Podcasts about The Communist Manifesto

Audiobook of "The Manifesto of the Communist Party" by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, published 1848. Read online at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ (audio with no preamble as per https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61 ) Study notes: https://workersliberty.org/cm Article on it: https://workersliberty.org/story/2026-06-09/communist-manifesto-1848 Contents and rough timestamps: 00:00 Preamble 01:40 Section 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians 39:25 Section 2: Proletarians and Communists 1:06:15 Section 3: Socialist and Communist Literature 1:31:48 Section 4: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties #5 from Marxist points of reference: a reading list https://workersliberty.org/marxist-points-reference-reading-list (#3 will be uploaded later) Playlist of recordings from that list here https://soundcloud.com/workers-liberty/sets/marxist-points-of-reference-a Audiobook public domain from librivox; music public domain. Subscribe to the podcast "Solidarity & more" by "Workers' Liberty" wherever you listen to podcasts. More info: https://workersliberty.org/audio

Episode 292- Your Gun is in the Mail Also Available OnSearchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer — Episode Transcript Page – 1 – of 16 Gun Lawyer — Episode 292 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS Gun Lawyer, Second Amendment, Marxism, useful idiots, US Postal Service, handgun shipping, NFA silencers, firearm regulations, logical fallacies, self-defense, gun scams, dog safety, firearm training, New Jersey gun law, gun rights. SPEAKERS Teddy Nappen, Speaker 2, Evan Nappen Evan Nappen 00:17 I’m Evan Nappen. Teddy Nappen 00:19 And I’m Teddy Nappen. Evan Nappen 00:21 And welcome to Gun Lawyer. So, Teddy Bear, what’s going on, man? Teddy Nappen 00:28 Well, I can’t believe you outed my middle name. Just kidding. It’s something where I don’t know this. Dad, do you remember growing up, and you saw, like, did you ever listen to Rage Against the Machine? Evan Nappen 00:42 Yeah, I actually will admit to that. Teddy Nappen 00:45 Yeah, do you remember that shirt where it literally has the picture of Che Guevara? Evan Nappen 00:50 Yeah. Well, I have one of those shirts, except my Che Guevara shirt has him wearing Mickey Mouse ears. So, I call him Mickey Che, and I thought Mickey Che was just hilarious. Teddy Nappen 01:02 Yeah, I think it’s funnier because of what if I was.. I just learned like more about who this individual was. Evan Nappen 01:11 Che Guevara? Page – 2 – of 16 Page – 3 – of 16 Teddy Nappen 01:14 I love how the Left tote him as their revolutionary hero. This guy put gays and Catholics in concentration camps. He tried to purify the Spanish race. And in details describing again, like trying to talk about black people, trying to remove them from society. He personally executed 100 people. Evan Nappen 01:38 He’s actually completely aligned with the progressive Left, if you really think about it. Teddy Nappen 01:43 True. Evan Nappen 01:44 I mean, the reality of what the Left does, you know. They are the kings of hypocrites. They are masters of double think. They have one goal and that is to destroy America. I mean, that’s their entire agenda. If you think about everything, they’re for, and every single item they are for harms our country in some way. Everything is harmful, and this is what they’re all about. Teddy Nappen 02:23 I think there is a good, I think the best way to think of it, and Crowder from Louder with Crowder gives the best line. They are Marxist because you see them take the most insane stances, like queers for Palestine. They’re for funding the war in Ukraine, but not for dealing with Iran. They take these crazy stances, which just looking at it, just from like it would make no sense, except from the eyes of a Marxist. Where in Marxism, in go right to the book, “The Communist Manifesto”, you have to define your enemy, oppressor and oppressee. No matter the individual, no matter the group, no matter the stance you take. You could be the most hateful group against gays, but if you are the oppressed, if you are the underdog, you are the good guy in their ideology. That is how screwed up it is, and they will take whatever political stance to achieve power for the sake of Marxism. Evan Nappen 03:18 Yeah, they are the useful idiots for the Marxists, for those that want to destroy America. They’re the useful idiots. And by the way, the only redeeming factor at all to their entire agenda of Marxism is that if they ever were to succeed, they’re the first ones that will get killed. They’re the ones that the Marxists will then kill when they don’t need them anymore, and that is exactly the playbook of the Marxist takeovers. Teddy Nappen 03:54 Cut to Iran with the students, which are all Islamo communists who took over. By the way, when the Iranian regime took over, guess who they executed first? The communists. Evan Nappen 04:05 Well, it’s the playbook every time. They’re just useful idiots until they’re no longer useful, and then they’re dead idiots. Page – 4 – of 16 Teddy Nappen 04:16 And then what is it, the old phrase. You can vote your way into communism, but you have to shoot your way out. Evan Nappen 04:21 That’s it. That’s it. So, luckily, we are exposing, you know, the truth is out there, and this political battle for the future of our country is clear and normal America gets it. I really believe they do. And the extremists on the Left, of course, are the worst when it comes to our Second Amendment