Feb. 11, 2026

Yes, It's Fascism: Jon Rauch on Trump and the F Word

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"You either need to call it fascism or you need to invent a new word with more or less the same meaning." — Jonathan Rauch

Jonathan Rauch's viral Atlantic essay has reignited the debate over what to call the Trump administration. Having previously settled on "semi-fascist," Rauch now argues that Trump ticks all 18 boxes on his checklist of fascist characteristics — from the glorification of violence and territorial ambitions to Carl Schmitt's philosophy of "enemies, not adversaries." We spar over whether the term obscures more than it reveals: Is this really fascism, or just authoritarianism with American characteristics? The conversation sharpens around Minneapolis, where citizens were shot face down, and the government initially denied it happened. You don't do that to win votes, Rauch argues — you do it because you believe that's how the social contract should work. He predicts Trump will fail to turn America into a fascist country but warns that institutions like the newly expanded ICE will outlast this administration.

 

About the Guest

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is the author of nine books, including The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth (2021), Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy (2025), and Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993). He received the 2005 National Magazine Award.

References

Thinkers discussed:

·      Carl Schmitt was a Nazi political theorist whose "friend-enemy distinction" argued that politics is fundamentally about identifying and crushing enemies, not managing disagreements with adversaries.

·      George Orwell wrote in his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" that "the word 'fascism' has now no meaning except insofar as it signifies something not desirable."

·      Hannah Arendt was a German-American political theorist and refugee from Nazi Germany whose book The Origins of Totalitarianism examined both Nazism and Stalinism, preferring "totalitarianism" to "fascism" as the more encompassing term.

Historical figures:

·      Benito Mussolini invented the term "fascism" (from the Latin fasces, a bundle of rods symbolizing collective strength) and ruled Italy as dictator from 1922 to 1943.

·      Francisco Franco ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975. Whether he was truly a fascist or merely an authoritarian remains debated; he never got along well with Hitler and outlasted the fascist era by three decades.

·      Viktor Orbán is the prime minister of Hungary whose systematic capture of media, courts, and civil society has become known as the "Orbán playbook" — a template Rauch argues the Trump administration is following.

Contemporary figures mentioned:

·      Stephen Miller is a senior advisor to Trump who declared that "force is the iron law of the world" and told progressives "you are nothing" at a memorial service where the widow of the deceased had just offered Christian forgiveness to an assassin.

·      Russell Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget, identified by Rauch as one of the younger ideologues building Trumpism into something more like a coherent ideology.

·      Chris Rufo is a conservative activist and culture war strategist who has employed what Rauch calls "revolutionary language" in his campaigns against universities and public institutions.

Essays and books mentioned:

·      "Politics and the English Language" (1946) is Orwell's essay arguing that the corruption of language enables the corruption of politics, and that vague or meaningless words like "fascism" make clear thinking impossible.

·      The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) is Hannah Arendt's study of Nazism and Stalinism as parallel forms of total domination, examining how mass movements, propaganda, and terror enable regimes to control entire societies.

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States—hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.

Website

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Chapters:

00:00 -

00:13 - The viral essay

02:10 - Why Rauch changed his mind

03:41 - Fascism vs. authoritarianism

05:54 - Carl Schmitt and "enemies not adversaries"

06:14 - Orwell on the word "fascism"

09:12 - Can old people be fascists?

11:51 - Blood and soil nationalism

14:14 - Minneapolis

17:51 - Kristallnacht comparisons

20:07 - The postmodern right

26:34 - Following the money

32:05 - ICE as paramilitary force

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Hello, my name is Andrew Keen.

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Welcome to Keen on America, the Daily
Interview Show about the United States.

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Hello everybody.

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A couple of weeks ago, an article
came out in the Atlantic by an old

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friend of the show, Jonathan Raush.

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Um, he announced that, "yes, it's
fascism," big picture of Donald Trump.

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Uh, he announced that he believed that
Donald Trump was, in many ways a fascist.

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The article has gone viral.

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Uh, I saw Jon, uh, on all sorts of
shows including Andrew Sullivan, Sam

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Harris, some of the top podcasts.

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Uh, and in contrast with Sullivan
and Harris, you get this podcast for

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free, so you don't have to subscribe
to, uh, hear our whole conversation.

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Jon is joining us, as
always, from Washington DC.

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Jon, were you surprised with
the response to this article?

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Did you expect it to be as popular?

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My sense from listening both to
the the Sullivan and the, uh, the

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Harris, uh, shows was that they were
really pleased with this article.

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It was almost as if you were
legitimizing their thinking.

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You know, Andrew Sullivan
said, ex exactly that.

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Um, I thought it might get a readership.

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I I was right about that.

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I thought it would be controversial.

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I was wrong about that.

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I have yet to see a single
substantial article that has argued

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with it in any substantive way.

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You know, there've been a
couple of hahas on social media.

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But apparently, uh, the proposition
that Donald Trump is a fascist in,

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in a very real sense, a documentable
sense went almost overnight from being

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farfetched to being uncontroversial.

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Apparently.

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I actually, uh.

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Perhapsie'll be your first critic.

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I don't agree.

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Uh, maybe we can get that into
that, into the conversation.

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But before we start,
lay out your arguments.

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Why in your view is Trump a fascist?

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I, I was one of those people
like you, Andrew, and like so

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many others who thought the
term fascism should be avoided.

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Because first of all, it's been.

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Defined and misdefined and overextended
and stretched beyond all recognition by

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progressives who call you a fascist if
you oppose affirmative action or abortion.

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Uh, second, because I thought it was
likely to pointlessly, alienate the

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people who voted for Trump, but who
were not convinced he was a fascist

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and who are not themselves by any
stretch of the imagination, fascists.

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And third, because I just
thought there was too much about

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Trump that just didn't fit.

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Uh, I went with, in, in
a book I wrote last year.

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I went with the term semi fascist, which
Joe Biden actually used in a speech.

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And the reason I went with that
is that I went down a list of, of

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items, characteristics that are
often associated with fascism.

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And Trump met about half of them,
but he didn't meet the other half.

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You know, he wasn't invading
other countries, for example.

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And so I thought the term, uh, just
didn't fit and the events of the

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last few weeks and months convinced
me that I was wrong because he was

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ticking so many of those boxes.

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So I sat down, I made a list.

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I came up with 18 characteristics that
are all frequently found in fascism.

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And all of which are inconsistent with
liberal democracy and there they all were.

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And at that point I decided it's just
perverse to withhold the label for

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what's what someone just seems to be.

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My biggest problem is that you seem to,
if not confuse, gloss over the difference

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between fascism and authoritarianism.

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You bring up Franco, for example,
who wasn't a fascist, who never

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got on well with Hitler, was
very different from Mussolini.

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What for you is a fascist and how the,
how, how, how would you distinguish a

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fascist from a traditional authoritarian
like Franco and so many other.

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Political leaders in in human history?

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Well, or, or for that matter.

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From a Patrimonial list, which I think,

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right.

