin has literally 176 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:06,640 Speaker 2: turned its back on food, water, shelter, and the colony 177 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,720 Speaker 2: to die, wandering towards mountains that it will never reach. 178 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 2: The Trump administration's embrace of this suicidal penguin as a 179 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 2: that's literally me figure is a shockingly open display of 180 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:24,480 Speaker 2: fascism's relation to the death drive. It's just so naked 181 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 2: to make your mascot a symbol of suicidal defiance against 182 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:32,439 Speaker 2: perceived cultural norms. They're doing a first as tragedy twice 183 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,640 Speaker 2: as farce for fascist death emblems. The Nazis get the skull, 184 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:40,880 Speaker 2: we get a fucking penguin. But the penguin is not 185 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 2: the first modern American suicidal folk hero. The Kildozer rampage 186 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,880 Speaker 2: of public destruction, which ended in the suicide of the perpetrator, 187 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 2: has been a mascot for the libertarian right for over 188 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,959 Speaker 2: two decades, and in twenty eighteen, a twenty eight year 189 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,640 Speaker 2: old airport ground service a named Richard Russell hijacked in 190 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:07,360 Speaker 2: empty plane at SeaTac to fly over Mount Rainier before 191 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:11,920 Speaker 2: killing himself by purposely crashing the plane. Very similar to 192 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 2: Herzog's deranged penguin. Russell left behind a wife of six years, 193 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 2: but became a sort of nihilistic folk hero to overly 194 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 2: online young men, especially among the online far right on 195 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 2: places like four Chan and Telegram, where he was dubbed 196 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 2: sky King. Last August, a Congressional Republican from Georgia Mike Collins, 197 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 2: who serves on the Republican Transportation Committee, posted a glowing, 198 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:43,120 Speaker 2: multi paragraph memorial for Richard Russell on the anniversary of 199 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 2: his suicide, signing off the message with rest in peace, 200 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 2: Sky King, but the direct identification of the Trump administration 201 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:59,359 Speaker 2: with a suicidal penguin is a step farther. The fascist 202 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 2: appetite for death is well understood, but the death drive 203 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 2: represents a usually subconscious desire to not only harm or 204 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:12,840 Speaker 2: kill others, but ultimately yourself, an attempt to ease the 205 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 2: tensions driving social life by returning to a prior, in 206 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,800 Speaker 2: organic state. This desire can be channeled through the politics 207 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 2: of fascism, which allow for violent, paranoid manifestations of repressed 208 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 2: internal contradictions which attempt to be resolved through death. But 209 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 2: fascism itself is a contradiction between a primitive war machine 210 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 2: and a stable state apparatus, and the way that tension 211 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 2: is released is also self destruction. In the second volume 212 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 2: of Capitalism at Schizophrenia A Thousand Plateaus by philosopher Jills 213 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 2: to Lose and psychoanalyst Felix Squatterri, they discuss the ways 214 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:58,120 Speaker 2: in which fascism and toutlitarianism differ. They write that totalitarianism 215 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 2: is a state affair made up of of material components 216 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 2: that over manage society. Quote. Even in the case of 217 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,040 Speaker 2: a military dictatorship, it is a state army, not a 218 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 2: war machine that takes power and elevates the state to 219 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:18,920 Speaker 2: the totalitarian stage. Totalitarianism is quot essentially conservative. Fascism, on 220 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 2: the other hand, involves a war machine. When fascism builds 221 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 2: itself a totalitarian state, it is not in the sense 222 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,680 Speaker 2: of a state army taking power, but of a war 223 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 2: machine taking over the state unquote. This analysis from Deluze 224 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:39,480 Speaker 2: and Guatairie is building off of an essay by the 225 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 2: French writer Paul Verilio called The Suicidal State, where Virilio 226 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 2: argues that in fascism, the state is far less to 227 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 2: talitarian than it is suicidal. An evolution of this state 228 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 2: that quote no longer pretends to be guided internally by 229 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:04,119 Speaker 2: reason and progress, but rather non progress and terror, founded 230 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 2: on the repulsion and fear of all development in this 231 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:14,439 Speaker 2: civil domain. This repulsion and fear were manifested in the 232 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,879 Speaker 2: accelerated destruction of state institutions during the first few months 233 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 2: of Trump's second term and Doge's scorched earth approach to 234 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 2: slashing government agencies. Verilio writes that during the disappearance of 235 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 2: public service quote, infrastructures of service are reduced as the 236 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 2: wire taps of the Hmacht are restored colonial geometry of decolonialization, 237 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:44,120 Speaker 2: so as the federal government rescinds public services, the everyday 238 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 2: presence of the federal government is reduced to masked armed 239 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 2: agents in the streets, disappearing our neighbors and shooting civilians, 240 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 2: while the president fights in court for the ability to 241 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:58,919 Speaker 2: deploy the military against American citizens within our own territory. 