rights. They’re not going to be in a general sense successful. Now they’re able to have pockets where you see their policies destroy cities, and you can watch the destruction of these cities taking place under their policies. But that’s just examples being set to the rest of America, what we never want to happen broadly in the country. Teddy Nappen 05:26 Yeah, and speaking of Marxism, as I always, again, we always have to check on the Left of what they’re currently whining and crying about. So, Evan Nappen 05:37 Yeah. Teddy Nappen 05:38 Our favorite, our favorite fans at The Trace. We check out their latest article. “People might soon be able to ship handguns through the mail.” (https://www.thetrace.org/2026/05/usps-handgun-mailing-ban-shipping-rule/) That was the article. Evan Nappen 05:38 Oh my G-d! Everyone clutch your pearls. Teddy Nappen 05:40 Oh my G-d. Jennifer Mascia writes this whole article where the U.S. Postal Service is set to lift a century-old ban, and experts warn of the consequences. I love the term “experts”. Evan Nappen 06:13 Experts warn the consequences. Right now you can ship via FedEx. You can ship UPS. Oh, but somehow if we allow shipping via the U.S. Postal Service, oh, well, now it’s a threat to our safety, our country, everything. You know, it’s just, the sky is falling because of that. Teddy Nappen 06:38 Yeah, and I love how they’re saying, the rule would allow handguns to be shipped through the mail, bypassing a longstanding law prohibiting such practice. Evan Nappen 06:51 Well, you know, I guess they’re not aware that currently you can buy NFA silencers by having them shipped to your door. Silencers are allowed to be sold in this manner, as long as it’s a dealer in the Page – 5 – of 16 state that is doing the shipping. Now, this is the model that is so interesting with Silencer Central, for example. You can buy a NFA silencer online at Silencer Central. (https://www.silencercentral.com/) You can do your NFA forms. They have a great interface where you do the interface. It interfaces you to e-forms, the federal government’s forms for NFA. There’s no tax on suppressors anymore because of the Big Beautiful Bill. Once you get the approval, then they ship from Silencer Central, which I believe is in South Dakota. I believe that is where their headquarters are. That is then sent to their local dealer network that they have already set up, and that’s who ships the suppressor direct to your door. Now, of course, if you live in the DPRNJ, you cannot buy a suppressor because the state law bans them. But in well over 40 some states that respect the Second Amendment, you’re able to do this. Evan Nappen 08:38 So, this model that they have, which is computerized and set up well, is the groundwork now being laid in the federal government for this to apply to guns. And by opening up the postal service to allow the shipping of handguns, it will allow yet another source for shipping of guns via the post office. And the ATF 34 new regs that they’re proposing is to have computerized the 4473 forms just like the NFA forms are computerized. So, you’ll have e-forms that you can do for that. I’m sure companies will set up an interface in the same way they have an interface set up to ease the process for suppressors. And then even if, for example, Silencer Central were to use their existing network, you could buy the gun of your choice online, and then it will be sent through their network. It will be shipped directly to your door. With the removal of the ban on shipping handguns in the post office, it could even come via the U.S. Post Office right to your door. Evan Nappen 09:54 So, we’re modernizing the business trade for firearms and making it so that we’re getting back to our pre ’68, pre 1968, ability to have mail order guns, and this is great. Especially for folks that have limited ability to get to a dealer. You know, not everybody lives close to an FFL, but everybody gets their mail delivered in some way. So, this will make the availability of firearms that much more easier for individuals to acquire guns. Of course, that’s what those that are the oppressors of our gun rights don’t want to do. They want everything they can come up with that can somehow be a burden on the exercise of our rights to exist. So, they fight everything and anything that in any way makes it easier. Teddy Nappen 11:04 This is even funnier because you could still ship your AR-15. Evan Nappen 11:10 Well, right, long arms are fine, even by the mail and by in-state dealers already. And, you know, although the law in 1927 about concealable weapons can’t be shipped, you know, concealable, they’d be mainly handguns, sawed off shotguns, etc. Concealable weapons. Long arms still could be, and it wasn’t until the ’68 Gun Control Act that the dealer network essentially got established and requirements for having to have the in-state dealer only for handgun transfers. So, you cannot buy a handgun except in a state where you’re a resident. You can buy a long arm in a state where you’re not a resident, as long as that dealer obeys the law of the home state and the resident state. So, as long as both jurisdictions’ laws are followed, long arm sales can occur right over the counter or at a gun show, etc. but not with handguns. This will dramatically change that for the better. We’ll be able to ship Page – 6 – of 16 handguns, and it’ll help establish these dealer networks to almost make irrelevant the restriction over having to have an in-state dealer on the transfer when it can easily just be shipped. So, that will be a great thing. Another improvement, thanks to President