Authoritarianism in the US and Abroad | Robert Wright & Almut Rochowanski

0:00 Almut’s first-hand acquaintance with authoritarianism
2:00 Trump 2.0’s authoritarian hallmarks
19:13 What should worry us most about Trump 2.0?
25:51 Trump 2.0 vs post-Soviet oligarchy: compare and contrast
32:44 Is Trump an ethno-nationalist?
38:38 Heading to Overtime

The whole discussion is interesting, but I'd like to call your attention to the discussion at 19:13, where Wright poses the question: How worried should we be? That is, how close are we to losing the republic and tipping over into a full-blown authoritarian state, if not in name, but in practice? Her reply (c. 19:58):

Rochowanski: All of this happens on grade, right? Like on a curve like it's already this is already it has already happened in a way. And positionality comes in very much here. Like if you've been a migrant belong to certain groups of migrants in this country this has already been your reality for a very long time, for decades possibly. It's not for nothing that ICE has the reputation that it has. It's just you know until recently this happened to uh migrants of different classes and now it happens to migrants who are at Ivy League graduate programs. That is new, right.

But this is you know in many ways that has already been true. I mean and certainly you know like been there. I mean I remember you know I was already here and already doing this work you know, when Citizens United happened. And like sort of the the howling and gnashing of teeth that that was heard around the time. Saying like this is going to be the end of the republic. And guess what? You know this is going to be the old lead us into the oligarchy and it very much looks like it has? So in a way like you should have been worried a long time ago.

Later, they're discussing Roe vs. Wade (c. 24:37):

Rochowanski: You know like. you really shouldn't do victimhood Olympics and all of that. But in the end you know women still are, sort of our rights are the most disposable of all, the the ones about which one can you know reasonably have discussions about, like they are up for debate and other things are not so much up for debate. Like freedom of speech. But I mean yeah it does certainly like there's something new about it. I don't want to deny that; I don't want to like you know sort of like say, oh nothing to see here. Not at all. But I just, you asked me like should we be worried and my point is you should have been worried a long time.