1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:09,879 Speaker 1: Call Zone media, Robert Evans here and this is it 2 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: could happen here, and boy it sure is now. I 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: don't know where we go from this point, and neither 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: does anyone else. On the moment before I wrote this, 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,799 Speaker 1: I woke up, groggy from my chemically assisted sleep to 6 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: a barrage of horror. Donald Trump signing Anti Tran's legislation 7 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:32,280 Speaker 1: into law, Elon Musk giving a double fascist salute. Donald 8 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: Trump saluting and dancing with the village people, proud boys 9 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,159 Speaker 1: tramping through the streets of our nation's capital, reveling in 10 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: their newfound impunity. The dark days have come again because 11 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: they never really left. All the battles and street fighting 12 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,199 Speaker 1: and organizing from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty brought us 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: four years of badly negotiated peace while the rot continued 14 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: unabated rot. It's a term I see a lot these days. 15 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: A colleague and friend ed Zeitron refers to the hell 16 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: our tech oligarchs continue to force upon us as the 17 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 1: rot economy. Charlie Angus, a member of the Canadian Parliament, 18 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: use the term rage rot to refer to now President 19 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: Trump's Christmas Day message suggesting Canada should become the fifty 20 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: first state. Over the last year, I've seen a slew 21 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: of articles bemoaning democratic decay, the rot plaguing democracy, and 22 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: the deep rot at the heart of our political system. 23 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,199 Speaker 1: One thing I have done over the last four years 24 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,960 Speaker 1: is learn how to efficiently process the carcasses of wild animals. 25 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: So I hunter, raise, and slaughter, but many are roadkill, 26 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: harvested from the side of the road. My family comes 27 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,480 Speaker 1: from rural Oklahoma, so perhaps there's some epigenetic hillbilly memory 28 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: that makes this so satisfying to me. But it's also 29 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: changed the way I understand the word rot. Rot starts 30 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: from the bone. If you look at the back leg 31 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: of an animal that's been hit by a truck, you'll 32 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 1: see it spreading a deep black bruise from the ball 33 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: and sockage. Point out. If your goal is to preserve 34 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:04,919 Speaker 1: good meat, then the key is to remove those limbs 35 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: from the body and then the meat from the bone 36 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. When I think of rot and 37 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:14,639 Speaker 1: how to arrest it, I think of dismemberment. This seems 38 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: to be the one thing that almost every political person 39 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,120 Speaker 1: in the country agrees with the United States as it is, 40 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: must be dismembered, disassembled, sliced from the rotten bone, and 41 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 1: changed into something more palatable for whoever holds the knife. 42 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: Joe Biden and the Democratic Party failed primarily because they 43 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: refuse to start cutting. Their successors will not make the 44 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: same mistake on the opposing side of the isle. Today, 45 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:42,919 Speaker 1: I see a lot of angry people arguing about what 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 1: the knife ought to be cutting, and how much better 47 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: they'd use it if it passed into their hands. That 48 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: doesn't help any of us Right now. Migrants are dying 49 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:55,399 Speaker 1: of thirst while vigilantes destroy water drops left by activists 50 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: who themselves will likely be criminalized in the near future. 51 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: Homeless Americans trying not to freeze to death at knight 52 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: may soon find themselves arrested, forced into camps where they'll 53 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,440 Speaker 1: be made to labor for pennies. Neo Nazi's cheer as 54 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: the billionaire behind the throne makes fascist salutes from the 55 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: White House with smirking impunity. The knife is so far 56 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,720 Speaker 1: away from our hands, I find myself distrusting anyone who 57 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: wastes time bemoaning how it ought to be used. Where 58 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 1: does that leave us, though? Is there anything to do 59 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: in this deep winter besides listen to the jackals howling 60 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: outside our doors. I have an answer to this question. Yes, 61 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:36,839 Speaker 1: now is the time to try to test the boundaries 62 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: of our collective cage. Now is the time to experiment. 