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And, and we've done shows on Patrimonial.

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The book on Paton was authored
by our friends, uh, Steve Hanson.

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Jeff Cote has also been on the show.

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Yes.

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And who are correct about that.

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I think Trump's being a patrimonial
list is literally uncontroversial.

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He just clearly is one.

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Fascism is, well, I'm.

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I should say I am not a leading
scholar on this subject, but

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fascism is not a well-defined idea.

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It was incoherent from the start.

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People who called themselves
fascists were very different.

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Hitler, Mussolini, very different.

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Hitler wound up having
contempt for Mussolini.

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My understanding is that Franco did
define self-defined as a fascist.

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I think Orwell certainly
thought of him that way.

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Um, I think Imperial Japan was
probably a form of fascism, but.

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But I don't wanna, you know,
my, my goal is not to get hung

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up on particular taxonomies of
the early to mid 20th century.

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What I tried to do is look at
characteristics, which we associated

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with the particular form of
authoritarianism that we identify

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with fascists, for instance.

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The philosophy, the political theory
of Carl Schmidt, for example, the

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idea that we, in a, in a society, we
don't have political adversaries, we

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have enemies, and you've gotta crush
them, which we saw emerge under Trump.

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Um.

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The, uh, territorial ambitions
which we saw emerge under Trump, the

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explicit embrace of might is right.

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The kind of, uh, nihilistic,
fascistic idea that if you're strong,

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you do what you get away with and
the weak suffer what they must.

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So all of these, it seemed to
me, and, and, and others on the

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list give a sense of ideological
directionality to this administration,

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which I had not seen before.

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You mentioned Orwell.

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You bring him up in the book, and
Sullivan is a big fan of Orwell.

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He wrote, of course, his famous essay
politics in the English language

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and the English language in which
he argued the word fascism and he,

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I think he was writing this in 1946.

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I think the word fascism has
now no meaning except insofar

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as it signifies something.

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Not desirable.

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You talked about that, Jon, and
obviously, um, that's still true, but

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shouldn't we be situ? I mean, the word
fascist was invented by Mussolini.

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It came out of a specific moment
in European and world history.

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It came after the first World War, and
if you turn it into this generic term,

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it loses any kind of real meaning.

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I'd agree with that if I were using it
as a generic term, but I think I'm using

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it in reference to 18 specific items
which align with what I think a lot of

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people today would identify as fascism.

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You know, the dual state which we
saw under Nazim, I already mentioned.

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Schmidt, um, I mentioned the
idea that might is right and the,

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the strong take what they like.

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Uh, um, we could go through this list.

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Sam Harris did well,

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although, again, the point is, I,
I'm a bit kind of nitpicky, but the

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idea of might is right, is certainly
not just, uh, an idea of, of fascism.

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I mean, you, you can go right
back to the beginnings of.

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Western philosophy on politics
and power to find that.

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I mean, even Machiavelli suggests that
sometimes, certainly, uh, Plato covers it.

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He, and, and, and the word fascism
didn't exist in, in antiquity.

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So, uh, but coming back, Jon, too.

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I mean, for me, the most interesting thing
about this, and it's a wonderful piece.

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I mean, I think everyone watching
listening should read it.

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It's extremely coherent and
in some ways convincing.

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Um, for me, the interesting
thing about Trump is what makes

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him different from fascist.

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Hmm.

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Although.

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I agree with you that some of the,
the features that you describe him

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as, uh, makes him like, I guess a,
a post, uh, an an interwar fascist.

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But the two things that come
to mind that make him unlike a

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fascist or make this moment unlike
fascism in America is firstly.

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The fact that fascism came out of this
catastrophe of the first World War.

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And secondly, it was a, a movement
of young people and Mussolini

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Hitler were young political leaders.

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The thing that seems to me about Trump
is he is an old man, and, and this

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is in some ways is a cratic movement.

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How does the generational
element play in here?

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Can old people be fascists?

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I suppose they can, I,
we, we may differ in that.

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I am not all that interested in asking
the question, how much does what Trump

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is doing resemble the particular forms
of fascism that we saw in the 1930s.

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'cause I don't think it has to.

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The question I'm interested
in asking is if you invent.

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Uh, if you, if you take the core ideas
of those regimes, the things that they

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tended to have in common, you know,
the dehumanization of the opponents,

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the military adventurism, uh, and so
forth, the things we're discussing

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and you apply them in the 21st century
in America, what would it look like?

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And I think it looks something like this.

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Uh, yeah.

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Trump is old.

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He's been saying the things
he's been saying For a long time

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I was on someone else's show.

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And he read a quote, which I hadn't
seen, which I would've used if I

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had, it's from 1990 and it's Trump
in an interview saying that the

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problem with Gorbachev, I'm loosely
paraphrasing, but this is the right idea.

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The, the problem with Gorbachev
is that he wasn't tough enough and

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that Trump admired the Chinese for
cracking down in Gentleman Square.

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That's how you do it.

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So he's been like this a long time.

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Um, I would point out that
the people around him are

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not as old as he is JD Vance.

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Stephen Miller, uh, Russell V and others
in that group, many of whom are the

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ones who are actually building this out
into something more like an ideology.

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Yeah, I think the best, the best example
of a fascist in the administration

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is, is, is probably Miller.

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I'm not sure about, uh, vo.

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Um, but coming back to this I issue of,

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yeah,

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I would say vote is not
probably an ideological

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fascist,

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but he

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adopts this back to this, this idea of a
gerontocracy, uh, Samuel Moyne, as I said.

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Coming out with a book about it.

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Can old people be fascist?

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Uh, Jon, I mean, the whole idea of fascism
is a, a dynamic rejection of modernity,

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a love of speed, almost a, a, a very
ambivalent attitude towards technology.

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Should

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we be?

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I guess I'd have to say since
we're seeing those things from

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our president, we saw them in big,
bold letters in Doge, for example.

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Um, in the revolutionary language
that they've employed that, that

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00:12:04,620 --> 00:12:09,660
Russell VO has employed, um, and
that, uh, Chris Ruffo has employed.

194
00:12:09,660 --> 00:12:13,560
I, I guess I have to see apparently
old people can be fascists

195
00:12:14,010 --> 00:12:15,360
because that's what they're doing.

196
00:12:16,260 --> 00:12:21,000
You talk about blood and soil nationalism,
again, I, I mean, it goes without saying.

197
00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:29,550
I'm, I'm not a. Supporter of Trump, but I
wonder whether a, a, a high profile, uh,

198
00:12:29,550 --> 00:12:33,990
invasion a day invasion of, of Venezuela.

199
00:12:35,355 --> 00:12:41,505
Conforms to the kind of fascist
militarism that Mussolini or

200
00:12:41,505 --> 00:12:44,415
Hitler, uh, were responsible for.

201
00:12:44,535 --> 00:12:50,655
I mean, Trump's foreign policy, his
theatricality over Greenland, this

202
00:12:50,715 --> 00:12:58,335
odd chapter over Venezuela, it doesn't
strike me as blood and soil nationalism.

