Fascism today: fear and loathing in America

by Jeff Shantz
Millions have lost jobs and others the prospect of finding jobs that pay a sustainable living wage or offer some financial security. Millions have seen savings vanish or pensions, deferred wages, decline or evaporate. Continue reading Fascism today: fear and loathing in America

Taking notes 53: The fascism of Donald Trump’s America

by Henry A. Giroux
Donald Trump’s blatant appeal to fascist ideology and policy considerations took a more barefaced and dangerous turn last week when he released a statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Continue reading Taking notes 53: The fascism of Donald Trump’s America

Donald Trump and the ghost of totalitarianism

by Henry A. Giroux
In the current historical moment in the United States, the emptying out of language is nourished by the assault on the civic imagination. One example of this can be found in the rise of Donald Trump on the political scene. Donald Trump’s popular appeal speaks to not just the boldness of what he says and the shock it provokes, but the inability to respond to shock with informed judgement rather than titillation Continue reading Donald Trump and the ghost of totalitarianism

The warfare state and the brutalizing of everyday life

by Henry A. Giroux Since 9/11, the war on terror and the campaign for homeland security have increasingly mimicked the tactics of the enemies they sought to crush. Violence and punishment as both a media spectacle and a bone-crushing reality have become prominent and influential forces shaping American society. As the boundaries between “the realms of war and civil life have collapsed,” social relations and the public services needed to make them viable have been increasingly privatized and militarized.(1) The logic of profitability works its magic in channeling the public funding of warfare and organized violence into universities, market-based service … Continue reading The warfare state and the brutalizing of everyday life

The death rattle of the American mind

by Peter McLaren I regret to inform my liberal friends and colleagues that we have moved well beyond the return of a progressive Keynesianism. That the domination of post–World War II economics by Fordism/Keynesianism is over (as the production of profit no longer relies upon the production of commodities and their sale) should not be a revelation to the most astute observers of the contemporary political scene who have been examining in minute detail the collapse of our capitalist universe. Their most grim prognosis tells us that we have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Either we slay the … Continue reading The death rattle of the American mind

Fahrenheit 451 redux

by Henry A. Giroux “The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it…. A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth—that is what I am after… I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men.” — Adolf Hitler “They that start by burning books will end by burning men.” – Heinrich Heine Every once in a while events flash before us that might at first seem trivial or commonplace given how in tune they are with the political and ideological temper of the times; but in reality they sometimes … Continue reading Fahrenheit 451 redux