Trump and his administration on addressing the trade, the business model and trade in firearms. Teddy Nappen 13:22 It always makes me laugh from reading this article. The expert that they get, Robert Spitzer. Evan Nappen 13:23 Yeah, he’s a known quantity. Teddy Nappen 13:28 He’s written the Politics of Gun Control, and he writes this entire book making the claim that this is the time to push for gun control. Evan Nappen 13:46 Oh yeah, now. Teddy Nappen 13:48 He wrote an entire book trying to make the argument that the NRA is weak, and, and, and we’ve had such great strides in the anti-gun movement that we need to push for, and it’s yeah. Evan Nappen 14:04 Well, the NRA has been weakened due to all the internal strife, that is true. But the gun rights movement is not just the NRA. The NRA is important. The NRA does good work. The NRA has unfortunately had its internal problems that they’re finally getting beyond. However, we have the GOA (Gun Owners of America) out there doing great things. We have Firearm Policy Coalition, FPC. They’re doing great work litigating and such. We have Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Second Amendment Foundation. We have many other groups that are taking up the fight and many, many state groups that are also engaging. So, simply saying this is great because the NRA has been weakened hardly paints the picture. Evan Nappen 15:18 Then, of course, we have the most important aspect of why this is absolutely probably the worst time ever, and that has to do with President Trump. His dedication to the Second Amendment, and his administration with the appointment of the new ATF director, who is moving on President Trump’s Executive Order to look at all the regulations and gun laws, and to change the way America, the federal government itself, does business. To the degree of cutting the funding that was going to the gun rights oppressive groups, which they’re still. Talk about weakened. What’s really been weakened is the other side over the cutting of the monies to them that was taxpayer dollars. Page – 7 – of 16 Teddy Nappen 16:13 The other factor is, Dad, that they blew their entire control in COVID, where people were like, “Oh man, I’m in my home, I need to defend it”. I need to get a firearm. And currently, right now, all the Leftists are buying guns in droves, and they’re getting denied. Like, why can’t I own a firearm? Evan Nappen 16:37 They’re buying guns in droves? Where did they get these cars from the 1930s to go by guns with? Teddy Nappen 16:44 Nice. But it’s literally the most like weakest issue you could ever push for. Now, they still make, they still get their talking heads and all the others out there, but the vast majority at this point, like, are pro, and you can have your spurts of mass shootings, but it always comes back to, oh, who was the shooter? Oh, it was a transgender woman who thinks he was a man or some other mentally deranged individual. Oh, we can’t talk about that shooting. And it gets just stomped over and over and over again. It’s ridiculous. Just going back to the article here, the whole argument from Spitzer. Evan Nappen 17:26 Well, mental health is an issue. Teddy Nappen 17:28 Yeah. This college professor makes a logical fallacy argument against the rule change. He says handguns can be transported legally across state lines now, and it would be, and quite frankly, you could just drive your car and use your car to transport. Why would you need to mail anything? Evan Nappen 17:49 First of all, you can’t do that very thing. You cannot cross state lines as a non-resident and buy a handgun in another state. You have to be a resident of the state to purchase a handgun. Now, you can be, arguably, a dual resident if you reside in the other state at the time, either on the weekends or the summer months. You have property and you’re residing there. Then dual residency recognition is there. But if you’re not, if you’re just on vacation, or if you think you can just leave your resident state, go to another state, and buy a handgun legally, you can’t. So, that’s not legally true. Teddy Nappen 18:35 I think he was also referring to transporting, because the idea was. The other thing they were making the point of the argument was like you can ship your gun to yourself as well. One of the things that they were talking about, as one of the points for this. But here’s the key to the, what he’s making, he made a logical fallacy. It’s called a false dilemma or appeal to the alternative, where you give two choices where one exists. Therefore by that makes the other one is may makes false or true. Even though just because that exists, just because you are transporting a firearm, that doesn’t mean this negates the ability where you shouldn’t be able to mail. It’s a logical fallacy, and this is someone who’s supposed to be this politically smart. Evan Nappen 19:24 Similar to the Mott and Bailey. Similar. Page – 8 – of 16 Teddy Nappen 19:26 Yeah. Well, that’s why. Well, that’s the premise of most logical fallacies. You equate to something to make your argument seem reasonable when it’s not true. And this is why logical fallacies exist. You’re using them in debates. But here the Left can only use logical fallacies when making their arguments, because they have to appeal to emotion. Evan Nappen 19:47 Right! Speaking of logical fallacy, once you get into an argument with them and you’re destroying them, then, of course, their final, their last resort is, of course, an ad hominem attack. Teddy Nappen 19:58 Well, that goes back to. I Learned. Evan Nappen 20:00 Right. Teddy Nappen 20:01 I learned this