Tag Archives: fascism

Henry Giroux

On the day that Henry Giroux finished his latest book, Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis, he graciously joined us for an interview. It will be published in 2021.

Henry Giroux is Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy and Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest at McMaster University.

He has written more than 56 books since his first book, Ideology, Culture and the Process of Schooling was published in 1981, and he has been generous with his time over the years as he published books such as Zombie Politics in the Age of Casino Capitalism; Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories, and the Culture of Cruelty; The Violence of Organized Forgetting: Thinking Beyond America’s Disimagination Machine; Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle; America at War with Itself; American Nightmare: The Challenge of US Authoritarianism; and The Terror of the Unforeseen.

We spoke with him on August 2, 2020 about the multiple crises with which we are faced.

Articles referenced in the interview:

President Trump, White Supremacy and the Confederate Flag https://billmoyers.com/story/president-trump-white-supremacy-and-the-confederate-flag/

The Ugly Terror of a Fascist Abyss Lurks in the Background of This Pandemic https://truthout.org/articles/the-ugly-terror-of-a-fascist-abyss-lurks-in-the-background-of-this-pandemic/

Racist violence part of a plague of inequity https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/07/01/racist-violence-part-of-a-plague-of-inequity.html

Bill Barr and the Ghost of Fascism https://billmoyers.com/story/bill-barr-and-the-ghost-of-fascism/

The plague of inequality in the age of pandemic: This uprising is about more than George Floyd https://www.salon.com/2020/06/20/the-plague-of-inequality-in-the-age-of-pandemic-this-uprising-is-about-more-than-george-floyd/?fbclid=IwAR05LrIayPmc8xYXQJaifT_nmSh4r3AzdLW2J3yL3Jm-Y_ODuM9Aic0g_UU

Racist Violence Can’t Be Separated From the Violence of Neoliberal Capitalism https://truthout.org/articles/racist-violence-cant-be-separated-from-the-violence-of-neoliberal-capitalism/

Racial Domestic Terrorism and the Legacy of State Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/01/racial-domestic-terrorism-and-the-legacy-of-state-violence/

Criminogenic Politics as a Form of Psychosis in the Age of Trump https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/26/criminogenic-politics-as-a-form-of-psychosis/

Why it is dangerous to use the language of war about COVID-19 https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/20/why-it-is-dangerous-to-use-the-language-of-war-about-covid-19.html

Militarization in a Time of Pandemic Crisis https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/04/24/militarization-in-a-time-of-pandemic-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR0_lngGcbrFRs5L7lKN62Qpt8BJ95mPmJ3EpazssGhQmrMbxz5lOdzG05c

There’s more than one pandemic ravaging our embattled society https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/04/21/theres-more-than-one-pandemic-ravaging-our-embattled-society.html

The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Exposing the Plague of Neoliberalism https://truthout.org/articles/the-covid-19-pandemic-is-exposing-the-plague-of-neoliberalism/

Trump Is Now Openly Defying the Supreme Court https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/daca-donald-trump-supreme-court.html?via=taps_bottom

Removing monuments is the easy part. We must make America a real democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/01/us-real-democracy-voting-rights-healthcare-schools

Tom Cotton calls slavery ‘necessary evil’ in attack on New York Times’ 1619 Project https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/tom-cotton-slavery-necessary-evil-1619-project-new-york-times

Playing War While Dressed to Kill in Portland https://www.thenation.com/article/society/federal-agents-portland-military/

Donald Trump Is Writing A Terrifying New Chapter In The History Of Political Repression https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-portland-american-repression_n_5f231c9cc5b68fbfc8809a1d

Trump badly miscalculated in Portland – and even he knows it https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/31/trump-portland-antifa-voters-miscalculated

‘These are his people’: inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/27/trump-border-patrol-troops-portland-bortac

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremists-attacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa

Texas hospital forced to set up ‘death panel’ as Covid-19 cases surge https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/covid-19-death-panels-starr-county-hospital-texas

‘Disturbing—and Dangerous’: Journalists Denounce Judge’s Order for Outlets to Turn Over Protest Footage to Seattle Police https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/24/disturbing-and-dangerous-journalists-denounce-judges-order-outlets-turn-over-protest?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

God Brought Us Trump To Show Us Our Weaknesses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQmlytREqXk

Moms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwaklEmDn_0

Henry Giroux -The Terror of the Unforeseen

“Power is never so overwhelming that there’s no room for resistance.” Henry Giroux

In this interview with Professor Henry Giroux, we discuss his latest book, THE TERROR OF THE UNFORESEEN, published by LARB Provocations, from The Los Angeles Review of Books. Just the latest of over 65 books he has written.

Henry Giroux is the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest & The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. The Toronto Star has named him one of the 12 Canadians Changing the Way We Think. He has also been named in Routledge’s Key Guides as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period. He is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals. He is on the Board of Directors for Truthout.