203
00:13:00,615 --> 00:13:09,405
This is one of the factors that tipped
me over into applying the term, and

204
00:13:09,405 --> 00:13:15,045
it is certainly not the first time
by a long shot that the United States

205
00:13:15,045 --> 00:13:18,345
has thrown its weight around in the
Western Hemisphere or anywhere else.

206
00:13:18,435 --> 00:13:21,795
You know, uh, Woodrow Wilson
had Poncho Villa, uh, chase,

207
00:13:21,795 --> 00:13:23,505
poncho Villa, all over Mexico.

208
00:13:24,465 --> 00:13:27,825
Um, among many other
examples, what's different?

209
00:13:28,860 --> 00:13:37,980
The reason that this got my attention was
Trump said, Venezuela, we want the oil.

210
00:13:38,370 --> 00:13:39,480
We're getting the oil.

211
00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,580
Rubio comes out, secretary of State,
and says, no, there are a bunch

212
00:13:44,580 --> 00:13:46,410
of other reasons why we did this.

213
00:13:46,410 --> 00:13:49,470
You know, we're interested in human
rights and Iran has a foothold

214
00:13:49,470 --> 00:13:52,440
down there, and this regime is
supporting Cuba and so forth.

215
00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,070
And Trump comes out and says,
no, no, we want the oil.

216
00:13:56,100 --> 00:13:56,880
They're gonna play ball.

217
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:57,690
We'll get the oil.

218
00:13:58,710 --> 00:14:00,750
Greenland, they have land.

219
00:14:01,290 --> 00:14:02,160
We want the land.

220
00:14:02,220 --> 00:14:04,620
We're gonna threaten
them to take the land.

221
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:05,460
He didn't.

222
00:14:05,550 --> 00:14:13,440
In the end, this is not the way Americans
have talked in the fast, but it is

223
00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,360
characteristic of fascist regimes.

224
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:21,270
They tend to be ideological, aggressive
and in their early stages, revolutionary.

225
00:14:21,510 --> 00:14:21,570
So.

226
00:14:23,220 --> 00:14:27,390
When I saw that, when I saw of
course Minneapolis, when I saw Steven

227
00:14:27,390 --> 00:14:34,080
Miller's statement that, uh, force
power is the iron law of the world,

228
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:41,790
when I saw his statement saying that
of progressives, you are nothing, uh,

229
00:14:41,790 --> 00:14:44,580
I couldn't turn a blind eye to that.

230
00:14:45,780 --> 00:14:51,330
But Jon, the, this foreign adventurism
that you describe was a feature of

231
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,900
19th, certainly 19th century America.

232
00:14:54,900 --> 00:15:00,480
As you, as you, as you say, certainly
of the colonial states of 19th century

233
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:09,930
Europe, does any state that seeks any kind
of adventurism overseas, is it fascist?

234
00:15:10,290 --> 00:15:12,480
I know I keep on coming
back to the F word.

235
00:15:13,635 --> 00:15:18,675
I'm not denying that Trump is guilty
of some of the things that you

236
00:15:18,675 --> 00:15:20,655
talk about, but it's not fascist.

237
00:15:20,655 --> 00:15:24,495
It's just the way
authoritarian states behave.

238
00:15:24,675 --> 00:15:30,345
And sometimes democratic states, I
mean, Britain, America, were semi

239
00:15:30,345 --> 00:15:32,145
democracies in the 19th century.

240
00:15:32,655 --> 00:15:40,665
There are authoritarian states
that do not engage in um, um.

241
00:15:41,235 --> 00:15:44,295
What's the word for when
you call someone an animal?

242
00:15:44,834 --> 00:15:49,185
In that kind of of rhetoric, there
are authoritarian states that do

243
00:15:49,185 --> 00:15:53,535
not explicitly use coercion to
take things from other countries.

244
00:15:54,314 --> 00:15:57,194
There are authoritarian states
that do not explicitly say.

245
00:15:58,770 --> 00:16:02,520
The rule of the strong, that the
rule of force is the iron law.

246
00:16:03,210 --> 00:16:10,710
Um, many authoritarian states do, of
course have, um, national paramilitary

247
00:16:10,710 --> 00:16:14,850
police forces, and many authoritarian,
you know, it's one could get tied

248
00:16:14,850 --> 00:16:17,505
up in watts, knots all day debating.

249
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:19,020
Is this authoritarianism?

250
00:16:19,020 --> 00:16:19,680
Is it fascist?

251
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:25,830
Is it patrimonial is my method Here
is, I think it's a constellation.

252
00:16:26,460 --> 00:16:30,569
There's no textbook, yes, no
bright line definition of fascism.

253
00:16:30,569 --> 00:16:32,610
'cause fascism itself is incoherent.

254
00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:38,400
But what you can do is recognize a
whole constellation of characteristics.

255
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,630
And if you see them all, that's when
I'm willing to pull the trigger.

256
00:16:43,290 --> 00:16:47,010
Now, others may not be, but
as I said, this surprise is.

257
00:16:47,594 --> 00:16:52,574
I've seen very little pushback and
I think what we saw in Minnesota.

258
00:16:52,574 --> 00:16:53,834
Tell me what you think, Andrew.

259
00:16:55,334 --> 00:16:59,625
I don't get the impression that
this administration is embarrassed

260
00:17:00,525 --> 00:17:03,104
about being identified as fascistic.

261
00:17:03,915 --> 00:17:06,645
They're not going to use the term
themselves for obvious reasons,

262
00:17:08,685 --> 00:17:10,665
but I think they made very obvious.

263
00:17:11,550 --> 00:17:16,050
In Minneapolis and in Stephen Miller's
statement and in threatening an ally

264
00:17:16,079 --> 00:17:17,880
to try to get its land and so on.

265
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,119
I don't think they're
disguising who they are.

266
00:17:21,329 --> 00:17:25,170
I think they want us to know that,
and I think the people who are

267
00:17:25,170 --> 00:17:30,180
actually squeamish about applying the
term fascist are not on their side.

268
00:17:30,300 --> 00:17:33,300
They're on our side, and
that's what I'd hope to change.

269
00:17:34,350 --> 00:17:38,400
I mean, I, I, I don't necessarily
disagree with you about Miller,

270
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,700
but again, I mean, he's just one
figure in this administration.

271
00:17:41,700 --> 00:17:48,510
You, in the essay you talk about mobs
and street thugs, uh, you talk about,

272
00:17:48,570 --> 00:17:55,110
um, Trump's language, uh, in, uh.

273
00:17:56,024 --> 00:18:02,715
On January 6th, and of course there's lots
of parallels with, um, with Minnesota.

274
00:18:03,315 --> 00:18:08,955
Uh, you refer to Hitler's
Kris program of 1938.