242 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 2: During the tension of total war or total peace, Rilio says, 243 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,760 Speaker 2: the system expands and reproduces itself, a material process without 244 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:14,439 Speaker 2: an end, but no longer without limits. To quote the 245 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:19,199 Speaker 2: Brazilian philosopher of Vladimir's Foughtley, the suicide state quote, is 246 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,719 Speaker 2: not just a manager of death. It is rather the 247 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:27,240 Speaker 2: ongoing agent of its own catastrophe, the maker of its 248 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,840 Speaker 2: own explosion. To be more precise, This new state mixes 249 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,359 Speaker 2: the death management of entire sectors of its own population 250 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:40,000 Speaker 2: with an ongoing and risky flirtation with its own self 251 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:56,400 Speaker 2: destruction unquote. Rilio's idea of the suicidal state emerges as 252 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,399 Speaker 2: this new mode of governing to solve the crisis of 253 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 2: post war liberalism in Germany after World War One, as 254 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,919 Speaker 2: well as risked by the United States after each of 255 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,959 Speaker 2: our many wars. Quote. One of the keys to the 256 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,359 Speaker 2: present situation is, on one side, the overly informed status 257 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:18,720 Speaker 2: of experts of the system, and on the other the 258 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 2: underinformed status of all those who are supposedly thinking outside 259 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:23,600 Speaker 2: of it. 260 00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:24,639 Speaker 3: Quote. 261 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 2: Verlio says that the experts no longer know how to 262 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 2: use their hordes of information except to gain money and 263 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 2: status by continually adding to their body of work. Meanwhile, 264 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,639 Speaker 2: the outsiders produce the political and cultural undercurrent of modern 265 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:46,240 Speaker 2: folklore and ordinary life. But this limp dichotomy cannot last 266 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 2: for very long on its own. Soverareali proposes the new 267 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,880 Speaker 2: emergence of a third category of people who make use 268 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 2: of information for an end, the ultimate end the directors 269 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 2: of the suicidal state, while the outsiders, ideologues and artists 270 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:09,359 Speaker 2: simply try to simulate Catharsis. Quote. By contrast, the third category, 271 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 2: the suicidal state it self produces a feeling for the 272 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 2: real better it aims to retain the exclusivity of its production. 273 00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 2: This feeling is a contempt for and hatred of the 274 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:30,080 Speaker 2: every day Unquote, to paraphrase Virilio, the fascist project exploits 275 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:38,680 Speaker 2: man's alienation from his environment through pollution, economic insecurity, emotional insecurity, desocialization, 276 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:43,119 Speaker 2: and seeks to replace any legitimate grievance he has with 277 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:48,200 Speaker 2: society with a more repulsive and expressive force, the fear 278 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 2: of society, which is superimposed on a new military schema 279 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 2: of total war and internal invasion, all towards a nihilistic 280 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:05,359 Speaker 2: end of dropping the bomb on ourselves. The oscillation of 281 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 2: external and internal destruction epitomized by the death Drive is 282 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,120 Speaker 2: mirrored by the imperial boomerang, where the violence of colonial 283 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,359 Speaker 2: expansion is forced to return to its homeland. Once home, 284 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 2: the drive remains, resulting in a war on society directly 285 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,119 Speaker 2: or through other means. But this is a war on 286 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 2: its own people. Whereas Trump would say the enemy within, 287 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,440 Speaker 2: to quote a paragraph from a Thousand Plateaus, so called 288 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:41,440 Speaker 2: total war seems less a state undertaking than an undertaking 289 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 2: of a war machine that appropriates the state and channels 290 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,960 Speaker 2: it into a flow of absolute war whose only possible 291 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:54,399 Speaker 2: outcome is the suicide of this state itself. There is 292 00:21:54,760 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 2: in fascism a realized nihilism, unlike the ttalitarian state, which 293 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:04,520 Speaker 2: does its utmost to seal all possible lines of escape. 