Henry Giroux is a regular contributor to a number of online journals including Truthout, Truthdig, and CounterPunch. He has published in journals including Social Text, Third Text, Cultural Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Theory, Culture, & Society, and Monthly Review.

His primary research areas are: cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education. He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe.

Articles cited in this interview:

History Holds the Antidote to Trump’s Fascist Politics https://www.truthdig.com/articles/history-holds-the-antidote-to-trumps-fascist-politics/

As Ilhan Omar Said, Trump Is a Fascist — and His Rallies Prove It https://truthout.org/articles/as-ilhan-omar-said-trump-is-a-fascist-and-his-rallies-prove-it/

Trump’s race-baiting rallies echo a dark past https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9548102-trump-s-race-baiting-rallies-echo-a-dark-past/?fbclid=iwar2ddin-vvf0layxzxiowidbsrkpj0oqk8l7zxgomemfvwnp-uaht5xvyzc

How ignorance lost its innocence https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9505301-how-ignorance-lost-its-innocence/

Against the dictatorship of ignorance in the age of Donald Trump: Parts 1 & 2

https://www.salon.com/2019/05/18/against-the-dictatorship-of-ignorance-in-the-age-of-donald-trump-part-1-of-2/ https://www.salon.com/2019/05/19/against-the-dictatorship-of-ignorance-in-the-age-of-trump-part-2-we-can-still-fight-back/

If Classrooms Are “Free of Politics,” the Right Wing Will Grow https://truthout.org/articles/if-classrooms-are-free-of-politics-the-right-wing-will-grow/

Pedagogical Terrorism and Hope in the age of Fascist Politics https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/10/pedagogical-terrorism-and-hope-in-the-age-of-fascist-politics/

Rethinking the Normalization of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era https://www.tikkun.org/rethinking-the-normalization-of-fascism-in-the-post-truth-era

The Ghost of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/22/the-ghost-of-fascism-in-the-post-truth-era/

Insisting on Resistance in an Age of Ignorance https://www.truthdig.com/articles/insisting-on-resistance-in-an-age-of-ignorance/

SF Board of Supervisors declare National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-Board-of-Supervisors-NRA-domestic-terrorists-14411936.php

The media has become gossip, clickbait and punditry. This threatens democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/27/bernie-sanders-media-democracy

Twitter Wits Go Bonkers Over ‘Trump Gibberish’ That ‘Media Is Destroying The Free Press’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-gibberish-twitter-reacts-media-destroying-free-press_n_5d620682e4b0b59d2575c3c7

These Fascists Inadvertently Raised Over $35,000 For A Cause They Hate https://www.huffpost.com/entry/portland-fascists-donations-latino-immigrants_n_5d624b7fe4b0dfcbd48eae54

The myth of the free speech crisis https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/the-myth-of-the-free-speech-crisis

Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump

Violence in the name of Trump Dozens of supporters of Donald Trump have carried out or threatened acts of violence. Here, the Guardian lists them all https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/aug/28/in-the-name-of-trump-supporters-attacks-database

US teacher strikes generated victories. So why are they ready to strike again? https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/29/us-teacher-strikes-generated-victories-so-why-are-they-ready-to-strike-again

Billionaires v teachers: the Koch brothers’ plan to starve public education https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/07/arizona-fight-koch-brothers-school-vouchers

A teachable moment: educators must join students in demanding climate justice https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/30/climate-strike-teachers-students-greta-thunberg

To rescue democracy, we must revive the reforms of the Progressive Era https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/30/democracy-capitalism-progressive-era-gilded-age

Henry Giroux – Democracy in Exile

“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.” from A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism

In this edition of Forthright Radio, we welcome back Professor Henry Giroux, who holds the McMaster University’s Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department, and who is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He is a prolific author and journalist. His books -more than 65 – include AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; HEARTS OF DARKNESS: TORTURING CHILDREN IN THE WAR ON TERROR; ZOMBIE POLITICS AND CULTURE IN THE AGE OF CASINO CAPITALISM, and THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING.

Articles by Professor Giroux cited in this interview include:

A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/a-democracy-in-exile-fights-against-fascism/

Trump’s Racist Language of Pollution Drives His Neoliberal Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-racist-language-of-pollution-drives-his-neoliberal-fascism/

Striking Teachers Beat Back Neoliberalism’s War on Public Schools https://truthout.org/articles/striking-teachers-beat-back-neoliberalism-s-war-on-public-schools/

Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes of History https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberal-fascism-and-the-echoes-of-history/

Henry A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/

Trump’s act of state terrorism against children https://theconversation.com/trumps-act-of-state-terrorism-against-children-98612

Neoliberalism in the Age of Pedagogical Terrorism https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/22/neoliberalism-in-the-age-of-pedagogical-fascism/

Killing Children in the Age of Disposability: The Parkland Shooting Was About More Than Gun Violence https://truthout.org/articles/killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence/

Education as a Weapon of Struggle: Rethinking the Parkland Uprising in the Age of Mass Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/26/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence/

Donald Trump’s fascist politics and the language of disappearance https://www.salon.com/2018/11/18/donald-trumps-fascist-politics-and-the-language-of-disappearance/

Henry Giroux – American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism

In this edition of Forthright Radio, originally broadcast on June 6, 2018, our guest is McMaster University Professor, Henry Giroux, who has been our guest numerous times over the years. His latest book, which just came out from City Lights Publishing, is American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism. It is A far-ranging critique of the rise of authoritarianism and white nationalism in the US, and the consequences for democracy.