63 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: Since the time of the founding fathers, this country and 64 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: its system have been referred to as the American Experiment. 65 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: One could see the very terms narcissistic, yet another solipsistic 66 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,400 Speaker 1: gasp of American exceptionalism. But I tend to think the 67 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: appellation is one we've earned. This country is and always 68 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: has been a test for new, often bad ideas about 69 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: how a society ought to run. American civilization's only core 70 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: value is throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. 71 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: That also happens to be the only real way to 72 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: fight back against authoritarianism. There's a scientific paper I bring 73 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: up often, the evolution of overconfidence, which set out to 74 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:26,160 Speaker 1: explain why people so often badly overestimate their own abilities. 75 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: The authors pondered quote, overconfidence also leads to faulty assessments, 76 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:36,039 Speaker 1: unrealistic expectations, and hazardous decisions. So it remains a puzzle 77 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: how such a false belief could evolve or remain stable 78 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: in a population of competing strategies that include accurate, unbiased beliefs. Now. 79 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: The conclusion these researchers came to was that when significant 80 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,279 Speaker 1: resources are contested between two organisms, the organism most willing 81 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: to try to take said resources, even if it is 82 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: not the strongest, tends to succeed often enough to make 83 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:05,120 Speaker 1: over confidence evolutionarily beneficial. This is the most basic explanation 84 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: for how fascist movements continue to arise and improbably take power. 85 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 1: Put simply, they always go for it. January sixth provides 86 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: us with a fine example. It was a ludicrous, idiotic, 87 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: reckless burst of stupidity, mocked for years by everyone except 88 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: the perpetrators, who four years later find themselves with ultimate power. 89 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: They didn't win because they were the strongest. They won 90 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: because they kept trying, and the people who should have 91 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,359 Speaker 1: stopped them feared bad press, the pushback of looking unfair, 92 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: and so stood back while the fascists made smaller grabs, 93 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 1: gobbling up bits of the media, local school boards, and 94 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: narrative oxygen around issues like immigration and now, well, we're 95 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 1: here and we'll continue to talk about here after these 96 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:11,840 Speaker 1: ads we're back. The coming days will be ugly. Yet 97 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: I feel it's my job to remind you that bad 98 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:17,120 Speaker 1: as this is, we are not vymar Germany, and this 99 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,800 Speaker 1: is not nineteen thirty three. Trump and his lieutenants aren't 100 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:24,159 Speaker 1: battle hardened trench fighters. They're elon musk and a coterie 101 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 1: of half enthusiastic, half frightened billionaires who got rich gambling 102 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: on apps to let you rate your classmates tits. They're 103 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: foot soldiers, are used car salesmen from Encino, not freikorps. 104 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,720 Speaker 1: The United States is not starving to death crippled by war. 105 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: It's irritated anxious because it's working people have been robbed 106 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:48,280 Speaker 1: blind by the same billionaires standing behind Trump. Now. The 107 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:50,520 Speaker 1: one thing we do have in common with Vimar is 108 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: that our fascists now find themselves at the head of 109 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,000 Speaker 1: a state that capitulated to them, not out of enthusiastic consent, 110 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: but exhaustion, cowardice, and above all, a feeling that it 111 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:05,720 Speaker 1: didn't really matter that last one, the feeling that nothing matters. 112 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: The system as fucked. There's no point in engaging or organizing. 