Ep. 139: Ruth Ben-Ghiat Analyzes Authoritarianism and Donald Trump's Predatory Masculinity

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. She is a historian at New York University who specializes in authoritarianism, aesthetics, cultural politics, and Italian history. She is the author of numerous books including an upcoming project on authoritarianism and political strongmen. Ben-Ghiat is also a regular contributor to CNN, The Atlantic, and The Huffington Post. During this week's show, Professor Ben-Ghiat and Chauncey discuss Donald Trump's rise to power, authoritarianism and American politics, the global color line, masculinity, and how violence is a central component of Donald Trump's appeal for his voters. In this week's episode Chauncey DeVega offers some thoughts on the recent white supremacist murders in Portland as well as Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Chauncey also gives out a special prize for the "prank monkeys" who fell for Trump's "covfefe" foolishness. For this special fundraising episode of the podcast Chauncey responds to some questions sent in by listeners about white privilege and white supremacy as well as how best to resist Trump's fascist foot soldiers. Chauncey also has fun reading hate mail from a white supremacist.