Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, joins the show to discuss his new book Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times.

Samuel examines and dissects the beliefs of Cold War intellectuals like Karl Popper, Judith Shklar, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Lionel Trilling, Isaiah Berlin, and Hannah Arendt to argue that liberals of the Cold War in many ways ended up undermining the progressive and Enlightenment principles of the liberal tradition in their attempts to combat communism. In doing so, he makes the case, they helped paved the way not only for modern equivalents/heirs of the Cold War liberalism like Anne Applebaum, Timothy Garton Ash, Paul Berman, Michael Ignatieff, Tony Judt, and Leon Wieseltierm, but also the reigning power of the current neoliberal order and the withering of the welfare state.

A note that this conversation is talking about liberals and liberalism in a very academic sense rather than it's colloquial usage. Among the topics discussed are Judith Shklar's After Utopia (and why Shklar is a guiding force throughout Liberalism Against Itself), Sigmun Freud and the politics of self-regulations, decolonization and paternalisitic racism in the Cold War era, Jonathan Chait's scathing review of Liberalism Against Itself and Samuel's response to it (excluive, thus far, to this show), Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed and Samuel's critique of the burgeoning postliberal right, thoughts on Sohrab Ahmari's Tyranny Inc., Karl Popper of The Open Society and Its Enemies fame and the problem his critique of historicism, the Mont Pelerin Society and neoliberalism, F.A. Hayek, Gertrude Himmelfarb and the Christian thinker Lord Acton, the Cold War liberals' critique of romanticism and Samuel's response to it, the Soviet Union and the idea of Progress and who lays claim to it, the concept of emancipation and the French Revolution, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, longtime antiwar movement voice and peace activist Norman Solomon joins Parallax Views to discuss his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of It's Military Machine. We also debate/conversate about Ukraine and where things should go from here in regards to the Russian invasion, Ukraine's continued resistance, the question of diplomacy, and how the U.S. should be responding to it as well as how weapons manufacturers on both sides are the biggest victors of the invasion in terms of the weapons sales bonanza it has been for them.

Most of the conversation thought is devoted to the nature of the U.S. warfare state and how media has often been complicit in manufacturing consent for U.S. war and military adventurism abroad. Norman also talks about his background, the problem with embedded journalism and how it ends up turning journalists into mouthpieces for the U.S. war machine, the myths of broadcast media ending the war in Vietnam, the nature of propaganda and the use of language in selling and normalizing war and militarism, the War on Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, drone warfare and the technologies of war, the connection between racism and military adventurism, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Hanna Homestead, a policy analyst for the Center for International Policy, joins me to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 in relation to climate change, carbon emissions, and emission reductions efforts. We delve into the Congressional efforts to block Department of Defense emission reduction endeavors and the reasons for that. We also delve into the paradoxical nature of U.S. militarized foreign policy "national interests" doctrine, the Biden administration, third party contractors and the DoD, the need for accountability and transparency measures, 9/11 and the War on Terror in relation to the NDAA, the 2001 and 2003 AUMFs (Authorization for Use of Military Force), Congressional pork barreling, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we just passed the anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As such this episode is devoted to the subject of 9/11 and the guest is Ray McGinnis, author of Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored. Ray tells the story of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee and the Jersey Girls, a group of widows whose husbands perished in the 9/11 attacks, and their pressure campaigns that led to the formation of the 9/11 Commission. These families, traumatized by the attacks and the loss of their loved ones, sought to have hard questions answered about the 9/11 attacks. Was there a Saudi connection to the events of that day? Why was the United States government unable to prevent the attacks? What led to the failure of response? Who dropped the ball? Simply put, they wanted accountability. McGinnis skillfully tells the story in their book, offering a tale of grassroot citizens activism. In the course of our conversation we'll discuss a number of topics related to these issues including a possible UAE tie to the events of 9/11, Counterterrorism Czar Richard A. Clarke, Henry Kissinger's resignation from the 9/11 Commision and the role the 9/11 families played in that resignation, and much, much more!

After a break due to Hurricane Idalia, Parallax Views is back! Earlier this year I spoke with Matt Clement, editor of the recent zer0 books anthology No Justice, No Police?: The Politic of Protest and Social Change. Matt and I discussed the radical movements seeking to reform or even abolition policing in the U.S. and U.K. since the advent of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement took off. We'll discuss where these efforts are today and the different perspectives on policing, police brutality, police killing, and related topics in this conversation

On this edition of Parallax Views, Sohrab Ahmari of the online magazine Compact joins the show to discuss his intriguing new book Tyranny Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty--and What to Do About It. Sohrab is a self-described "man of the Right". As such one may expect that Tyranny Inc. is another addition to the growing cottage industry conservative diatribes about "woke capitalism". That's what makes the book so interesting though. Rather than offering an extended invective against "woke capital", Ahmari opts instead to offer a surprisingly materialist-based critical analysis of neoliberal capitalism and the darkest consequences of it. One could easily mistake it for having been written by a left-wing thinker. Ahmari even cites such figures associated with broadly leftist tendencies such as Marxist economic geographer David Harvey and economist J.K. Galbraith. In this conversation we discuss the key points of his book, his hopes for regulation of the corporate power in America going forward (which could be spearheaded by the political odd couple of Elizabeth Warren and JD Vance), capitalism and atomization, regional capital (small business owners) as the power base of the GOP that prevents Republicans from being a truly working class-friendly party, and, in the latter portion of the conversation, Ahmari's laudable, Catholic-driven opposition to the emergent trend of a racist, social darwinist, and eugenicist segment of the right that he calls the "Nietzschean Right".