113 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: That is the most powerful weapon they have right now, 114 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,320 Speaker 1: because that feeling stops you and everyone else from opposing them, 115 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: from interrupting as they reach out. Yet again to take 116 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: something you love or need. But there's a danger here too. 117 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: In moments of stress and anger, the desire to do 118 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: something anything, can be intense, and when we're swept up 119 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 1: in that mood, the natural tendency is defaulting to the 120 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,680 Speaker 1: things we know best, the things we've done before, the 121 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: marches and chants and poster boards we've been walking and 122 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: shouting and carrying all century long. Going back to those 123 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: tactics without iteration or acknowledgment of their limitations and failures 124 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: is a road to more failure. I've been to a 125 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 1: lot of protests, starting at Zukati Park in twenty eleven 126 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: an ending last year in Chicago. At one of the 127 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: most dispeariting moments of my life was listening to young 128 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: anti genocide activists bow to shut down the dn C 129 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:12,160 Speaker 1: to quote make it great like sixty eight. This was 130 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:15,800 Speaker 1: a reference to the nineteen sixty eight Democratic Convention. Mass 131 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: protests were ignited there when the favorite anti war candidate, 132 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: Eugene McCarthy was ratfucked by Democratic Party insiders in favor 133 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The protests were quashed violently 134 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: with tear gas and truncheons. Protesters chanted, the whole world 135 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,440 Speaker 1: is watching, and it's been a chant ever since. The 136 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: world may have been watching then, but the war went on. 137 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: Nixon won election, then re election, and then finally pulled 138 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: US troops out of Vietnam after dropping enough bombs on 139 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:49,839 Speaker 1: Southeast Asia to have ended several Third Reichs. In twenty 140 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:53,199 Speaker 1: twenty four, a new batch of anti war protesters chanted, 141 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,880 Speaker 1: the whole world is watching, and I can say unequivocally 142 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,120 Speaker 1: it was not. The Only people watching were me, several 143 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: other journalists, and of course some people on Twitter. The police, 144 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 1: as they kettled Macedon arrested members of the crowd barely 145 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,880 Speaker 1: seemed to care. The DNC didn't shut down. Kamala Harris 146 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: was made the nominee. There wasn't even a real anti 147 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:18,800 Speaker 1: war candidate for party insiders to rat fuck in her favor. 148 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: Garrison Davis, my colleague and friend, remarked to me afterwards 149 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: that the DNC had been somehow much more depressing than 150 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 1: its Republican counterpart a month earlier. He was right on 151 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,200 Speaker 1: the stage floor. All the Democrats had to present were 152 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: aging celebrities and Bill goddamn Clinton drooling out the same 153 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: platitudes that led us to the Trump era in the 154 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: first place, and doing their best to ignore delegates who 155 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: walked out and slept in front of the convention center 156 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:51,679 Speaker 1: to protest the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, in the streets, 157 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: a lot of very nice, earnest people alongside a handful 158 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: of grifters did the only thing they could think of 159 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: doing after months of imbibing footage of war crimes. They 160 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 1: walked around and shouted. The police, and the city largely 161 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: let them because they knew none of it was going 162 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:13,079 Speaker 1: to change a goddamn thing. I'd felt tremendous optimism right 163 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,839 Speaker 1: after Joe Biden resigned, not because I loved Kamala, but 164 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: because it was something shocking, an upset, an experiment, or 165 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: at least it seemed that way. At first, the DNC 166 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,760 Speaker 1: made it clear that Biden's advisors and consiglieries, the powers 167 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: behind the throne, still ran the show and would not 168 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 1: allow any real change. The rot had spread too far, 169 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: spoiling the meat, spoiling everything. It was my accurate belief 170 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,960 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty that the Democratic Party, broken as it was, 171 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: had the numbers and the organizational capacity to slow the 172 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 1: spread of fascism. For a short time. It was my 173 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,840 Speaker 1: inaccurate belief in twenty twenty four that this might still 174 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,200 Speaker 1: be the case. I had a hope because I'd lost 175 00:10:56,280 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: any sense of actual productive optimism we lean on when 176 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:04,439 Speaker 1: we have no ideas to brace ourselves against hope, as 177 