In Episode 54 [12]of the CounterVortex podcast [13], Bill Weinberg explores the twin threats of a totalitarian order that the United States faces at this history-making moment: Trump-fascism, perhaps to be lubricated by a "Reichstag Fire [14]" scenario ahead of the November election, and a post-pandemic "new normality [15]" of complete surveillance and social control. Eerily predictive [16] of these twin dystopias are two works of "future fiction" from the 20th century—It Can't Happen Here [17] by Sinclair Lewis and The Machine Stops [18] by EM Forster. With the Black Lives Matter uprising [19] deepening the ugly backlash from the Trump camp and a COVID-19 "second wave" looming, the US is poised on a razor's edge between long-overdue leaps of social progress and descent into some kind of updated American variant of fascism. Listen on SoundCloud [13] or via Patreon [20].
Production by Chris Rywalt [23]
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