term, just going to it. I think it’s called Godwin’s Law, where it’s the premise where basically everyone would keep equating to a political argument where someone would just say, oh yeah, well, that’s Hitler talk, or say someone is like being a Nazi or being like a fascist. Godwin’s Law is, if that get. Evan Nappen 20:23 Wait, and throw in pedo, somehow Teddy Nappen 20:25 pedophile, Evan Nappen 20:26 to your pedophile, Teddy Nappen 20:27 pedophile, Evan Nappen 20:28 I don’t, Teddy Nappen 20:29 Yeah. So, actually engaging with the subject, when you throw in that term, you have therefore won the argument, because they’ve now just resorted to the tactic of the idea. If the conversation eventually leads to Hitler, you’ve won the debate because they were right to that tactic. And I love he did this, though, because he was Left wing, where he was trying to make the argument about trying to be pro gun control, where you’re equating this to fascist, and then he tried to carve out exceptions. Well, if it Page – 9 – of 16 actually is showing real signs of fascism, then it’s okay. But it’s just the level, like, really? Yeah, you carve out. Rules for thee, not for me, obviously, so. Evan Nappen 21:13 It also goes back to their double think, and all that. I mean, it’s so Orwellian, man. The Left just lives the Orwellian dream here, man, with what they do. Every day we are fascinated by their shenanigans. It’s nuts. So, that is fascinating. Hopefully, as we move ahead here, we’re seeing all kinds of dramatic pro Second Amendment rights changes. Teddy, you said you had something else you wanted to share. I was wondering what that was. Teddy Nappen 21:57 This was probably from what is a lot of people in talking about is the Chud The Builder story, where he was a. Evan Nappen 22:07 Chud? He’s a chud? Teddy Nappen 22:09 Yeah. Evan Nappen 22:10 A chud is a stupid, ugly person, I think, right? Teddy Nappen 22:15 A self-given name, so, whatever. Evan Nappen 22:18 So, he’s calling himself a Chud? Teddy Nappen 22:20 Yes, that was his like tagline, and. Evan Nappen 22:23 Wow. He doesn’t have high self-esteem, if you’re calling yourself a Chud. Teddy Nappen 22:29 Yeah, there’s like, there’s all different, there’s so much stuff out there on the internet. Evan Nappen 22:34 So, what did Mr. Chud do? Teddy Nappen 22:37 Yeah, so he was a streamer. He would go around to different people. He’s a rage baiter, where he tried to say, like, you know, he’d say the N word to, like, go up to black people. Page – 10 – of 16 (https://www.soapcentral.com/entertainment/joshua-fox-victim-chud-the-builder-comes-scrutiny-alleged-past-crimes-emerge) Evan Nappen 22:48 A rage baiter? Teddy Nappen 22:49 Yeah, where he tries to get a rise out of people, which. Evan Nappen 22:51 Wait a minute. I understand he’s very, very skilled at that. As a matter of fact, don’t they consider him a master at that? Teddy Nappen 22:59 I would say so. Evan Nappen 23:00 Cause that would make him a masturbator. Teddy Nappen 23:03 Yep, he certainly is. Teddy Nappen 23:04 Okay. But what did this guy do? Teddy Nappen 23:07 Well, he went over, and he was, and again, we don’t have all the facts yet on this. It’s still coming out. But the basic summary is that he was saying the N word, and you know, making all the different jokes and going up to people. And then one guy came over and punched him, attacked him over that. Then he drew his gun on him and fired. There was a scuffle where he ended up shooting himself, along with the attacker. Evan Nappen 23:37 Holy cow. Well, okay, there’s a lot to unpack there, and we don’t have all the facts. But basically fighting words. So, if he’s approaching somebody and using what we might even generously call fighting words, or words to trigger, how’s that? This person. That still is not generally a basis where you can use force. So, the person who he may be offending is not necessarily justified in using force. But if he raised the stakes, the victim of this guy’s race baiting, raised the stakes to a physical assault, but no weapon, that still doesn’t rise necessarily to the Chud using deadly force. But, again, we don’t know all the facts. Fighting words themselves are not normally a good justification for use of force either way. And then if his response was disproportionate to what occurred, and plus he’s also, Chud there, is also treading in the bad area of “don’t be the instigator”. Don’t be the troublemaker. Don’t be the guy who started it. And that already is a strike against him for being that guy. So, this sounds like not a really smart person doing smart things. Page – 11 – of 16 Teddy Nappen 25:17 Yeah, and I will say, just from the quote, they’re also saying, again, unconfirmed, that the guy, the “victim” was stalking him because he was streaming and wanted to go there. So, that could be a factor because this individual was whatever. Evan Nappen 25:34 Maybe he was a stalker? I don’t know. Teddy Nappen 25:36 Yeah, we don’t have all the facts. Evan Nappen 25:38 You see, when dealing with self-defense, it becomes very fact-specific. It really does. Those facts come together, and the reasonableness of your actions – were you reasonably in fear? Was it a reasonable fear? Was it proportionate and reasonable, etc.? All that is what the jury is going to have to believe and understand and agree with. So, you better be able to convince 12 people, who aren’t smart enough to avoid jury duty, that you were extremely reasonable in what you did. Teddy Nappen 26:24 Under criminal procedure, though, would this be allowed to come out in the court? Where the “victim”, Joshua Fox, had