294 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 2: Fascism is constructed on an intense line of escape, which 295 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,520 Speaker 2: it transforms into a line of pure destruction and abolition. 296 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,240 Speaker 2: It is curious that from the very beginning the Nazis 297 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 2: announced to Germany what they were bringing at once, wedding 298 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,280 Speaker 2: bells and death, including their own deaths and the death 299 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 2: of the Germans. They thought they would perish, but that 300 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 2: their undertaking would be resumed all across Europe, all over 301 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:37,000 Speaker 2: the world, throughout the Solar system. And the people cheered, 302 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,480 Speaker 2: not because they did not understand, but because they wanted 303 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:45,480 Speaker 2: that death through the death of others, like a will 304 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:49,360 Speaker 2: to wager everything you have every hand to stake your 305 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:54,480 Speaker 2: own death against the death of others. Unquote in a 306 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,160 Speaker 2: Thousand Plateaus, De Luze and Guatai quote an excerpt from 307 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 2: Klaus Man's nineteen thirty six novel Mefisto, which contains fascist 308 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:08,280 Speaker 2: speeches and ordinary conversations from Nazi Germany. The quote they 309 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 2: include is eerily similar to the visuals of Trump as 310 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:18,119 Speaker 2: the suicidal penguin quote. Heroism was something that was being 311 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 2: ruled out of our lives. In reality, we are not 312 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:27,199 Speaker 2: marching forward. We are reeling, staggering. Our beloved fear is 313 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 2: dragging us toward the shades of darkness and everlasting nothingness. 314 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 2: How can we poets who have a special affinity for 315 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:40,639 Speaker 2: darkness and lower depths not admire him unquote. Delus in 316 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:45,879 Speaker 2: Guatrie then write, suicide is presented not as a punishment, 317 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 2: but as the crowning glory of the death of others. 318 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,960 Speaker 2: The insufficiency of economic and political definitions of fascism does 319 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,440 Speaker 2: not simply imply a need to tack on vague so 320 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 2: called ideological determinations. We prefer to inquiry into the precise 321 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,439 Speaker 2: formation of Nazi statements, which are just as much in 322 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,280 Speaker 2: evidence in politics and economics as in the most absurd 323 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 2: of conversations. They always contain the stupid and repugnant cry 324 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 2: long live death. Even at the economic level, where the 325 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:24,080 Speaker 2: arms expansion replaces growth in consumption, and where investment veers 326 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,520 Speaker 2: from the means of production toward the means of pure 327 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 2: destruction unquote. Verilio calls this a psychosis which governs its 328 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 2: entire politics of production, and he writes that the replacement 329 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 2: of the American industries of the automobile and the cinema 330 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 2: with the military industrial complex quote does not involve a rational, functional, 331 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 2: or useful choice, but rather entirely psychological, or rather psychopathological. 332 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,399 Speaker 2: It stems from contempt for an abandonment of productive rapport 333 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:03,479 Speaker 2: with the million you every investment is made to escape 334 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 2: from it unquote. For contemporary reference, go check out the 335 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,639 Speaker 2: stock price of Pallanteer. And on the larger economic and 336 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:17,879 Speaker 2: international level, Trump's tariffs, his trade wars, and the self 337 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,880 Speaker 2: destruction of the United States geopolitical standing are all expressions 338 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:27,119 Speaker 2: of this suicidal state in action. Filio claims the state 339 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 2: of total war, where the economy of war has become 340 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 2: the economy of peace, is facilitated by a transformation in 341 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 2: the American sense of freedom, where quote unquote, the free 342 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,399 Speaker 2: as a subject as in the Land of the Free 343 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 2: quote is no longer properly spoken of as a citizen. 344 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,119 Speaker 2: He has an anonymous organism, without culture, without society, and 345 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:56,360 Speaker 2: without memory. This figure has no historical precedent. Assistance has 346 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:02,640 Speaker 2: become survival non assistance, a condemned to death. All liberation 347 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 2: henceforth has for him invariably the appearance of death of 348 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:13,160 Speaker 2: the end suicide or murder unquote. This sort of freedom 349 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 2: from social services, freedom from this state, freedom from assistance 350 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,240 Speaker 2: as a movement of the death drive also provides insight 351 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:26,440 Speaker 2: into people's willingness to and even desire to vote against 352 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 2: their own material interests, especially when their political struggle has 353 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 2: turned against society itself. Only in transformation of ordinary social 354 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,400 Speaker 2: life into the horrific in the minds of the populace 355 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 2: can the fascist quote find their surest means of governing. 