Good evening, friends, Thank you for joining us at the Nonprofits for the first show of twenty twenty five. Today is a Monday, January thirteenth, and I am with a panel of wonderful people. We're going to discuss and well, I almost said awesome but maybe disturbing article. And you know, they say forty is the new thirty. And following that line of thinking, I say, for a majority of Americans
that fascism is the new constitutional democracy. While many characterize the New Republican Party as authoritarian excuse me authoritarianism, I don't think that description goes far enough. They increasingly champion the type of American, the white Christian who are predominantly male, that would benefit in the system that it would run.
This is likely the outcome should the Trump administration conform to the far right thinkers who provide their agenda and political philosophy, which will result in a fascist as well as the dictatorial regime. We've seen it happening incrementally over the past decade, and there are no signs of its slowing down. This article is from The Guardian by Wilson Jason on December twenty first, twenty twenty four. And you know, Tracy,
I want to jump right into it. The article talks about how conservatives in the current administration, the administration that's about to come in, I should say, are looking to attract libertarian minded youth in the tech industry. First of all, a lot of people think that libertarianism is somehow the centrist point of view on the political spectrum, somewhere between liberal and conservative. It's actually far more conservative than people
people give it credit for. But why why? And I know that you have some thoughts about the tech industry and algorithms and the way that they play into this messaging, So I kind of just want to ask you, why are they interested in attracting libertarian minded youth in the tech industry.
Well, Jimmy, these are my thoughts on that I was at When I was a younger man. I fancied myself as a libertarian because I saw it, like you said, as that mid range point. What I'm going to tell you is it's easy. That's why they want to do it. It's really easy to convince these younger people who think that their stance is in the middle. They're trying to
be the reasonable person when they're in reality. Like you said, far off on one side, it's really easy to get them to come down to the American right as opposed to way further down to the American left, because, as you said, they think they're in the middle, but they're not.
Yeah, you know, I think that that's an important thing to highlight, because really what happens is the Libertarian Party becomes so appealing to people who are disenchanted with the current political system that they say, well, you know, this party's got some good aspects, but actually, if you break down the philosophy and the policies associated, you find yourself going, oh shit, you know, I'm like way further to the
right than I thought I was. And I think it could be problematic for people who really don't know what the what libertarianism stands for. But you know, Helen, I want to kind of pick your brain on whether or not this is surprising. You know, Is it surprising, uh that this kind of philosophy, this kind of advice is coming from people that are highlighted in this article to the new administration. H what do you make of this article and everything it outlined?
So when I was reading this article and plus, like, I know the person that they highlighted like I don't know him, know him, but I was there's an episode behind the Bassards and they went into a deep dive.
About this dude who's terrible.
By the way, these far right, you know, a conservative young men with a lot of money, a lot of influencer, very much into the tech industry, and a lot of them are Silicon Valley people.
And they also use.
Like the algorithms and also like the scientific data. I'm using those in quotations to say things like, you know, to promote things like white nationalism, you know, and they use what it could be you know, what can we conceived as like statistics and basically a new form of eugenics to say that, you know, certain groups of people are supposed to, you know, buy into the idea that you know, one group of people is better than another
group of people. And also when when people hear a libertarian, you hear liberty in that in that word, but that means deregulations, that means letting the free market decide, you know, if people get education or healthcare, that you know, pulling back things that are for environmental protections. And also that includes that you know, normally white people are going to have a leg up because we, unfortunately in this country white people do and because of that, they want to
keep that going. But only for like, you know, the very very like super special people like Elon Musk is one of these people that he thinks he's so super fucking special. And that's the issue, because when you get into these mindsets of these ultra right, very rich young men, they they want to procreate those ideas and they'll do it under libertarian rhetoric.
Yeah, I thought that is that is a perfect point. I feel like I picked up the same things when I was reading this. I do consider this not just authoritarianism, because the the article, the author of the article talks a lot about authoritarianism, and you could be an authoritarian in multiple different types of government. But I think fascist
is a more appropriate term. And and to the point that you eight, this would allow the white majority to not be influenced by people that are culturally or even racially different from them, plain and simple. Uh. And so I want to jump over to Stephen, you know, what do we do about this?
Is?
What what should how should American society flex to this shift? Uh?