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: George Miller reminded us, is a mistake. If you don't 178 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: fix what's broken, you'll go crazy. And that's where we 179 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:16,079 Speaker 1: are now going crazy. Committed Democrats, the decent, regular people 180 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: who fill the party, not the soulless shogoths of capital 181 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: running things, are going crazy because we return to normal, 182 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 1: decent politician to office. He kept the economy humming along, 183 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:30,360 Speaker 1: and everyone still hated him. Leftists are crazy for a 184 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: different reason. In twenty twenty, this country saw the largest 185 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:38,520 Speaker 1: sustained uprising of its modern history, and nothing fundamentally changed 186 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,640 Speaker 1: in its aftermath. The oligarchs who control social media set 187 00:11:42,679 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 1: to tweaking, buying, or outright inverting their algorithms to ensure 188 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,560 Speaker 1: no similar movement whatever gain that kind of steam again. 189 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:54,359 Speaker 1: Their efforts have largely been successful, and yet many organizers, 190 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: be they progressive, social democrats, communists, anarchists, whatever, they're all 191 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,560 Speaker 1: still stuck in the same loops behind each march to nowhere, 192 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,960 Speaker 1: and tired chant is an equally tired hope. The social 193 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:11,120 Speaker 1: democrats dream of a giant, continent sized Denmark with cyclists 194 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,760 Speaker 1: replacing Ford trucks, universal healthcare, good schools, and a bevy 195 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: of other lovely things. Both political parties will fight tooth 196 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: and nail to prevent. The communists dream of a new 197 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 1: October revolution, but this one will work and not just 198 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 1: create a new kind of dictatorship that ages and dies 199 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:33,319 Speaker 1: inside the space of a single human lifetime. Anarchists tend 200 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,640 Speaker 1: to be very good at seeing the flaws and the 201 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: logic and futility of the hopes of the two previous groups, 202 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,079 Speaker 1: but they are just as bereft of ideas for how 203 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:46,320 Speaker 1: to stop what's coming. Some tendencies dream of collapse, maybe 204 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,959 Speaker 1: even accelerationism, an end to industrial society, and then either 205 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,600 Speaker 1: living in the woods eating berries, or some kind of 206 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:58,479 Speaker 1: solar punk day dream wildflowers spouting from rubble. I sympathize, 207 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,560 Speaker 1: but try offering eye their future to a single mom 208 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: who can't afford her five year old's insulin and see 209 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: how excited she gets. On the other side of the 210 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: anarchist coin, you've got the helpers, the people who cheerfully 211 00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:12,680 Speaker 1: admit they don't know how to solve the big problem, 212 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: but they do know how to provide free eye exams 213 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,680 Speaker 1: to homeless people once a month, or do water drops 214 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: down at the border so migrants don't die of dehydration, 215 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:23,720 Speaker 1: or make it more expensive for the state to bulldoze 216 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:27,080 Speaker 1: a forest and build a police training facility. If you 217 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:29,960 Speaker 1: are where we all are right now, bereft of ideas, 218 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: staring down the barrel of a nightmare, those are good 219 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: folks to know. Like everyone else, they're defaulting to what 220 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,840 Speaker 1: they've been doing, but at least what they've been doing 221 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: helps people. The larger solutions to our common woes, if 222 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: they ever arrive, will be something new, something we haven't 223 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:50,600 Speaker 1: tried yet. I feel very confident that they won't take 224 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:54,080 Speaker 1: the form of another march, or involve everyone finally agreeing 225 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,640 Speaker 1: to be the same kind of communist or anarchist or whatever. 