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest. He is a prolific writer of books, sometimes more than one a year, and articles which appear in numerous online and print publications, as well as scholarly journals. His books include: AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror (Paradigm, 2010); Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism, THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING and many, many others.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” Hannah Arendt

Henry Giroux: America At War With Itself

In this interview, we welcome back Henry Giroux, public intellectual, prolific writer, cultural critic, scholar and one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy. He has spent a lifetime asking & analyzing important, hard, even scary questions such as these, which I quote from his essay, Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times (http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41058-thinking-dangerously-the-role-of-higher-education-in-authoritarian-times):

“What happens to democracy when the president of the United States labels critical media outlets as ‘enemies of the people,’ and disparages the search for truth with the blanket term ‘fake news’? What happens to democracy, when individuals and groups are demonized on the basis of their religion? What happens to a society, when critical thinking becomes an object of contempt? What happens to a social order ruled by an economics of contempt, that blames the poor for their condition, and subjects them to a culture of shaming? What happens to a polity, when it retreats into private silos, and becomes indifferent to the use of language deployed in the service of a panicked rage — language that stokes anger, but ignores issues that matter? What happens to a social order, when it treats millions of undocumented immigrants as disposable, potential terrorists and “criminals”? What happens to a country, when the presiding principles of its society are violence and ignorance?”
We discuss these and other questions, and it may surprise you to learn that Henry Giroux’s analysis, although clear-sighted in the face of the forces of dystopia, leads to an energized, engaged vision of collective agency and action.

Henry Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest. He is the author of more than 65 books, has published more than 400 papers, in addition to hundreds of chapters in the books of others, as well as many essays and articles in such journals as Truthout, Truthdig, and CounterPunch. His works have been translated into numerous languages.
He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neo-liberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe.

His latest book is America at War With Itself, published by City Lights Books. His forthcoming book, The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism, is to be published in 2018 by Routledge.

Learn more at https://www.henryagiroux.com/

Mark Bray ANTI-FA: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

White supremacists clash with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12, 2017. (Sipa via AP Images)

With us for the hour is Mark Bray, whose book, ANITFA: THE ANTI-FASCIST HANDBOOK, published by Melville House Publishing, came out on August 22, 2017 – one week after the incidents in Charlottesville, VA, in which Neo-Nazis, KKK, and other white supremacists, wreaked havoc, including the death of Heather Heyer and the injury of 19 others, when one of them drove his car into a crowd of counter demonstrators at high speed. White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photograph: Steve Helber/AP

As has been happening since the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, 2017, media attention has been focusing on a formerly obscure network, Anti-fa, or Anti-fascist Action, and in particular their tactics of property damage, physical violence and what some consider un-American interference with free speech on college campuses. But beyond the sound bites, disturbing photos and videos taken out of any meaningful historical context, just what IS Anti-fa?

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists march in Charlottesville on 11 August. The rally and subsequent death of a counter-protester were decried as real-world consequences of far-right online movements. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Mark Bray is an historian of human rights, terrorism, and political radicalism in Modern Europe. He completed his PhD in Modern European and Women’s and Gender History at Rutgers University in 2016, and is currently finishing his manuscript “The Anarchist Inquisition: Terrorism and the Ethics of Modernity in Spain, 1893-1909.” “The Anarchist Inquisition” explores the emergence of groundbreaking human rights campaigns across Europe and the Americas in response to the Spanish state’s brutal repression of dissent in the wake of anarchist bombings and assassinations. He teaches at Dartmouth College, where his recent statements about Anti-fa have generated a good deal of controversy, with Dartmouth’s president denouncing them and more than 100 professors denouncing the denouncing. Mark Bray is the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (Melville House, 2017) and Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street (Zero Books, 2013), as well as the co-editor of the forthcoming Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School (PM Press, 2018).

From left: Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Lisa Sharon Harper, Rev. Carlton Smith, Cornel West, and others (including Seth Wispelwey wearing a white robe and red stole) protesting white supremacy in Charlottesville. CREDIT: Heather Wilson, @aNomadPhotog / Dust & Light Photo

Thanks to Democracy Now! for allowing use of the interview with Cornel West. https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/14/cornel_west_rev_toni_blackmon_clergy#transcript