Historian and author Betsy Gaines Quammen returns to the podcast to discuss her new book, True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America, published by Torrey House Press. Building on her previous book, American Zion, Gaines Quammen follows the historical roots and trajectories of troubling political trends in the Western United States, decoupling the myths and material realities of the landscapes and the peoples and the more-than-human lives that occupy them.
“True West explores myths of the West and how, if left unexamined, they distort the realities of the present and exacerbate polarizations. These misperceptions about land, politics, liberty, and self-determination threaten the wellbeing of western communities overrun by newcomers seeking a dream—and the country, unless America recognizes the dangers of building a national identity on illusion. Gaines Quammen interrogates it all by listening, carefully, to people from varying political and cultural perspectives as she seeks to reconcile the deep anger and broad misunderstandings that linger amid myths that define and impede the West and America.”
Far Right
#338 | Chaos in Brasília: Why The Bolsonaristas Can’t Quit, Won’t Quit w/ Brian Mier
Journalist Brian Mier, co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent for teleSUR English, returns to the podcast to discuss the recent chaos in Brazil, days after the inauguration of popular center-left President Lula da Silva.
Read More#337 | No Pasarán!: Inroads To Power & Antifascist Community Making w/ Shane Burley
Author and journalist Shane Burley returns to the podcast to discuss the anthology No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, published this fall through AK Press. Burley is the editor and a contributor to this collection.
In catching up since our last interview, I ask Shane to clarify where the far-right stands in a "post-Trump" context. What inroads have far-right, and explicitly fascist, ideologues made in political discourse and policy in the United States over the past two years? How coherent is the far-right agenda, and who are their targets? What are the paths to power? And most importantly, how can various subcultural spaces, as well as rural and urban communities, each build effective resistances to this threat? No Pasaran, with its broad collection of voices, provides some of the most comprehensive answers to these questions.
Read More#284 | Breaches & Fissures: Capitol Siege & The Next Phase Of Far Right Terror w/ Spencer Sunshine
Intro: 10:47
Journalist, activist, and researcher of far right movements Spencer Sunshine returns to the podcast to discuss the MAGA siege on the Capitol on January 6th, what led up to it, and what to expect from the far right as we transition into Joe Biden’s presidency.
This discussion begins by addressing the years-long harassment Spencer has experienced by far right actors, such as being labeled the "leader of Antifa," and most recently as the "QAnon Shaman” (who famously participated in the Capital riot) — an accusation make by Lin Wood, Trump's attorney who worked on the Kraken election fraud lawsuit.
So how did I come to be the face—or, rather, the name behind somebody else’s face—of a right-wing campaign to deny crimes committed by other right-wingers? What unfolds is a decade-long tale of an ever-morphing conspiracy theory about me, originally forged in the crucible of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism and developed by a variety of small-time far-right figures before a Trumpist grifter injected it onto a national stage. And it’s also a story about how purely anti-Semitic conspiracies get toned down and then circulated more broadly, while retaining the same storyline and targeting the same individuals. (http://bit.ly/2XTXfoi)
From there, I ask Spencer about the escalation of far right terror in the United States over the past year, culminating in thousands of Trumpists invading the US Capitol on January 6th with murderous intent. As he states in a recent article published the day after the event:
The dramatic events yesterday at the U.S. Capitol further open worrisome possibilities for future far right violence and disruptions. An escalation in aggressive actions seems likely, especially in the remaining two weeks of Trump’s term, but the effect may last much longer. However, there is also the possibility that both this and similar recent events could further widen the internal fissures on the right, to the detriment of the Trumpists. (http://bit.ly/3bXbscg)
Unfortunately, these acts of violence by the far-right have steadily increased over the past several years. In the aftermath of the Capitol riot and the Trump presidency, Spencer expects a continued escalation of far right terror in the US over the coming months, and he explains why.
Spencer Sunshine, PhD, is a researcher, writer, activist, speaker, and political consultant regarding far right movements. In 1990, he co-founded an anti-racist youth group in the metro Atlanta, Georgia to combat the influence of the Nazi skinhead movement, which was hegemonic in the local punk scene. Since 2005, he has written extensively about the US Far Right. This includes postwar fascism, the Patriot/militia movement, left-right crossover movements, as well as antisemitic currents on both the Left and Right. Sunshine was present at the armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January 2016. In August 2017 he was part of the counter-demonstration against the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was in the crowd during the car attack which killed Heather Heyer and injured about 30 others.