275
00:18:09,405 --> 00:18:14,190
And again, I'm not justifying Jon,
what I. Trump and his allies got up

276
00:18:14,190 --> 00:18:19,290
to in Minnesota or on January 6th,
but when you compare Kristol Knight

277
00:18:19,350 --> 00:18:26,700
where 30,000 Jewish men were arrested,
the 1400 synagogues were burnt down.

278
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:32,970
Aren't you doing, in a sense, an
injustice to history by comparing this.

279
00:18:34,350 --> 00:18:39,780
Rather haphazard authoritarianism
on the part of the Trump

280
00:18:39,780 --> 00:18:43,680
administration with what the Nazis
got up to, uh, on Crystal Knight?

281
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:44,910
Yes.

282
00:18:44,910 --> 00:18:47,040
If I were saying that I, I would be wrong.

283
00:18:47,250 --> 00:18:51,750
Um, a a point I make in the article
and perhaps should have emphasized

284
00:18:51,780 --> 00:18:58,950
even more by putting it at, at the top
instead of the bottom, is that when

285
00:18:58,950 --> 00:19:02,760
I say that Trump is a fascist leader.

286
00:19:03,419 --> 00:19:09,419
Or even that he's running in practice
of fascist presidential administration.

287
00:19:10,260 --> 00:19:17,850
I am not saying that America has a
fascist government or is a fascist

288
00:19:17,879 --> 00:19:23,370
country, and that is very different from
Mussolini or Hitler who moved quickly and

289
00:19:23,370 --> 00:19:26,070
decisively to seize all levers of power.

290
00:19:27,195 --> 00:19:30,075
Um, that is not the case in America.

291
00:19:30,165 --> 00:19:32,295
Trump does not control the courts.

292
00:19:32,295 --> 00:19:33,345
He may defy them.

293
00:19:34,215 --> 00:19:37,815
Uh, he's already playing games with
them, but he can't control them.

294
00:19:37,815 --> 00:19:38,655
That's become clear.

295
00:19:38,655 --> 00:19:40,095
He can't control the media.

296
00:19:40,095 --> 00:19:41,325
He's trying very hard.

297
00:19:41,325 --> 00:19:42,975
That's an important thing on this list.

298
00:19:42,975 --> 00:19:44,775
He's following the whole Orban playbook.

299
00:19:45,825 --> 00:19:47,445
He can't control the states.

300
00:19:47,445 --> 00:19:52,155
There's sovereign authorities under the
Constitution, and he clearly can't control

301
00:19:52,155 --> 00:19:54,495
public opinion because it is tanking.

302
00:19:56,025 --> 00:20:01,995
Uh, for all those reasons, I think
that he is already failing and will

303
00:20:01,995 --> 00:20:08,025
fail to turn America into a fascist
country with a fascist government.

304
00:20:08,745 --> 00:20:12,135
So the point of my article is to
alert us to who he is and what

305
00:20:12,135 --> 00:20:17,025
he's trying to do in hopes of being
better prepared to prevent it.

306
00:20:17,625 --> 00:20:19,335
But yes, I think you will fail.

307
00:20:21,630 --> 00:20:26,430
You use a term, I think later in the
essay, uh, you talk about American

308
00:20:26,430 --> 00:20:28,650
fascism, and I think that's a good term.

309
00:20:28,740 --> 00:20:32,250
I think that's a more helpful
term than just the word fascism.

310
00:20:32,250 --> 00:20:36,420
I'm not convinced that that's,
uh, the right way of going.

311
00:20:37,380 --> 00:20:41,145
What is it about America that.

312
00:20:42,284 --> 00:20:47,804
Lends itself to perhaps this
21st century version of fascism.

313
00:20:47,804 --> 00:20:51,405
You and I have talked in the past,
you're a critic of postmodernism.

314
00:20:51,405 --> 00:20:57,915
Is there a, a, a a fascist postmodernism
that Trump seems to be peddling here?

315
00:20:59,205 --> 00:20:59,564
Yeah.

316
00:20:59,570 --> 00:21:01,605
Well that's, that's an interesting.

317
00:21:02,835 --> 00:21:03,735
Interesting question.

318
00:21:03,735 --> 00:21:03,855
Yeah.

319
00:21:03,855 --> 00:21:07,515
I wrote an article last year
about the rise of the postmodern.

320
00:21:07,515 --> 00:21:07,754
Right.

321
00:21:07,754 --> 00:21:09,254
We talked about that on the show.

322
00:21:09,254 --> 00:21:10,515
Some people call it the woke.

323
00:21:10,515 --> 00:21:10,815
Right.

324
00:21:10,815 --> 00:21:12,765
But, but I think neither, we both agreed.

325
00:21:12,765 --> 00:21:14,175
We don't really like that term.

326
00:21:15,105 --> 00:21:17,025
And the postmodern has more to do with it.

327
00:21:17,025 --> 00:21:20,295
And this is kind of their nihilistic
attitude toward truth and their

328
00:21:20,295 --> 00:21:24,075
deliberate trolling, their use
of, of insults and cynicism.

329
00:21:24,135 --> 00:21:30,345
Uh, the kind of, uh, nothing LOL, nothing
matters mentality that they use to, um.

330
00:21:30,870 --> 00:21:35,100
Uh, to goad and neutralize
their critics and so on.

331
00:21:35,490 --> 00:21:42,990
And we see, I guess, some elements
of that in 1930s style fascism.

332
00:21:42,990 --> 00:21:49,050
You know, Hitler said somewhere in Amp,
uh, it doesn't matter if they mock us

333
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,280
or laugh at us, all that matters is
that they can't stop thinking about us.

334
00:21:54,270 --> 00:21:58,560
But yeah, you've got in, you've got
instrumentalities of the internet now.

335
00:21:59,670 --> 00:22:03,000
Um, which of course
you hadn't seen before.

336
00:22:03,990 --> 00:22:08,670
Um, and you've got in the figure of
Trump, you know, we call him an old

337
00:22:08,670 --> 00:22:14,790
man and obviously he is, but he's
so savvy about the use of media to

338
00:22:14,790 --> 00:22:19,835
constantly dominate the dialogue so
that we're always thinking about him.

339
00:22:20,310 --> 00:22:21,930
Um, we can't get him out of our mind.

340
00:22:21,930 --> 00:22:24,990
One of the reasons I
thought that it's useful.

341
00:22:26,655 --> 00:22:31,935
To put him in a box and call it fascism,
is that it's so hard to keep track of

342
00:22:31,935 --> 00:22:35,550
all the things he's doing that doesn't
forget today what he did yesterday,

343
00:22:35,550 --> 00:22:41,294
doesn't then that makes it chaotic
or postmodern or some sort of new

344
00:22:41,294 --> 00:22:43,245
ontology or new way of doing things.

345
00:22:43,245 --> 00:22:45,735
Obviously it's bound out with the
digital revolution, but there's

346
00:22:45,735 --> 00:22:47,115
nothing fascist about that.

347
00:22:47,745 --> 00:22:50,955
Well, I think the term fascism,
which is I think what we're,

348
00:22:51,345 --> 00:22:54,075
what we're arguing about, um.

