Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, last month I spoke to journalist Jeffrey Sharlet, known for his books on the Christian Nationalist movement (The Family and C Street; the former has been made into hit Netflix documentary miniseries), to discuss his latest work The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. The book is a series of essays exploring the chaotic moment that Sharlet calls the "Trumpocene" and delves into everything from the January 6th insurrection and death of Ashli Babbitt to the Men's Rights Movement. Given he New Hampshire primary on January 23rd, I felt that now was the perfect time to release this prescient conversation.
In this conversation we cover a number of topics including:
- The "F Word"; or fascism
- The rise of the far-right in the U.S. and its global ascendancy
- Trump and Gnosticism; Jeff's citing of the Gnostic poem "Thunder Perfect Mind" in relation to the Trump/MAGA movement phenomena
- Jan 6th and the death of Ashli Babbit; what drove Ashli Babbit into Trumpism and the MAGA movement?
- QAnon and the power of narratives in mobilizing the American right-wing
- Revisiting Jeff's groundbreaking journalism on The Family, C Street, the Council for National Policy (CNP), and Christian Nationalism
- Christian Nationalism and Trumpism as radical reinterpretations of Christianity; the Church itself as not being the be-all-end-all of Christian Nationalism (it's much bigger than that)
- Jeff's experiences reporting on the MRA movement and the ways in which they start with some true observations (men have high suicide rates, custody issues, etc.) that are chucked away in favor of misogny and all-out attacks on feminism (even though some of their initial observations can also be found amongst feminist works such as Susan Faludi's Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man)
- And more!
The U.S. Role in the Rise of Vladimir Putin w/ Greg Palast/The Hidden History of Big Brother w/ Thom Hartmann/Orthodox Christianity, Russkiy Mir, & the Ukraine Crisis w/ George Demacopoulos
Cuba & Ukraine Crisis w/ William LeoGrande/Gulf States & Ukraine Crisis w/ Kristian Ulrichsen/U.S. Foreign Policy & Ukraine w/ Daniel Bessner
Hitler’s Cosmopolitan Bastard: Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Founding Father of Europe w/ Martyn Bond/Russia and Sanctions w/ Brian Grodsky
Soaring Gas Prices & the Economy w/ Mike Swanson/Putin’s Game in Ukraine w/ Larry Hancock
The Cloak-and-Dagger, Hall of Mirrors World of the Donbass w/ Aaron Lake Smith/Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2022 w/ Mickey Huff
Ukraine Crisis w/ John Feffer
Putin’s Ukraine Gamble, War, and Hubris w/ Patrick Cockburn
Ukraine Crisis w/ Zachary Paikin/World Beyond War w/ David Swanson
Ukraine Crisis w/ Kuba Wrzesniewski
Ukraine Crisis w/ James W. Carden
70s Blaxploitation Cinema and Its Pop Culture Legacy w/ Thaddeus Russell & Kamasi Hill
The Palestinian Struggle and Human Rights w/ Dr. Hanan Ashrawi/The 2022 Israel Lobby Con w/ Grant F. Smith
The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression w/ A. Dirk Moses
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution w/ Lindsay M. Chervinsky
The Golden Age of Islamic Philosophy + Muhammad Ali Jinnah w/ Amb. Akbar Ahmed/Global Wealth Inequality w/ Chuck Collins
Cuba: The 60 Year Embargo, the Pandemic Response, & Havana Syndrome w/ Dr. Mitchell Valdés Sosa/Foreign Interventions & Turmoil in Libya (+ Gulf Politics & Yemen) w/ Giorgio Cafiero
The Azov Battalion and U.S. Support of the Ukrainian Far-Right w/ Lev Golinkin
FIXED: Havana Syndrome, TikTok Tics, & Mass Psychogenic Saber-Rattling/The Lucrative Business of Anti-Vaxx? w/ Mia Jankowicz/Amensty International Israel/Palestine Report w/ Stephen Zunes
Breaking Through the Propaganda on Israel/Palestine w/ Sut Jhally & Roger Waters/NSO Group Spyware Scandal Deepens w/ Nick Cleveland-Stout & Taylor Giorno
Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire w/ Michael Hudson/The Failure of the British Left w/ James A. Smith
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