226 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 1: Sean Fayne, chief of the United Autoworkers Union, has called 227 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:02,840 Speaker 1: for a general strike in twenty twenty eight, and so 228 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,320 Speaker 1: far that is the only clear plan I have heard 229 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: from anyone that feels like it has a ghost of 230 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: a chance it is audacious, and I recommend reading what 231 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,120 Speaker 1: Sean's laid out about it. But half of why I 232 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: support the idea is because it's audacious. The religious right 233 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 1: got to where they are right now in this country 234 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:25,040 Speaker 1: by being bold, as I laid out earlier. Fascists win 235 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: because they try, and this is something we need to copy. 236 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: Shit can be different, but not unless you're willing to 237 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 1: try different shit. Many pundits and columnists were shocked and 238 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: horrified by the mass of an instant support for Luigim 239 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: Mangioni when he assassinated the CEO of United Healthcare. Both 240 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: the tutting gatekeepers of traditional media and the actually sweating 241 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: oligarchs characterize this as evidence of bloodthirstiness. Some leftists did 242 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: the same and interpreted support for Luigi as proof that 243 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: the body politic did indeed have energy for an uprising. 244 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,480 Speaker 1: I saw something a bit different, more than the actual 245 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: killing itself. I think people were excited to see someone 246 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: try something new. Luigi adopted a novel tactic. He carried 247 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: it out in a novel way, and in doing so, 248 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: he did more to punish one of the oligarchs bleeding 249 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,560 Speaker 1: us dry than the entire occupy movement. Novelty is the 250 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,520 Speaker 1: one thing that ties Donald Trump and Luigi mangione together. 251 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:30,880 Speaker 1: The enthusiastic public response to both men's actions and the 252 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 1: simultaneous revulsion of traditional elites are mirrors of themselves. In 253 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, Trump still had enough novelty to convince 254 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,080 Speaker 1: people that he might upset the apple cart in a 255 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: way that benefited them. He rode a global anti incumbent 256 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: wave back to the White House. The consequence of this 257 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: is that he and his are now on their way 258 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,480 Speaker 1: to becoming the new establishment. This is the downside of 259 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: the fact that most legacy media outlets have started moderating 260 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: their coverage of Trump. If not embracing him outright, he 261 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,920 Speaker 1: is being normalized. His toadies, Musk Chief among them, are 262 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: now our legitimate powers. What novelty remains will fade rapidly. 263 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: I suspect the same thing will be true of the 264 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 1: copycats who follow in Luigi Maggioni's footsteps. Most of his 265 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:22,680 Speaker 1: plagiarists won't be good at what they do. At best, 266 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: newly heightened security will see these people dropped before they 267 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,720 Speaker 1: get to pull a trigger. At worst, innocent folks will 268 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: be killed or maimed by bullets and bombs that fail 269 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: to hit their intended targets, or do but with a 270 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: lot of collateral damage. So I don't know what the 271 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:41,360 Speaker 1: next new thing to actually work will be. But between 272 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: Trump and Luigi, there aren't many old norms left to shatter. 273 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: We are in a time of enormous potential. Many new 274 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: things are about to be tried, and as awful and 275 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: bloody as the fallout from some of them will be, 276 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: we all have no choice but to strap in and 277 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:02,000 Speaker 1: roll some dice of our own is ugly, the future unwritten, 278 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:04,640 Speaker 1: but the only way we'll make it a better one 279 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: is if we embrace boldness, creativity, and perhaps a little 280 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,000 Speaker 1: over confidence of our own. And this is not the 281 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 1: end of the episode. We've got something else for you, folks, 282 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:31,640 Speaker 1: But first, here's another ad break. Okay, everybody, we're back, 283 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,040 Speaker 1: And obviously what you just listened to is an essay 284 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: I wrote about my thoughts and feelings today, the first 285 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: day of the new Trump administration. I felt like that 286 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,680 Speaker 1: wasn't quite enough. And the first thing I actually came 287 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,320 Speaker 1: across this morning when I woke up, before I started 288 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: subjecting myself to a barrage of Horrible News was a 289 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,640 Speaker 1: poem written by a friend of mine, Emily Gorchinsky. It's 290 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 1: called the Time of Cowards, and I think it's a 291 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:00,200 Speaker 1: very useful thing for you to hear right now. I 292 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: think it's a good companion to what I wrote, So 293 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,600 Speaker 1: I'm going to let Emily take it away before I 294 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: do that. If you want to read the poem and 295 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: text form, or find her other work, you can go 296 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:16,360 Speaker 1: to Emily Gorchynsky g o r ce n ski dot com. 297 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:21,160 Speaker 1: That's Emily g O r c e n ski dot com. Here. 298 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 1: It is the time of cowards. 