349
00:22:54,690 --> 00:22:59,550
The term fascism first helps people
understand the larger picture of what

350
00:22:59,550 --> 00:23:02,820
he's doing, and second, to some extent,
I think it will have predictive power.

351
00:23:03,510 --> 00:23:10,020
What, what his administration has been
doing in Minneapolis is not something you

352
00:23:10,020 --> 00:23:17,310
do if you're interested in improving your
popularity ratings in a democracy, I mean.

353
00:23:18,300 --> 00:23:22,500
We see that because their popularity
is tanking for that very reason they're

354
00:23:22,500 --> 00:23:24,570
even losing Republicans over it.

355
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:30,120
Talking the way Stephen Miller talked
at Charlie Kirk's memorial service.

356
00:23:30,810 --> 00:23:38,010
Saying of in in, in the same place
where Charlie Kirk's widow forgave

357
00:23:38,070 --> 00:23:41,340
the assassin, an extraordinary
act of Christian forgiveness.

358
00:23:42,090 --> 00:23:44,610
Trump got up there and
said, I hate my enemies.

359
00:23:44,700 --> 00:23:46,650
And Stephen Miller said of.

360
00:23:46,965 --> 00:23:50,534
Left that whole half of the
country, you are nothing.

361
00:23:51,375 --> 00:23:52,754
You are wickedness.

362
00:23:53,235 --> 00:23:56,715
You don't do that to expand
your coalition and win votes.

363
00:23:57,074 --> 00:24:00,615
And I think the explanation for the
reason they're doing these things

364
00:24:00,615 --> 00:24:04,605
is that they look at the world the
way fascists do, which is an all or

365
00:24:04,605 --> 00:24:07,034
nothing battle between good and evil.

366
00:24:07,765 --> 00:24:11,845
In which you are the side of
a revolutionary force that's

367
00:24:11,845 --> 00:24:14,275
going to purify society.

368
00:24:14,695 --> 00:24:19,135
Get rid of the bad insiders, the
traitors who are trying to undermine

369
00:24:19,135 --> 00:24:25,285
it, consolidate power, vilify,
and dehumanize your opponents.

370
00:24:26,845 --> 00:24:28,255
You mentioned in.

371
00:24:29,340 --> 00:24:34,260
Your argument, one of the 18, uh,
arguments you make is alternative facts.

372
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:35,880
You've written extensively about it.

373
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,360
You even have a book, the Constitution
of Knowledge, which is an excellent,

374
00:24:40,260 --> 00:24:45,060
uh, an an excellent analysis of
this alternative facts, uh, um,

375
00:24:45,150 --> 00:24:47,160
reality, if that's the right word.

376
00:24:47,970 --> 00:24:49,920
You quote Orwell and a rent.

377
00:24:50,895 --> 00:24:55,274
But a rent wrote a book, not about
fascism, but about totalitarianism in

378
00:24:55,274 --> 00:25:00,254
which she covered both the communists
or the Stalinists at least, and the

379
00:25:00,254 --> 00:25:06,794
Nazis might, again, I know I'm might
be being a little pedantic here or.

380
00:25:07,755 --> 00:25:12,675
Medieval in distinguishing these words,
but might totalitarian be a better

381
00:25:12,675 --> 00:25:18,675
word, a rents word than fascist, which
Orwell didn't like and a rent was

382
00:25:18,675 --> 00:25:23,625
ambivalent about, even though she herself
was a refugee from Fascist German.

383
00:25:23,805 --> 00:25:24,195
Yes.

384
00:25:24,195 --> 00:25:27,615
Well, you know, fascism, as we've said,
is such a poorly defined term that

385
00:25:27,615 --> 00:25:29,655
it's, its hard for anyone to talk about.

386
00:25:29,655 --> 00:25:29,925
You're the

387
00:25:30,170 --> 00:25:31,010
one who, who, who has this.

388
00:25:31,595 --> 00:25:33,515
Essay called, yes, it's fascism.

389
00:25:33,515 --> 00:25:33,935
So,

390
00:25:34,325 --> 00:25:35,255
yes, that's right.

391
00:25:35,255 --> 00:25:38,795
And then the way I go about that is
not a crisp one sentence definition,

392
00:25:38,795 --> 00:25:41,525
it's a whole bunch of attributes,
but I acknowledge it's fuzzy.

393
00:25:42,275 --> 00:25:47,015
Um, so yes, you ask a,
a, a, a smart question.

394
00:25:47,225 --> 00:25:49,475
Um, why not totalitarianism?

395
00:25:49,505 --> 00:25:53,945
And I think it's for the very
reason I just totalitarians.

396
00:25:55,110 --> 00:25:59,040
Take control of the entire society,
or at least they try to and

397
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:00,480
they succeed from top to bottom.

398
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,419
I think maybe Trump, this is
something I don't think I would've

399
00:26:03,419 --> 00:26:06,750
said a year ago when we were
talking about Patrimonial Andrew.

400
00:26:07,290 --> 00:26:10,560
I think back then I would've said, Trump
does not have those kinds of ambitions.

401
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,169
I would've said he's, you
know, he wants to get rich.

402
00:26:13,169 --> 00:26:14,625
He wants his family to get rich.

403
00:26:14,790 --> 00:26:18,929
He wants to show he can dominate the
government and be the godfather, and

404
00:26:18,929 --> 00:26:23,820
those things are all true, but I. I
think he would've said that he is not

405
00:26:23,820 --> 00:26:28,020
someone who wants to, for example,
dominate our cultural institutions.

406
00:26:29,100 --> 00:26:33,150
Um, well, I've, I've had to have
even some second thoughts about that.

407
00:26:33,270 --> 00:26:37,800
You know, one, his name is going up
on the Kennedy Center, for example,

408
00:26:37,860 --> 00:26:42,885
and when he wants to build a triumphal
arch, uh, larger than anything except

409
00:26:42,930 --> 00:26:46,830
I guess the Washington Monument, you
know, you could laugh at these things

410
00:26:46,830 --> 00:26:48,660
and say he's just a vain old man.

411
00:26:49,575 --> 00:26:52,275
These do start to have
some of those overtones.

412
00:26:52,485 --> 00:26:54,465
I think, as I said, he will fail.

413
00:26:54,615 --> 00:26:57,855
He will not be able to take over
the levers, all the levers of power

414
00:26:57,855 --> 00:27:01,395
in our society, and thus history
will say he was not a totalitarian,

415
00:27:01,725 --> 00:27:03,435
whatever he might have wanted to be.

416
00:27:06,165 --> 00:27:10,305
There's another argument, another way of
looking at it that suggests that all this.

417
00:27:10,635 --> 00:27:18,195
Quote, unquote fascism or this, uh,
absurd language is a, an attempt by Trump

418
00:27:18,195 --> 00:27:20,955
and his people to change the subject.

419
00:27:20,955 --> 00:27:24,615
He always seems to be at his most
absurd during a political crisis.