a large rap sheet. He tried to set his house on fire with an aerosol can and a lighter. And when his wife tried to try to stop him, he tried to stab her with a screwdriver. Evan Nappen 26:41 It’s going to come down to a lot of the rules on what’s admissible, evidentiary. What can be demonstrated under what’s called “prior acts”. These are all important legal issues that the court will have to determine. Teddy Nappen 26:57 Multiple aggravated assaults, by the way. You know, DUIs. Evan Nappen 27:03 And maybe to what degree is there an awareness of the parties, of the background of the person. But these are all going to be things that will be in consideration. Teddy Nappen 27:15 It also kind of upsets me, though, Dad, is reverse the races, and what happens? Evan Nappen 27:21 Well, we all know what happens in our society, don’t we? Teddy Nappen 27:26 Yeah, and that’s Page – 12 – of 16 Evan Nappen 27:28 It’s apparently a one-way street. Just ask that woman who was. Teddy Nappen 27:36 Arena. Evan Nappen 27:37 Yeah, that was her. Teddy Nappen 27:38 You had a guy who was released nine times, gets on a subway station, stabs her, and then says to the camera, I got that whitey. I got that whitey. It’s disgusting. As they’re taking down the mural of her, by the way, because we don’t want to show offense. But why is it that it’s conditioned to say one word, how is that justified to be okay? We’re gonna beat the crap out of you, and also probably kill you over that word. That is the disgusting part. This goes beyond Chud The Builder. This goes to an issue. What was that documentary, the N word? Like, it broke down the utter insanity that has been created around that word to the point right now. Evan Nappen 28:24 It’s done on purpose, and you’re seeing, though, the demise in a way of that entire reverse discrimination. The entire thing that’s been placed on us as a society. It’s being rejected because the other side took it too far. I mean, once you start saying that math is racist, you’re losing people that are otherwise very supportive. Teddy Nappen 28:55 Also working out of. Evan Nappen 28:56 The original cause of having what Dr. King put out there, as it’s about your character, right? The content of your character, not the color of your skin. And that’s something that just about every normal American can embrace. We take each person as an individual, and we look at who they are in their character. When you start creating these groups that you either want to attack or groups that you just only want to help to the detriment of another group, then you’re going into what Americans viscerally know is racist, whichever way you’re going with it. It becomes racist, because racism really boils down to distinguishing based on race. You’re distinguishing based on race, and how that distinguishing takes place is where you can see unfairness coming from both sides. Americans are generally fair people. We don’t want unfairness. We want equal opportunity, but not equity. There’s a difference, not equity. Teddy Nappen 30:14 Yeah, that’s the problem. Page – 13 – of 16 Evan Nappen 30:15 Equality is something we can all believe in, because it’s fundamental to our existence. All men are created equal. We can all accept that we’re all created equal, and then we all should have equal opportunity. But once that equal is no longer equal, then people sense the unfairness and the discrimination, whichever way that discrimination is cutting, and that’s what you see. Evan Nappen 30:45 Hey, Teddy, let me tell you about our good friends at WeShoot, the place you and I love to go. We love to shoot there. It is a great range in Lakewood, New Jersey, conveniently located right off the Parkway. They have top deals, great specials all the time. They have a fantastic range, a state-of-the-art range, and the training there is second to none. You can get your certification for getting your New Jersey carry. Hey, you and I both got ours, and so did Brother Lou. He got his there, too. Lots and lots of folks we know have successfully gotten their training and certifications from WeShoot. WeShoot has a great website. You should really check it out. Go to weshootusa.com. Please go to WeShoot. You will love it. You’ll be glad you did. It is one of our favorite places, and you know ranges are important to support because they are a resource, a limited resource in the DPRNJ. WeShoot is first rate. So, check out weshootusa.com. Pay them a visit, and join as a member. Take advantage of this great resource for the exercise of your Second Amendment rights. Evan Nappen 32:21 Let me also shamelessly plug my book, New Jersey Gun Law. It’s the bible of Jersey gun law. It will help guide you through the insane matrix of New Jersey gun laws so that you don’t become a GOFU. That is my mission in life, to educate and help our brothers and sisters that want to be and remain law-abiding gun owners, even in tough environments, such as the DPRNJ. That’s why the book’s there. Go to EvanNappen.com and get your copy today. EvanNappen.com. Evan Nappen 33:03 Teddy, I want to talk about a double header GOFU. We’re going to do two today. We’re going to do two. Teddy Nappen 33:14 A binary GOFU? Evan Nappen 33:16 Well, actually, it’s going to be two separate GOFUs. One is a bona fide GOFU that you need to know about, and the other, they’re both bona fide GOFUs, but one we’re gonna call a DOGFU, and you’ll see why. We’ll save the DOGFU for a little later. Let me tell you about this actual GOFU. So, this is an individual who is new to guns. Now, I think many of my listeners are experienced with firearms, but you may be new