299 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 2: It is the time of the coward. It is the 300 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,119 Speaker 2: age of the liar and greed and avarice and lost 301 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:37,000 Speaker 2: boys and a dopamine hit in fractals and velocity and 302 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:40,480 Speaker 2: velocity and velocity, and go, go, go, don't stop. Don't 303 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:46,440 Speaker 2: stop to realize the indecency, the disloyalty, the dishonor, the discreditability, 304 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,920 Speaker 2: the parsimony, the hordes hoarded behind the gates, the gatekeepers keep. 305 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,240 Speaker 2: This is the dawn of masculine energy. Not the energy 306 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 2: your father taught you about measuring twice and cutting once, 307 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:02,160 Speaker 2: but picking yourself up and how the sting of hydrogen 308 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:06,439 Speaker 2: peroxide means it's working. Or your grandfather who spent the 309 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 2: days you spent smoking weed behind a seven eleven, serving 310 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:13,240 Speaker 2: on a torpedo boat, waiting for the sharks, who never 311 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 2: failed to stop to lend a hand to those in need, 312 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 2: or say grace before dinner, or to help you with 313 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,199 Speaker 2: your math homework, or teach you not to wear a 314 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 2: necktie at a lathe. This is the year of cutting 315 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,639 Speaker 2: once and never measuring, pencil in the blueprints with whatever 316 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:32,399 Speaker 2: comes out. It's faster that way. The season of hypocrites, 317 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,200 Speaker 2: and not of confidence, but confidence men, the masculine energy 318 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 2: of the Khan, the scam, the bamboozle, the fraud, the 319 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:42,159 Speaker 2: pulling of the rug and the begging of the question. 320 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 2: Now is the killing hour. The clock hands float over, 321 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:48,399 Speaker 2: the blood in the streets, and the rage, and the rage, 322 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:54,119 Speaker 2: and the uncorked hatred overflows, the minutes of impotence, expanding overflowing, fizzling. 323 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 2: Deception gives way to more deception. Not a single promise 324 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 2: is kept. Rapaciousness and rape and abandonment and the cutting 325 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 2: of corners and KPIs. A newborn died in a baby 326 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,199 Speaker 2: box in Italy because the alarm sensor didn't work. It 327 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 2: is an honorless time, a time of only one question, 328 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:17,119 Speaker 2: not how or may or can or if or whether, 329 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 2: but when how soon? No legacy, no history, no reputation. 330 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 2: Build the factories, then abandon them. The soil keeps the memory, 331 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,400 Speaker 2: and the burn scars and the floodwaters, and the clear 332 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,560 Speaker 2: windshields where the splatters of bugguts used to be, and 333 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,119 Speaker 2: the images in the twenty year old magazine still in 334 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,399 Speaker 2: the rack, and the guest bathrooms never used. That showed 335 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 2: how children used to go sledding. And maybe the house 336 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 2: is too big. No one comes by. I shoveled the 337 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,159 Speaker 2: neighbor's walk in the snow and salted it so he 338 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:50,320 Speaker 2: didn't slip on the ice and could receive his mail. 339 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,640 Speaker 2: He's an old man, one of the few black men 340 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 2: left living in this neighborhood that was theirs. Once he 341 00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:58,919 Speaker 2: sent me a letter, it went all the way to 342 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 2: Richmond to come to my dea. He's the last man 343 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,160 Speaker 2: with dignity. In the letter, he told me he has 344 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,200 Speaker 2: a new toy, a laptop, which makes him happy because 345 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:09,160 Speaker 2: he is a big lover of history and he can 346 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 2: go online and read about it and I weep for 347 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:14,840 Speaker 2: this last dignified man who proudly wears a cap honoring 348 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,080 Speaker 2: his service, because this is the era of synthesis and 349 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 2: generation and revision and content content content, and inverifiability and manipulation. 