420
00:27:24,615 --> 00:27:25,455
That was an excellent piece.

421
00:27:25,455 --> 00:27:28,455
I'm not sure if you saw it in the
Wall Street Journal Over the weekend,

422
00:27:29,355 --> 00:27:31,305
one generation runs the country.

423
00:27:31,305 --> 00:27:34,425
The ne the next cashed in on crypto.

424
00:27:34,425 --> 00:27:37,815
It's by, uh, two Wall
Street Journal reporters.

425
00:27:38,445 --> 00:27:41,175
Uh, Angus Barrick and, and Elliot Brown.

426
00:27:41,175 --> 00:27:45,825
I actually wanna get them on the
show, which explains how much money,

427
00:27:46,754 --> 00:27:51,014
uh, the Trump inner circle, the
families of Trump and some of his

428
00:27:51,014 --> 00:27:53,085
associates have made out of crypto.

429
00:27:53,085 --> 00:27:54,945
Could one make the argument, Jon?

430
00:27:55,905 --> 00:27:59,715
Maybe a Marxist would make the
argument, or certainly someone

431
00:27:59,715 --> 00:28:00,840
who focused on economics.

432
00:28:02,205 --> 00:28:06,195
Uh, that all this quote unquote
fascism was just a smoke

433
00:28:06,195 --> 00:28:08,475
screen to loot the country.

434
00:28:09,585 --> 00:28:14,145
Well, he's, he's, he's certainly
doing a pretty good job of, uh,

435
00:28:14,145 --> 00:28:15,945
of gathering, gathering the loot,

436
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:17,055
a a and the loot.

437
00:28:17,055 --> 00:28:21,735
Andy is so much more meaningful
for him as this real estate guy

438
00:28:21,735 --> 00:28:23,355
with an obsession with wealth.

439
00:28:23,415 --> 00:28:24,735
Than, than any, you know,

440
00:28:24,735 --> 00:28:27,645
that's, that's the very thing
that I've come to question Andrew.

441
00:28:27,675 --> 00:28:31,004
I was there six months ago, I thought,
you know, he'll, he'll make himself and

442
00:28:31,004 --> 00:28:35,805
his family rich and he'll be incompetent
and corrupt and, and then we'll pro

443
00:28:35,865 --> 00:28:39,405
and he'll, he'll stack some important
institutions and some people will die of

444
00:28:39,405 --> 00:28:40,995
measles, but then we'll be done with them.

445
00:28:41,805 --> 00:28:45,585
And as I said, what's forced him,
what's forced me to question that is

446
00:28:45,585 --> 00:28:49,845
the number of things he's, he's done
and that his administration have done,

447
00:28:50,355 --> 00:28:55,365
which don't make sense if you just
want to be, you know, a standard sort

448
00:28:55,365 --> 00:28:59,625
of looting, crooked politician because
they make him so much less popular.

449
00:28:59,625 --> 00:29:01,425
The things you do if you're an ideolog.

450
00:29:02,024 --> 00:29:05,504
And if what you're doing is you think
you've got four years or maybe only

451
00:29:05,504 --> 00:29:09,794
two years, if you think the house
might flip in, which you need to do

452
00:29:09,794 --> 00:29:14,685
as much as you possibly can to alter
this social contract in America so

453
00:29:14,685 --> 00:29:20,925
that this becomes a country where US
citizens get pumped full of bullets

454
00:29:20,925 --> 00:29:26,745
on the street while they're lying face
down and have been disarmed and there's.

455
00:29:27,645 --> 00:29:29,895
No investigation and the
government denied it happened.

456
00:29:30,165 --> 00:29:31,485
I'm exaggerating slightly.

457
00:29:31,485 --> 00:29:36,585
They now say they'll investigate, but,
but they, they're not doing that to become

458
00:29:36,585 --> 00:29:41,205
popular from which I reason they must
be doing it because they think that's

459
00:29:41,205 --> 00:29:43,635
how the social contract should work.

460
00:29:45,165 --> 00:29:47,145
They have a degree of popularity.

461
00:29:47,145 --> 00:29:48,465
You, you note in the piece.

462
00:29:48,465 --> 00:29:48,880
I think this is.

463
00:29:49,695 --> 00:29:53,985
Quite right that you point out that
there are differences between Trumpism

464
00:29:53,985 --> 00:29:56,715
and MAGA and classical European fascism.

465
00:29:57,435 --> 00:30:01,725
Uh, you note that mass rall and
public rituals, for example,

466
00:30:01,905 --> 00:30:03,889
don't exist in in the Trump page.

467
00:30:04,675 --> 00:30:12,115
What's replacing them, uh, the Internets
hyper-masculinity, misogyny and co-option

468
00:30:12,115 --> 00:30:14,365
of Christianity, which are quite fascist.

469
00:30:14,755 --> 00:30:17,485
What, where do we see the replacement?

470
00:30:17,485 --> 00:30:23,845
And I'm curious, I dunno the answer
to this, um, because, uh, um,

471
00:30:23,905 --> 00:30:28,735
mass rallies and public rituals
were central to both Mussolini

472
00:30:28,735 --> 00:30:31,375
and Hitler's versions of fascism.

473
00:30:31,405 --> 00:30:33,115
Is this on the internet?

474
00:30:33,870 --> 00:30:34,950
I would guess it is.

475
00:30:35,010 --> 00:30:35,400
Yeah.

476
00:30:36,390 --> 00:30:41,610
I, I would guess that the Internet's now
a much cheaper and faster way to do that.

477
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:47,040
You know, Trump did try to stage
a military parade, and I think

478
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,880
he probably imagined himself at
the top of a grandstand with,

479
00:30:51,540 --> 00:30:55,830
with, um, people marching by and
saluting him instead of what he got.

480
00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:01,710
But I take your, I take your main
point and my guess it's just a guess.

481
00:31:02,115 --> 00:31:03,135
That's really all it is.

482
00:31:03,135 --> 00:31:07,755
It's a conjecture, is that social
media is just a much better way

483
00:31:07,755 --> 00:31:11,565
to, to build your audience, to feed
the message to the audience, to

484
00:31:11,565 --> 00:31:14,025
demand solidarity from the audience.

485
00:31:14,025 --> 00:31:16,125
You can do all those things
online quickly and cheaply.

486
00:31:16,125 --> 00:31:19,755
He's, he's a master at
that, however old he may be.

487
00:31:20,595 --> 00:31:23,595
Um, I don't know about very stable.

488
00:31:23,985 --> 00:31:25,695
He said he is a very stable genius.

489
00:31:25,695 --> 00:31:29,115
I don't know about stable, but, but
he's, he's some kind of genius, isn't he?

490
00:31:29,115 --> 00:31:30,530
When it comes to the use of those media?