356 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,120 Speaker 2: The legitimization of his politics and military strategies, and right 357 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 2: up to the end, far from weakening the repulsive nature 358 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 2: of his powers, the ruins, the hoarders, the crimes, the 359 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 2: chaos of total war will generally own only increase in scope. 360 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:07,639 Speaker 2: In Hitler's nineteen forty five telegram seventy one, he writes, 361 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 2: if the war is lost, may the nation perish. Here 362 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 2: Hitler decides to join forces with his enemies in order 363 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,800 Speaker 2: to complete the destruction of his own people by obliterating 364 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 2: the last remaining sources of its life support system civil 365 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,600 Speaker 2: reserves of every kind, put up a water fuel provisions. 366 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,879 Speaker 2: This is the normal outcome of the politics of dialectical 367 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,920 Speaker 2: retreat from the man who had written the idea of protection, 368 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:45,920 Speaker 2: haunts and fulfills life. Fascism hijacks the mechanism of evolutionary 369 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:51,520 Speaker 2: and revolutionary escape and reverts it into a mechanism of destruction. 370 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 2: Instead of resolving crises, it produces constant crisis for it 371 00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:01,160 Speaker 2: to feed off of forming, as del and Guatris say, 372 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 2: a war machine instead of resonating in a state apparatus, 373 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,119 Speaker 2: A war machine that no longer had anything but war 374 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,040 Speaker 2: as its object and would rather annihilate its own servants 375 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 2: than stop the destruction. To quote a thousand plateaus, this 376 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,440 Speaker 2: is war not for conquest or revolution, but war as 377 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 2: its own end. The hollowing out of public institutions and 378 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 2: social services, the divestment from the milieu of life, leads 379 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,760 Speaker 2: people to turn towards the suicidal state as the only 380 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 2: force of movement, resting on, as Filio says, quote, the 381 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:47,200 Speaker 2: advanced exploitation of our instincts for death. A new totalitarian 382 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 2: state defined by the constant ascent of statistics toward planetary death. 383 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 2: Crime and madness will no longer be the defects. The 384 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,920 Speaker 2: madman and the assassin are the legitimate children engendered and 385 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 2: recognized by the suicidal state unquote. And what phenomenon has 386 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 2: risen in the United States the past few years the Conspiracy, 387 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 2: Theorist and the Assassin. The embrace of total war and 388 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 2: the campaign of civil fear necessitates a break from sanity 389 00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:24,719 Speaker 2: and the bizarre strangeness of means that inevitably result in 390 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,400 Speaker 2: a self destructive end. Vrillio claims there is an insanity 391 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 2: at the heart of the fascist project. The imaginary potential 392 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 2: of the fascist state arises quote from a finished world 393 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:42,200 Speaker 2: where insanity has become the goal of order, the very 394 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:47,600 Speaker 2: product of organization. Unquote. There's a quote from Goebels to 395 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 2: one of his aides, Prince Frederick Christian. The world in 396 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 2: which Hitler moves is a world of absolute fate, a 397 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 2: world in which even success makes nos sense. It's not 398 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 2: a mistake that the White House has cast itself as 399 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:09,479 Speaker 2: a lost penguin marching to its own death. They know 400 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,280 Speaker 2: the absurdity of their replies. They know the world looks 401 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,160 Speaker 2: upon them as insane. They know that they'll never reach 402 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 2: the make America Great Again mountain. The self destruction ice, 403 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,680 Speaker 2: the tariffs, the broken treaties are not for any greater purpose. 404 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 2: The means are the end. This is total war, the 405 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,960 Speaker 2: psychological purpose of which is terror, which for the fascist 406 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:42,320 Speaker 2: is synonymous with peace. But let's not forget how Hitler 407 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,480 Speaker 2: and Goebbels finally resolved their contradictions. 408 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 409 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,960 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 410 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 411 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:02,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can now 412 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: find sources for It could Happen Here, listed directly in 413 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,920 Speaker 1: episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.