350 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,959 Speaker 2: This is the pseudo scene. I bought a bottle of 351 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,119 Speaker 2: wine from a century's old vineyard, destroyed in a devastating flood, 352 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 2: an unsyllable bottle in the retail market, fundraiser souvenir. I 353 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 2: kept it as a memento Mary of our changing world, 354 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,200 Speaker 2: a mud covered reminder of how we all must work, 355 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 2: little by little to give the world forward. It broke 356 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:47,160 Speaker 2: when I tried to move it home on my seventy 357 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,640 Speaker 2: second flight of the year. It is the decade of hypocrisy. 358 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,159 Speaker 2: Even for those who can see hypocrisy. They may be 359 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:56,720 Speaker 2: a vice president. And with every title change, I move 360 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,119 Speaker 2: farther from God, a God I never believed in. I 361 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:03,200 Speaker 2: was raised in New England towns named for biblical places 362 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 2: by people who thought working the rocky soil brought them 363 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 2: closer to God. The only holy men left are those 364 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:14,720 Speaker 2: in the fields Basra and Lebanon, and the Gilead and Hebron. 365 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,960 Speaker 2: The people who named those towns committed a genocide to 366 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:21,119 Speaker 2: name them, and four hundred years later in their namesakes 367 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 2: the same. It is the epoch of cadaverin. It is 368 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:30,400 Speaker 2: the night of bonfires and Feuershpusche, the twilight of stories 369 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 2: that dared in poems and albums. And I tried to 370 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,040 Speaker 2: sell a book, and I learned that there's only interest 371 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:37,879 Speaker 2: in a book when you put yourself into it to 372 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 2: be consumed. Words are calories, measured in the amount of 373 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:45,000 Speaker 2: heat they gave a flame. I walked over the Westminster 374 00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:46,919 Speaker 2: Bridge one night with a journalist who told me that 375 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 2: they can't publish two good stories at a time because 376 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 2: if one goes viral, it punishes the other. The arcane 377 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,439 Speaker 2: footfalls of the algorithm dance. It is the sunset of 378 00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:00,679 Speaker 2: craft and skills handed down in heritage, waxing of a 379 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 2: crass and pandering moon of pantomime, a frictionless night, a 380 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,080 Speaker 2: night where nothing dared, nothing gained, a night of shutters 381 00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:11,600 Speaker 2: and locks. These are the dark ages, ages of embarrassing 382 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 2: the future. There is a shame here that penance cannot satisfy. 383 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 2: The sturdy empty shells, the blue hyperlinks to nowhere, and 384 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 2: a generation lost must be lost because profit cannot be 385 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,760 Speaker 2: taken from an idea. I think of the mimiograph machines 386 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,159 Speaker 2: stuck under the floorboards of the Solidara Nosche houses, and 387 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,760 Speaker 2: the punks and the whores who copied radical zines in 388 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:37,560 Speaker 2: the public library, xerox machines, and the Yugoslavian Galaxia, and 389 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,120 Speaker 2: the novels now considered some of the greatest of all time, 390 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:44,800 Speaker 2: once banned for obscenity. In Chochescu's house, the original TV remains. 391 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 2: The revolutionaries didn't bother to steal it because there were 392 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,359 Speaker 2: only thirty minutes of broadcast TV each day. In the 393 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,080 Speaker 2: crepuscular light, birds dare to sing, even though they know 394 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,520 Speaker 2: the cats hunt below. In Vilnius, there is a tile 395 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,919 Speaker 2: in a square. They say, if you make a win 396 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 2: and spin around it three times, your wish will come true. 397 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 2: At this tile a human chain formed and spanned three countries, 398 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,680 Speaker 2: and they sang at Hadra Kim. On the right day, 399 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 2: the morning light filters in over the lonesome island of 400 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,480 Speaker 2: Philflow and fills a hole drilled in the sandstone five 401 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:19,159 Speaker 2: thousand years ago, and has done so unfailingly over the 402 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,960 Speaker 2: millennia that have seen countless empires rise and fall, and 403 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 2: the solstice of retribution will come again. 404 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media. 405 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,640 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 406 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 407 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,800 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 408 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 1: find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at 409 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.