491
00:31:33,810 --> 00:31:38,655
Marks famously wrote in his, and I
think it was in in response to the the

492
00:31:39,090 --> 00:31:43,350
Paris Commune, that history repeats
itself twice first as tragedy, then as

493
00:31:43,350 --> 00:31:49,860
fast, and that seems to be something
that somehow captures Trump in terms

494
00:31:49,890 --> 00:31:52,020
of fascism, if indeed you are right.

495
00:31:52,140 --> 00:31:55,560
I mean, the first version of fascism was.

496
00:31:56,235 --> 00:31:59,745
Truly tragic in the terrible
death and suffering that the

497
00:31:59,745 --> 00:32:02,085
Nazis brought to the world.

498
00:32:02,655 --> 00:32:07,065
Uh, but there is something
farcical about Trump, if you're

499
00:32:07,065 --> 00:32:08,595
right, that he is a fascist.

500
00:32:08,985 --> 00:32:11,205
It's a farcical fascism.

501
00:32:11,565 --> 00:32:14,805
And in that essay, um, by Marx.

502
00:32:16,455 --> 00:32:21,195
He writes about Napoleon ii,
trying to be the uncle, trying

503
00:32:21,195 --> 00:32:22,784
to be Napoleon Bonaparte.

504
00:32:23,565 --> 00:32:29,804
Um, so this seems to be something just
ludicrous about this attempt, if you are

505
00:32:29,804 --> 00:32:33,075
right to reinvent or reproduce fascism.

506
00:32:34,380 --> 00:32:38,955
You mean because Trump himself
is so disorganized and, and

507
00:32:39,420 --> 00:32:40,560
strange because he's so uncon.

508
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:41,700
I, I mean, maybe you're right.

509
00:32:41,700 --> 00:32:45,000
Maybe in his heart if he has
a heart, he's a fascist, maybe

510
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:46,710
believes some of the things he says.

511
00:32:47,490 --> 00:32:48,960
But as you note, he's been.

512
00:32:49,620 --> 00:32:50,250
A failure.

513
00:32:50,250 --> 00:32:54,420
You, you, you correctly say in,
in your essay that, uh, whilst

514
00:32:54,420 --> 00:32:57,540
he might be a fascist president,
America isn't a fascist country.

515
00:32:57,540 --> 00:33:01,800
And if anything, I think it's less
of a fascist country in February,

516
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:04,980
2026 than it was in January, 2025.

517
00:33:04,980 --> 00:33:11,190
So this is a, a farcical chapter
in American history, Jon, isn't it?

518
00:33:12,180 --> 00:33:13,290
I don't know yet.

519
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:19,860
I see this period as, um, I don't know
if you remember high school physics

520
00:33:19,860 --> 00:33:24,090
and the idea of potential energy, and
they'd show you a diagram of a ball.

521
00:33:24,090 --> 00:33:24,600
A, we didn't

522
00:33:24,780 --> 00:33:26,160
study science in England,

523
00:33:28,710 --> 00:33:29,575
they show you physics.

524
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,890
A picture of, of a ball balanced on
top of a hill or a sombrero shaped

525
00:33:34,890 --> 00:33:40,650
curve and the potential energy is
it, it could, it could fall quickly.

526
00:33:41,054 --> 00:33:44,625
In either of two directions and you
can't tell which one it might fall in.

527
00:33:44,625 --> 00:33:52,455
Maybe one difference between us, Andrew,
is that however wacky Trump can seem,

528
00:33:53,895 --> 00:33:59,325
there is potential here to do very
long-term damage to our institutions.

529
00:33:59,325 --> 00:34:07,274
Just to take one example, the, uh,
new form of ice that this has taken.

530
00:34:07,949 --> 00:34:09,989
This is, this is now in law.

531
00:34:10,199 --> 00:34:14,370
This is an agency that has already more
than doubled its size and will increase it

532
00:34:14,370 --> 00:34:19,650
further, is already, I believe, the 15th
largest military force in the world that

533
00:34:19,650 --> 00:34:25,020
is not accountable as traditional police
are to ordinary limits of jurisdiction

534
00:34:25,020 --> 00:34:27,540
that has been told that it has impunity.

535
00:34:28,275 --> 00:34:33,585
This organization will be probably around
for a long time to come, and those people

536
00:34:33,585 --> 00:34:37,304
now who are being trained and recruited
to run it will be around for a long time.

537
00:34:37,995 --> 00:34:41,594
I talked to a person who used to work
in the Homeland Security Department

538
00:34:41,594 --> 00:34:47,355
for trumpet in, in the first term, and
she's worried sick about this because

539
00:34:47,355 --> 00:34:51,404
she said, this is going to be a problem
for presidents for some time to come.

540
00:34:51,404 --> 00:34:54,134
You can't disband it, but
what do you do with it?

541
00:34:55,275 --> 00:34:59,955
So the answer is, um, I have
reluctantly come to take.

542
00:34:59,955 --> 00:35:01,965
What's happening now is, is very serious.

543
00:35:01,965 --> 00:35:05,715
If you, if you push me to the wall, I'm
gonna say at the end of the day, we'll

544
00:35:05,715 --> 00:35:08,745
still be a liberal democracy in 2029.

545
00:35:08,924 --> 00:35:14,355
And someone like JD Vance or even
Tucker Carlson probably cannot carry

546
00:35:14,355 --> 00:35:16,455
on the way Trump has carried on.

547
00:35:17,355 --> 00:35:18,915
But I'm not, I'm no longer.

548
00:35:19,635 --> 00:35:21,825
All that confident in, in my prediction.

549
00:35:23,535 --> 00:35:26,085
Let's end by going back to history.

550
00:35:26,085 --> 00:35:31,575
As I said, for me, fascism, I mean
obviously it's a, a tragic period

551
00:35:31,575 --> 00:35:34,185
and all the rest of it, um, but it.

552
00:35:34,634 --> 00:35:39,345
It speaks about a moment in history
after the first World War and a

553
00:35:39,345 --> 00:35:41,535
fundamental crisis of capitalism.

554
00:35:42,315 --> 00:35:44,265
How are we gonna remember this period?

555
00:35:44,265 --> 00:35:46,305
You talked a little bit about Orban.

556
00:35:46,365 --> 00:35:50,654
We see the appearance of one
kind of Trumpism or MAGA style

557
00:35:50,654 --> 00:35:54,435
nationalism elsewhere in the
world from Russia, perhaps even

558
00:35:54,435 --> 00:35:56,355
China, Hungary, Italy, and so on.

559
00:35:57,375 --> 00:36:02,205
How are we going to remember this
period, Jon, in terms of its triggers?

560
00:36:02,205 --> 00:36:06,855
Are we gonna remember it as a crisis
of capitalism, a crisis of technology?

561
00:36:06,855 --> 00:36:08,535
We don't have the first World war.

562
00:36:09,825 --> 00:36:15,015
So what is the great trauma of
the 2020s that has generated this?

563
00:36:15,795 --> 00:36:20,055
Well, we were chatting before we
started the program that that's

564
00:36:21,015 --> 00:36:22,545
such a big important subject.