Like this was my first time hearing about this courtesy Arvin guy who seems to have so much sway over the incoming administration. And it's and it's and it's it's hard, it's frustrating. Like I know that I am a really privileged person, you know, being a white Cis male, Like, I've got a lot of privilege, and I know that I would be uh, I wouldn't be aware of it if I hadn't already like, had some of that privilege
stripped away from me. I'm started like thinking critically about the experiences of other people, so I can understand why it has for the ignorance, for the ignorant let's not let's not buttergoat sugarcoat it daymore for the ignorant people who are just within their dome, it just makes sense that, yeah, yeah,
this this benefits me, so let's go with it. So I don't know how to address that other than to like just through education, right, I think I think it's really important that we just rip this band aid off and see just how far away we have fallen. We need to just articulate what exactly are our ideals and where exactly are we because so long as we're like, well, maybe it'll be fine, like, oh, can't wait for the next four years to be over, then things can well
have a chance. Like No, things are never going to go back to being normal, right man. It's because we're giving oxygens to fuck faces like this courtesy Yarvin. Guy who doesn't have the best interests of everybody in mind. He has the interests of a very small demographic in mind, and he is being listened to and supported by people in power who do not have the best interests of
everybody in mind. They just have a very small demographic that they are looking out for, and we just need to see that for what it is and then start to rebuild.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that part is evident. The thing that is is I don't want to say funny, but I'm going to use that term for right now. What's funny to me is that they're encouraging or heat. Jarvin and his cast of characters are encouraging dictatorial policies, right, fascist policies, some might say, like myself, But they're encouraging
it for the incoming administration. So tracy. If they think that these policies are so good, why not just encourage them for the administration that's been in office for the last four years. Why wait, you know so, I wanted to see what's your reflection on that part, my friend. You may be muted. You may very well be muted. Welcome, Welcome to the nonprofits.
Thank you, thank you. Why would they because they don't really want at least as far as I can tell, they don't want America as it stands this mister Yarvin to take the current administration and just inject it with their ideas would still not be as screwed up and authoritarian and good for only some people as they want it to be. They want their way. They don't want anybody else to get anything. They want to be in charge because they're the big strong boys with all the
money and all the everything. They're they're the best, and that is in their mind what should happen. The people who are the best should be in power and should make all the decisions.
Yeah, and I would I would point to that point. I would say, you know, this is actually these are not good policies then, I mean, if they if they just don't work, and they only work at a certain circumstance, well then they're not the best policy, are they? You know our policies as a country that is consistently or continuously in flux with the different demographics, and just like the changing waves of society and culture, we need to make sure that we have policies that always work for
every American. And clearly these policies aren't working. So I want to, Helen, get your comment on this. Okay, So there was something that the author quoted another advisor to the Trump administration, somebody by the name of Anton, And forgive me, I don't have the first name here, but our Anton writes that the United States peaked in nineteen sixty five and that Americans are ruled by a network
of unelected bureaucrats. So right now, Americans are now ruled by a network of unelected bureaucrats, corporate tech, finance, senior management experts quote unquote, I'm doing my air quotes who set boundaries of acceptable opinion and media figures who police those boundaries. So Anton is accusing the United States right now of that characteristic. I would say, is that not calling the pot calling the kettle black? And Helen, I wanted to see what you thought about that.
I mean, yes, I can see this, yes, and no, like like they're obviously not elected, but are they whispering in people's years? Yes, like you know, you know Yarvin is whispering in JD Vance's here, so you know, and has adopted these policies and like things, these policies are a good idea and like.
You know, it's become a racist, fascist piece of crap and so like I so peaking in nineteen sixty five is hyperbole and stupid.
Whether when black people had their own r Yeah.
Women didn't have rights, Like I couldn't get a credit card if I was live in nineteen sixty five and couldn't get an abortion. Well that's new, that's that's that's current. But like, this is the thing when when one this is not true, we do still for now, I'll have a democracy.
You know, we just had an election. You know, it didn't go.
Our way, but oh my god, there's a peaceful transfer of power. So this is the thing that but when someone says like you know, we're like you're being hypocritical, like and I think that's trying to pass the buck because they know that these corporate you know Elon Musk, Yeah, that are like Trump just put a bunch of businessman millioneires as part of his cabinet.