to guns, which is fine. I welcome you on board, and as a listener. Everybody’s got to start at some point, where you learn, and your best way is to go to a dealer. I would highly recommend WeShoot for a first timer. They will equip you, train you, and you’ll learn right from the start the right way to do things. Page – 14 – of 16 Evan Nappen 34:19 But in this case, this individual didn’t know much about guns. He actually purchased a handgun via Facebook. Now, first of all, I didn’t even think Facebook allows the sale of firearms, but somehow, it must have come up on Marketplace or something. He thought this was a good deal. It was a Gen 5 Glock 20 with a number of magazines and a couple hundred rounds. It’s supposedly a private seller, and all this, and you know, it would still be going through, arguably, a dealer. It’s not unlawful to buy online, like if you go through Gun Broker or other sources. But it has to go dealer to dealer, and you need the permits. You have to do all that. This person, being new to this, wasn’t trying to avoid that. In fact, he anticipated they would be doing that, but thought, here’s a great way to get a gun. He paid for this gun but did not receive it. Instead, as I discover the story, I find out that the person tells me that the gun was shipped, the gun was shipped to a freight company. Evan Nappen 35:45 Now, folks, we’re talking today about shipping, about U.S. mail, about all that. If a gun is being sent, a gun is not sent via a freight company. I mean, that would be highly unusual. A gun normally gets sent UPS, FedEx, you know, the standard carriers like that, and it gets sent to the dealer. Well, this person is told by the person who they already paid for this Glock, which was, you know, $500, so that’s a great deal. It’s a phenomenal deal for Gen 5 Glock 20, right? So, immediately you need to wonder, why is it such a good deal? Oh, well, the freight company has the gun, but the freight company can’t deliver it unless you pay certain monies. Then they milk this person along to keep paying monies and claiming certain paperwork and all kinds of things have to be done before it goes to a dealer. Well, that’s ridiculous. It’s the dealer who’s going to do the paperwork. They just are the carrier, if they are even for real. Of course, here it isn’t. Evan Nappen 36:52 So, I asked, how much money have you paid to this freight company to sort this out? Have they been telling you? Two thousand dollars to the freight company already. And now they want to refund. Oh, they’ll gladly refund. But before they send the refund, he has to pay more money, like another $500 right? Okay, how was this paid for? Oh, Bitcoin, of course. Do you have an address for this company? No, it was just a phone number and communication over WhatsApp. Oh geez. I mean every flag you can imagine. And look, I’m not here to be mean. I’m not here to mock anybody. These people are con artists. They’re out there. The scammers are out there. There’s a reason they’re called con men, because they’re known as confidence men. They gain your confidence, and you have to recognize this. Evan Nappen 37:53 The GOFU is falling for the scam. The bottom line is, you know, don’t send them another penny. Report the theft, and you know it’s highly unlikely you’re ever going to recover a dime of what you paid. But the lesson needs to be learned. If you’re going to buy a gun, particularly as a new gun owner, go to your local dealer. Go to a dealer, go to a legitimate brick and mortar dealer in your state, and have them show you the ropes. It’s a great advantage to have a dealer there that not only can sell you a gun, not only do all the paperwork, not only be known to be legitimate, but also they can train you. They can help you pick the right gun. They can help you train. I mean, I’m not even sure whether a newbie should be starting with a Glock 20 in 10 millimeter. Yeah, it depends on the person and their skill. Maybe they had some prior firearm, I don’t know. But that’s not exactly. It’s a great gun. I love the Glock 20. But Page – 15 – of 16 that’s not necessarily the best gun for a newbie to be starting with, not necessarily. So, this is the kind of things, these are the factors that a dealer will be able to advise and help you. They’ll make sure everything’s done right and legitimately, and you have that dealer as a resource. So, this is important. Don’t be a GOFU, you know, the Gun Owner Fuck Up in that regard. Don’t get scammed. Be very careful with anything online. If you’re going to buy online, there’s protocols you need to follow, you know. If it’s through, like, Gun Broker, where it’s a legitimate site, then things have to go through dealers. They have to be vetted. Look at the feedback. You know, ask for help with others that have done these type of purchases. If you’re new to this, I wouldn’t advise jumping in to online purchases, not at this stage. Now, eventually, with what we talked about at the beginning of the show, it may be streamlined with major companies, and then you’ll be fine and safe. But that is definitely something you want to avoid. Evan Nappen 37:53 So, that is the first GOFU, but now let’s talk about the second GOFU, which is the DOGFU. Teddy, you have the background on the DOGFU. Tell us about the DOGFU. Teddy Nappen 38:43 So, just kind of going into it a little more, I think personally. Evan Nappen 39:36 This occurred in a person who was in a truck, right? They had their shotgun in a truck, and I believe they were parked in front of either a gas station or convenience store or something. Teddy Nappen 39:43 Yeah, and he left the gun