565
00:36:22,545 --> 00:36:26,415
Maybe the subject of, of my next
book, we are, we're in this age.

566
00:36:26,415 --> 00:36:29,625
You can explain it better than I,
because you understand the technology.

567
00:36:29,625 --> 00:36:32,654
I'm convinced this is Frank
Fukuyama, many other people.

568
00:36:32,654 --> 00:36:34,035
A lot of what we're seeing is.

569
00:36:34,950 --> 00:36:39,540
Is driven by technological changes
that have reduced people's faith in

570
00:36:39,540 --> 00:36:43,950
institution and, and increased, you
know, used algorithms to, to excite them.

571
00:36:44,490 --> 00:36:48,359
We're seeing a global backsliding,
not just in the US so we

572
00:36:48,359 --> 00:36:49,710
know it can't just be Trump.

573
00:36:49,950 --> 00:36:52,589
We're seeing global backsliding
from liberal democracy.

574
00:36:52,589 --> 00:36:54,810
We're seeing electorates,
which all over the world.

575
00:36:54,810 --> 00:36:56,730
Again, this isn't the US alone.

576
00:36:56,730 --> 00:37:02,460
It's not just Trump that are in
a state of constant rebellion.

577
00:37:03,140 --> 00:37:07,040
Against whoever's in office, they seem
to be almost impossible to please.

578
00:37:07,940 --> 00:37:15,560
Um, this, this is a period that I have
never lived anything through a period when

579
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:22,850
so many people, in so many places were so
unhappy with the governments that were in

580
00:37:22,850 --> 00:37:28,700
power and were willing to turn to so many
alternatives that you and I think probably

581
00:37:28,700 --> 00:37:30,290
would've said, would not have been viable.

582
00:37:30,930 --> 00:37:34,140
Even 10 or 15 years ago,
and I can't explain that.

583
00:37:34,890 --> 00:37:37,830
Um, and not all of it
by any means is fascism.

584
00:37:37,890 --> 00:37:40,830
I'm certainly, certainly
not making that claim.

585
00:37:40,830 --> 00:37:44,190
It's everything from higher
prices to global mass migration

586
00:37:44,190 --> 00:37:45,840
to the decline of Christianity.

587
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:50,485
The subject of my last book, a lot of
stuff is going on there in this article.

588
00:37:50,730 --> 00:37:55,170
I just wanna say something simple, which
is if you look at the stuff Trump is doing

589
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:58,710
and you put it together in a big box.

590
00:38:00,045 --> 00:38:04,755
You either need to call it fascism
or you need to invent a new word

591
00:38:05,535 --> 00:38:07,185
with more or less the same meaning.

592
00:38:09,015 --> 00:38:11,235
Yeah, I agree with that Final statement.

593
00:38:11,235 --> 00:38:14,625
We need to invent a new word with
more or less, but I would say it's

594
00:38:14,625 --> 00:38:15,950
the less rather than the more.

595
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,720
Let's end up with Orwell who, who
understood this as much as anyone,

596
00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:26,430
and as I said, his wonderful I essay
politics in the English language, uh,

597
00:38:26,430 --> 00:38:29,370
suggested that when you have problems
with language, you have problems with

598
00:38:29,370 --> 00:38:31,920
politics, and they go intimately together.

599
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:38,700
What is writing this and the response Jon
taught you about the relationship between.

600
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,230
Language, our languaging, the
English language, or that could

601
00:38:43,230 --> 00:38:44,880
be any language in politics.

602
00:38:49,260 --> 00:38:50,220
It taught me.

603
00:38:52,110 --> 00:38:54,150
Maybe this isn't a direct answer.

604
00:38:54,150 --> 00:38:55,560
We'll see what comes outta my mouth.

605
00:38:55,560 --> 00:39:02,100
I, one of the things that I
picked up from Orwell, including

606
00:39:02,100 --> 00:39:05,010
the S essay you mentioned, is
the importance of naming things.

607
00:39:06,615 --> 00:39:12,254
Orwell is someone who does
not want us to euphemized.

608
00:39:12,254 --> 00:39:13,035
Is that a word?

609
00:39:14,234 --> 00:39:14,654
Yeah.

610
00:39:14,714 --> 00:39:15,585
Well, we know what you mean.

611
00:39:15,585 --> 00:39:16,754
Create euphemisms.

612
00:39:16,875 --> 00:39:17,475
Yes.

613
00:39:17,504 --> 00:39:19,785
He says the hardest thing.

614
00:39:19,785 --> 00:39:21,615
I paraphrase again, you'll know the quote.

615
00:39:21,615 --> 00:39:27,404
The hardest thing to see is often
what's in front of one's nose and.

616
00:39:28,950 --> 00:39:35,610
This was an effort to name what I thought
and think is in front of our nose.

617
00:39:36,450 --> 00:39:38,280
That's the whole exercise.

618
00:39:39,150 --> 00:39:46,260
Um, and I guess I'm not sure if that's
responsive to the specific question

619
00:39:46,260 --> 00:39:50,970
you asked, but it's how I think about
what I'm trying at least to do here.

620
00:39:52,799 --> 00:39:57,779
So what we're trying to do is put words
to describe what's in front of our nose,

621
00:39:57,779 --> 00:40:01,140
although we're not always sure, but Jon
Roush is always ahead of everybody else.

622
00:40:01,140 --> 00:40:04,830
His new essay in the Atlantic
is a essential reading.

623
00:40:04,830 --> 00:40:06,089
Yes, it's fascism.

624
00:40:06,089 --> 00:40:06,779
Brave man.

625
00:40:06,779 --> 00:40:11,069
I'm not sure I entirely agree, but I
agree in part, I'm not sure he entirely

626
00:40:11,069 --> 00:40:13,229
agrees, but he certainly agrees in part.

627
00:40:13,229 --> 00:40:17,459
Jon, as always, pleasure,
honor, keep your important work.

628
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:17,924
You are.

629
00:40:18,735 --> 00:40:22,845
One of the loyal members of the
Opposition, and we go where you go.

630
00:40:22,845 --> 00:40:23,835
Thank you so much

631
00:40:24,105 --> 00:40:26,235
and a loyal member of your audience.

632
00:40:29,565 --> 00:40:30,915
Hi, this is Andrew again.

633
00:40:30,915 --> 00:40:33,405
Thank you so much for
listening or watching the show.

634
00:40:34,155 --> 00:40:36,615
Uh, if you enjoyed it, please subscribe.

635
00:40:36,620 --> 00:40:41,115
We're on Substack, YouTube,
apple, Spotify, all the platforms.

636
00:40:41,745 --> 00:40:46,575
Uh, and I'd be very curious as to your
comments as well on what you think of

637
00:40:46,575 --> 00:40:51,134
the show, how it can be improved, and
the kinds of guests that you would

638
00:40:51,134 --> 00:40:54,555
enjoy hearing or listening to in future.

639
00:40:54,645 --> 00:40:55,544
Thank you again.