You know, you're mantling the Department of Education.
There's all these things that are coming that basically like if you want America run like a fucking business, hello,
you know. But the issue is is that you can't sit there and be like serious and say like, well, you know, you know, it's warned by like, you know, corporate burcrats, And I'm like, you're the corporate burcrat mofo, like shut up, you know, and the irony there, it's just so funny and I think that's just but I think that's more about deflection then what is actually going on, because like with Yarvin, like whispering and like jd Vance's ear, you know, and jd Vance you know, grew up poor,
you know, came from an home with an an addicted mom, grew up in like an abusive household. Was kind of leaning a little bit to like understanding the economic issues that were happening in Tennessee where he grew up and on the Appalachian Trail and these people that became addicted
to drugs and didn't have any upward mobility. He was sensitive to that to a point but then he got involved, He got involved in like you know, Ivy League schools and where mommy and daddy are paying their very rich kids to go to college and get influenced by that, and that.
Is feeding into and it's the same thing.
With these corporate butt heeads that want to influence government because there they don't see the world from a more diverse lunch. They just have that narrow view that only like straight white men that have a lot of fucking money in our conservative and.
Far right are the ones that she ruled the country.
Yeah, you know, that's why they think it.
Peaked in nineteen sixty five, because that's what happened then.
In Jdvan to jade Vance's point, or to the point you're making about jade Vance, you know, uh, he realized later in life that he can benefit, you know, he can benefit by this system like we've all alluded to. So you know, Stephen on that note, has democracy failed?
Well, I don't know, like your leader is talking about invading our sovereignty and just absorbing us like that's that's that doesn't seem like a healthy democratic system. Like has has democracy failed? I think it's been co opted. I think it's been purchased, and I can't like, I can't. I can't first off, like if if like it's was
it all a ploy? The fact that we that Democrats had to fight so hard to say no, there wasn't election interference last time, you just the lost yet ding bay for us to like further that narrative, and then like so that means that if they did steal all these dominion machines and figured out how to hack them, and now they stole the election, it feels like really two face in order to say well, actually, maybe it was. It just has democracy failed? It's failed? Yeah? Ah fuck,
that's I don't know. I don't want to say yes. And yet how can we say anything else? So when one third of the population doesn't care or doesn't have voice to express what it wants, like that doesn't seem like a system you know that has been appointed by the people, right, And I don't know.
Well, I would you know, you say our leader and fair fair. However, I do want to make a distinction that I don't think a lot of people understand. And this isn't you necessarily Stephen, but I think constituents across the country we often refer to our elected officials as leaders, and that just comes with the misunderstanding of how our
government is actually supposed to work. We are not electing people to necessarily lead us as we are to be a representative of our intent, our wants, to our desires, and our need to have our social contract upheld. I think what we've seen in the United States is that our democracy is definitely being challenged. Those principles are being challenged. Will they fall, will they be upheld? I think it remains to be seen. And so on that note, you know, I want to turn to Tracy and say, do we
as Americans have the ability to govern? I mean, are are we capable of self governance? At this point?
Well, I just need to ask you, Jimmy, have you left your house recently? And when you did, did you survive?
You?
Okay, all right, well that's good, that's good. Then that's a resounding case for self governance. Because there wasn't a police officer on every step. There wasn't a soldier on every door, was there?
Of course not? Of course not, of course not there.
What you're talking about the desigre tire to have the social contract upheld, That is innate in a person. Nobody wants their neighborhood to start burning down and murders to happen left, right, and center. We are, of course able to self govern. We've been doing it for thousands of years. We're gonna keep doing it for thousands of years unless you know, the current administration, or the incoming administration, or any of the whack jobs around the world decide to
do something about it. I'm not at all concerned with people's ability to self regulate and to self govern. What I'm concerned with is a runaway population that is small but loud, just making everybody think, oh, well, this is the loudest voice. And we all know that being popular is very is very dangerous because not everybody understands that the most popular thing is not necessarily the correct thing. Many people will just fall in with the most popular thing.
And if the most popular thing is dangerous, then what are we going to do? So I do think we're able to self govern. I think we do still need to work on it.