loaded in his truck, and of course the dog. Evan Nappen 39:54 Now, this is farm country. I think it was out in Nebraska. I mean, you still shouldn’t have your loaded gun necessarily in your car. I don’t know whether that was lawful or not in Nebraska, maybe it was. Teddy Nappen 41:12 Well, the dog saw a squirrel running, and so he reached for the gun. Evan Nappen 41:20 Well, unfortunately, when it comes to dogs and guns, any pet and a gun, if you leave your gun loaded, safety, you know, all gun loaded never should ever load, even with the safety on. You know, dogs jump around, man. And all his paw had to do, which apparently happened, is get between the trigger guard and the trigger, and bang, that gun discharged. It actually hit a bystander, I believe, and caused immense problems. So, the take away. Teddy Nappen 41:52 I think the bystander was reported as a postman, by the way. Just kidding. Page – 16 – of 16 Evan Nappen 41:57 No, I don’t think so. But the thing that’s important here is that this is not that uncommon. It’s not regularly occurring. But dogs and other animals inadvertently discharging a firearm is not unheard of. And hunters, particularly those that hunt with dogs, need to be very careful. There are a number, any number of stories of hunters that put their loaded gun down, and the dog accidentally discharges the gun. You know, you might be looking to safely climb over a fence or an obstacle, you need to unload your gun before doing it. And instead of leaning it up on the fence, loaded, and then think you’re going to reach over and grab it, and a dog jumps up on it, and next thing you know, boom. You’re getting shot, or somebody else is, and that gun’s discharging. It can happen in a household, you know, leaving your loaded handgun on a table or on a chair, and a dog or other animal can jump up and cause a discharge. So, be conscientious about your loaded gun. Even if nobody else is home, it’s just you and another living creature, this type of DOGFU can occur. So, beware. Evan Nappen 43:27 This is Evan Nappen and Teddy Nappen reminding you that gun laws don’t protect honest citizens from criminals. They protect criminals from honest citizens. Speaker 2 43:38 Gun Lawyer is a CounterThink Media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Reach us by emailing Evan@gun.lawyer. The information and opinions in this broadcast do not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Downloadable PDF TranscriptGun Lawyer S5 E292_Transcript About The HostEvan Nappen, Esq.Known as “America's Gun Lawyer,” Evan Nappen is above all a tireless defender of justice. Author of eight bestselling books and countless articles on firearms, knives, and weapons history and the law, a certified Firearms Instructor, and avid weapons collector and historian with a vast collection that spans almost five decades — it's no wonder he's become the trusted, go-to expert for local, industry and national media outlets. Regularly called on by radio, television and online news media for his commentary and expertise on breaking news Evan has appeared countless shows including Fox News – Judge Jeanine, CNN – Lou Dobbs, Court TV, Real Talk on WOR, It's Your Call with Lyn Doyle, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, and Cam & Company/NRA News. As a creative arts consultant, he also lends his weapons law and historical expertise to an elite, discerning cadre of movie and television producers and directors, and novelists. He also provides expert testimony and consultations for defense attorneys across America. Email Evan Your Comments and Questions  talkback@gun.lawyer Join Evan's InnerCircleHere's your chance to join an elite group of the Savviest gun and knife owners in America.  Membership is totally FREE and Strictly CONFIDENTIAL.  Just enter your email to start receiving insider news, tips, and other valuable membership benefits.   Email (required) *First Name *Select list(s) to subscribe toInnerCircle Membership Yes, I would like to receive emails from Gun Lawyer Podcast. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.var ajaxurl = "https://gun.lawyer/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";

'...an ideology that divides the world to this day!'The first Communist Manifesto published at 46 Liverpool Street, London, 1848.To help support this Podcast & get exclusive videos every week sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon.comhttps://www.patreon.com/neiloliver Gold Bullion Partners,for more info about buying gold & silver go to this affiliate link,https://goldbullionpartners.co.uk/download-our-complimentary-guide-neil-oliver/ To Donate,go to Neil's Website:https://www.neiloliver.com Shop:https://neil-oliver.creator-spring.com Neil Oliver YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@Neil-Oliver Rumble site – Neil Oliver Official:https://rumble.com/c/c-6293844 Instagram - NeilOliverLoveLetter:https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter Podcasts:Neil Oliver: News Comment HistoryNeil Oliver: HistoryNeil Oliver: InterviewsAvailable on all the usual providershttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/neil-oliver-news-comment-history/id1513737418https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/neil-oliver-history/id1871225730https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/neil-oliver-interviews/id1869660872 #NeilOliver #Marx #Communism #Engels #London #Revolution #1848 #history #travel #culture #ancient #historyfact #explore Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UNIONIZE! Novel bookstore employees are voting to unionize because they