On this edition of Parallax Views, long-time Hawaii-based journalist Albert Lanier makes his return to Parallax Views to discuss the Maui wildfires that have ravaged Lahaina. The death toll is currently at 114 with 800 or more unaccounted for at the time of this episode's release. And that doesn't even get into the financial damages to Maui. Homes have been destroyed and lives displaced.

This raises the question: Could this tragedy have been, if not prevented, handled better? Could lives have been saved? Was the response to the Maui wildfires by the Maui Emergency Management and its then chief (now resigned) Herman Andaya profoundly mismanaged? Why were sirens not put into effect? Why were residents left to looking out there windows to realize the fire was happening and run to the harbor? What to make of the Biden administration's and FEMA's response? Or the frankly bizarre conspiracy theories that have already started trying to claim the natural disaster was actually a DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) attack? All this and much more will be addressed on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, historian Luke A. Nichter, author of such books as The Nixon Tapes (w/ Douglas Brinkley), The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War, and Lyndon B. Johnson: Pursuit of Populism, Paradox of Power, joins the show to discuss his new book The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968.

Although many think of the 1960s as the "summer of love", it was in truth an era of great turbulence and tumult beyond all the imagery of flower-pop and free love as depicted in pop culture explorations of the era. 1968, in particular, was particularly chaotic year both domestically within the U.S. and internationally. The Vietnam war was raging. It was a time of protests. The assassinations of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not be seeking another term in office. Riots broke out outside the Democratic National Convention. And an election was in our midst that would see Republican Richard Nixon, Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and pro-segregation third-party candidate George Wallace.

Luke will take us through what that year meant political, delve into how LBJ may have dropped out of the race but not out of making political maneuverings, evangelist Billy Graham's only recently discovered role in the election year and the campaigns, what motivated the voters with their decision at the ballot box in 1968, Luke's questioning of the narrative that Nixon's "Southern Strategy" played an outside role in the election outcome, the meaning of 1968 in the age of Trump and in lieu of the 2024 election, Nixon's centrism?, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann joins the show in the first half for a 30-minute conversation about his latest book The Hidden History of American Democracy. Hartmann argues that if American citizens look back deep into the history of the United States, going back to the Founding Fathers, they will find that "democracy is in our veins" despite the country's many faults over its history. We'll delve into some of the key points of the book, the Constitution, slavery in America, the work of historians Charles and Mary Beard and Thom's criticism of it, and much, much more.

In the second segment of the show, Ret. LTC. William J. Astore of the Eisenhower Media Network to discuss the British Medical Journal editorial "Reducing the risks of nuclear war". William and I will discuss the risks of nuclear war in the 21st century, Oppenheimer, William's reflection on his time spent at Alamogordo and Los Alamos, thought on the recently passed away Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, freelancer writer Bertrand Russell joins me to discuss the issue of black poverty, which he grew up in, and his article for The Atlantic entitled "The Failure of Affirmative Action". This article has led to Bertrand appearing on media outlets like MSNBC and Slate. It doesn't argue that Affirmative Action didn't help black Americans, but rather that Affirmative Action didn't adequately address the plight of the black poor in America.

In this discussion we'll discuss how black America isn't a monolith, specifically socioeconomically. This'll lead us to talking about the black poor, black middle, and black upper class. We'll also talk about "class reductionism" and "race reductionism", Bertrand's criticism of black intellectual thought leaders like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi, class interests in the black community, the Netflix show Beef and how it deals with the class in relationship to the Asian-American experience, the racial wealth gap and the work of scholar William "Sandy" Darity, the ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) movement, Ibram X. Kendi's recent piece "'Working Class' Does Not Equal 'White'", acknowledging the human elements when discussing class as well race, the "Ambassador" model of having someone from the upper echelons of a marginalized group represent the rest of that marginalized, class tensions in the black community, lack of representation of the black poor in media and academia, Bertrand's personal experience in University as someone who came from a background of poverty, cultural appropriation of the black poor and their experiences, "authenticity" as a social currency and the potential problems with it, and much, much more!

Sources:
Gen X incarceration rates by race, gender, and parental income
https://opportunityinsights.org/paper/race/

Pew Research (2007) surveying value differences among black folks
https://pewresearch.org/social-trends/2007/11/13/blacks-see-growing-values-gap-between-poor-and-middle-class/

Pew Research on black intra-group commonality