Okay, yeah, So the fear I think I have is that when you have cabinets of each branch of government, I shouldn't say cabinets. That was the wrong terminology. But when you have each branch of government dominated by the same party and then able to acquiesce into a way that is not helpful, we're not beneficial to the entire society. You know, do we run the risk of dismantling? And Helen,
I want to get your take on that. Are we at risk of our government being dismantled by policies that the electorate can no longer affect?
Yes, yes, we know that Probaty twenty twenty five is going to beathing. They said that this was going to be added a part of the new administration, and we have these corporate oligarchs that are going to be influencing policy. We are going to see a dismantling of our democracy. It will have the features you know of a democracy, but it's going to be designed that only I hate to see it.
You know that it's.
Going to be harder to get people to register and be able to vote. It's going to affect people's mobility and ability mobility and also to get proper to political education. We have such a problem with it before and now it's going to get worse. Because if you don't know how to like this is one thing we keep, you know, yelling at the at the ether about on these shows is that there's a lack of education and critical thinking.
And when a good portion of the American populace sees people like Jarvin and they see people like Elon Musk and like, yeah, people are getting in channel with Elon, that's fine. But there are people that think that, oh, this person is rich, that means they're a good person, you know, because rich, she goes good. And it's like no, because you don't get that rich without screwing a lot of fucking people over. And that's what's going to happen. The oligarchs are going to have that mindset and bring
it down into the American populace. And I know, in four years we might have a reelection and we might we might get somebody else in office that I don't want to scream into my pillow and cry. But that being said, that means but this is going to take a decade or two and as going in a more progressive direction to fix it will not suddenly disappear in four years when we have a new election.
Yeah, you know, And that's the thing I'm more scared.
Of lot a lot to unpack there. You know, you talk about the lack of education, you talk about the system needing to be rebuilt, and you know, Stephen, on that note, I want to kind of relay or repeat some of the quotes that were in this article. So one Jarvin says, we need to eliminate the freedom of
the press. Incredibly dangerous. Uh, you know, not being able to spread spread, spread the message right, not being able to get a message out or to for for uneducated or for the people that need to be informed to not be informed. And then our own Vice President elect jd Vance says, uh, the system will inevitably collapse and Conservatives must replace it with something better, a d bathification
alluding to Saddam Hussein's party and a dewolcification program. We have to strike at the heart of the beast universities. Uh So, Steven, what is at risk right now?
Uh?
You know, how do we prevent the collapse? And what is the most vulnerable I think asset in our society that could be attacked and enable this collapse.
Like within I know, like one piece of advice that I see echoed within minority groups and then especially in queer groups is just the idea of like find your home base, find your home group, find your home community. That's that's something that we are going to need. I think.
I think those marginalized people, they have the most to lose. So, you know, so whether that's racially marginalized, or or gender or sexually, anything that puts you that takes away, that gives you less of a voice compared to these these loud voices of rich people who who yeah, that believe that that because of their empowerment and because of their entitlement,
that they have the best idea, the right idea. I think those are the voices, that's what we have the those are the communities that we need to be looking out for the most. And and then yeah, like we've mentioned here, like education obviously is going to be it's going to be the one of the greatest blows that we can see as a society is to attack our education. I know for myself, like as a parent, like don't I don't have any hope for our generation seeing a turnaround.
So that's why my kids are so important to me. And what can I be doing now in order to like lay that groundwork of healthy critical thinking so that when there's that hope for change that they can that their shoulders will be broad enough to help support that.
Yeah, yeah, thank you. And it's we're at a really important time. We're at an important time in our history because we have a reintroduction of i think highly conservative, far right values that really haven't been a part of our society in the way that we see our current conservative party as firing to and so a pivotal time for our children, a pivotal time for probably our grandchildren,
depending on how much damage is done. And you know, I want to kind of just wrap this segment up by tying this back to the thing that we're here for, and that's to discuss religion and its negative impacts. And you know, I'm not surprised at all, and I don't think any of us are that the hardlined Christians and Evangelicals are in line with this way of thinking, because these are the kind of people that are going to
benefit most. And so they give a platform, they give a pathway, an apparatus to the conservative movement in this country and allow them to inflict the most damage, which if you ask them, of course, is not what they stand for, but in practice it certainly is. And On that note, I want to encourage everybody to continue tuning into the nonprofits to talk about and hear us talk about some of these issues as they unfold day to day. Thanks for joining us.