Episode Notes:
- Follow and support Spencer’s work: https://spencersunshine.com / https://twitter.com/transform6789 / https://www.patreon.com/spencersunshine / https://www.tinyletter.com/spencersunshine
- Download and read ’40 Ways to Fight Nazis: Forty Community-Based Actions You Can Take to Resist White Nationalist Organizing’: http://bit.ly/3o5yVdM
- Read the articles referenced in this episode: http://bit.ly/2XTXfoi / http://bit.ly/3bXbscg / http://bit.ly/3sFh7cV
- Music provided by Eli Stonements.
Video Segment:
#270 | Testing Ground: Flash Points On The Road To Autocracy w/ Alexander Reid Ross & Shane Burley
Intro: 8:06
In this episode, I speak with Alexander Reid Ross, author of 'Against the Fascist Creep', and Shane Burley, author of 'Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It.' We discuss several important topics, including the historic ongoing wave of protests and uprisings across the United States since May this year, as well as the disturbing uptick of incidences of far-right vigilantism since then. We also examine one of the flash points in these struggles — Portland, Oregon — where Shane and Alexander are based.
With protests persisting over 100 days at this point, Portland has been a beacon of resistance to police brutality and repression, with anti-racist protestors contending with intermittent violent intimidation from far-right groups, as well the recent intrusions from federal officers from various divisions of the Department of Homeland Security, loyal to President Trump. I ask Shane to explain the conditions journalists covering the protests are working under, highlighting numerous examples of press being actively targeted, arrested, and brutalized by police since protests began. And finally, we address Alexander and Shane’s article published for Haarez in July, ‘Portland Is Trump's Testing Ground for Authoritarian Rule.’ What does this escalation of police violence directed towards protestors and journalists, the dramatic uptick of far-right vigilante violence across the United States, and Trump’s active encouragement of these trends portend for the upcoming presidential election and its inevitable fallout?
If both the federal incursion and their questionable tactics become a precedent, it’s not a long way from Trump disrupting democratic functioning and dissent come November. If Trump wins in November, this militarized federal intervention could escalate; and if he loses, he has prepared the ground for federal officers to intervene if he discounts the results.
For now, Portland is the laboratory for a new politics of anti-constitutional state-sponsored violence and the suppression of civil rights. The question is what will happen when Portland ceases to be an extreme outlier and becomes a prelude to wider roll-out of authoritarian rule. (https://bit.ly/3hXXoia)
Shane Burley is a journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of ‘Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It’ and the upcoming book ‘Why We Fight.’ His work has been featured in NBC News, Jacobin, Al Jazeera, The Baffler, and Truthout.
Alexander Reid Ross teaches geography at Portland State University, and is the author of ‘Against the Fascist Creep‘ and the editor of ‘Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab.’ His work has appeared in Truthout, ThinkProgress, The Ecologist, Haaretz, and the Cambridge University Strategic Initiative in Global Food Security.
Episode Notes:
- Read the articles referenced, including ‘America's Armed, Antisemitic Far Right Is Prepping to Defend Trump in November,’ ‘How to Survive Anti-Police Protests,’ and ‘Portland Is Trump's Testing Ground for Authoritarian Rule’: https://bit.ly/2ZYn1cx / https://bit.ly/36fcmhJ / https://bit.ly/3hXXoia
- Read Alexander and Shane’s new article ‘Conspiracy Theories by Cops Fuel Far Right Attacks Against Antiracist Protesters’: https://bit.ly/32XoUbu
- Learn more about Alexander and follow him on Twitter: https://alexanderreidross.net / https://twitter.com/areidross
- Support Shane’s work and follow him on Twitter: https://www.patreon.com/shaneburley / https://twitter.com/shane_burley1
- The songs featured in this episode are “Arid” and “Ash” by Lorn from the album Rarities: https://youtu.be/VZtHceWq2gs / https://youtu.be/o7gg3s3smvQ