don't earn enough. Why is the first option to demand more and form a union instead of finding a way to hustle for extra income OR increase your own value? We bet their favorite book is the Communist Manifesto. Also on the show: Kevin O'Leary is getting RIPPED online for giving sound advice on not wasting money, Fabio makes a surprise podcast appearance and says Italy is neglecting Italians by prioritizing illegal immigrants, and we list the most iconic silver screen vehicles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joshua Bandoch is the Head of Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute and the debut author of 'How to Get What You Want'. It's persuasion and communication all the way down. Josh's argues that almost everything most of us were taught about how to win an argument is wrong and now the neuroscience proves it. Aristotle, it turns out, had this figured out 2,400 years ago. Kant, the great rationalist of the Enlightenment, did not. We feel first and reason second, and any attempt to persuade that ignores that simple fact is doomed before it starts.Across the conversation we move from the Greeks to Adam Smith, from the Communist Manifesto as a piece of technical propaganda to what makes Steve Jobs, JFK, and Ronald Reagan so memorable as communicators. We talk about the difference between persuasion and manipulation, why authenticity is the most underrated tool in the kit, whether emotional intelligence can really be learned, and what Josh would tell the next Republican candidate trying to thread the needle between MAGA and the traditional conservative base.It's a wide-ranging episode, and one I throughly enjoyed recording. I'm thrilled to welcome to the podcast, Joshua Bandoch.-----Link's To Joshua BandochJoshua Bandoch WebsiteHow To Get What You Want (Book)Timestamps.00:00  Aristotle, Adam Smith, and the 2,400-year science of persuasion07:18  Persuasion vs. manipulation — the three biggest misconceptions12:26  Authenticity, politicians, and why we lose trust16:45  The neuroscience: we feel first, then reason18:37  Negativity bias and the power of being FOR something24:43  The logic tsunami and the limits of pure reason33:02  Body language, tone, and the 7% rule41:25  Emotional intelligence, moral foundations, and what's universal56:54  Storytelling, aesthetics, and the masterclass of practice01:08:24  Reputation, the long game, and the deathbed test01:23:17  Sales, Chris Voss, and advice for the next Republican01:34:01  History's great persuaders, and serendipityPodcast Starter PacksInvestigative JournalistsOffshore Finance/Kleptocracy & Money LaunderingGeopolitics/Economics/Economic DevelopmentExplorers & AdventurersLeave a review on Apple or Spotify (nothing does more to help grow the show)

Welcome to another episode of the Valleycast with JUST Elliott Morgan, who definitely remembered to do the podcast and didn't procrastinate. Join Elliott as you embark on a world of fun sound effects, the FBI Director's children's book, the Communist Manifesto, and honestly God knows what else. Music/SFX: If you like our sounds, sign up for ONE FREE MONTH on us at Epidemic Sound! Over 30,000 songs: http://share.epidemicsound.com/n96pc Follow The Valleyfolk across the digital globe: http://twitter.com/TheValleyfolk http://instagram.com/TheValleyfolk http://facebook.com/TheValleyfolk Follow the group on their personal socials: Joe Bereta: http://twitter.com/JoeBereta http://instagram.com/joebereta Elliott Morgan: http://twitter.com/elliottcmorgan http://instagram.com/elliottmorgan Steve Zaragoza: http://twitter.com/stevezaragoza http://instagram.com/stevezaragoza http://twitch.tv/elliottmorgan It's all about class. That's why Elliott is so... classy. (badumbch...)

“If God died in the nineteenth century, ideology died in the twenty-first. Could you actually imagine people dying for communism or for liberal democracy? That actually happened. Now you would be considered an idiot or a fool to do that.” — Daniel Bessner Co-host of the American Prestige podcast Daniel Bessner is a bit of a bomb thrower. Which is why he's a regular on the show. Today, he has a bomb in each hand. As the co-editor of Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency, Bessner has taken a scythe to America's two most cherished assumptions about the Cold War. The first is that rather than an inevitable clash of civilisations, the Cold War was an American choice. Stalin, Bessner argues, would have made a deal with FDR. It was the insecure, anti-communist Truman who triggered the Cold War by defining the Soviet Union as an illegitimate (what today we would call a “terrorist”) state. Bessner's second bomb is that the people who shaped Cold War liberalism and sustained it for decades — from Truman's attorney general to McNamara to the Isaiah Berlin-Hannah Arendt intellectual elite — weren't really defenders of democracy. Bessner traces liberalism's fear of the masses back to French liberals like Benjamin Constant and Germaine de Staël who charted a path between revolutionary terror and monarchical reaction. From the beginning, Bessner argues, liberals thought it was necessary for elites to tame the masses and govern in their name. The Cold War liberals institutionalised that skepticism — and in doing so built the military-industrial American state. They also destroyed the left, purging communists from government and unions years before McCarthy finished the job. The result is a world in which the only available ideologies are capitalism and a top-down liberalism that has long since stopped delivering on its promises. So how to chart an American foreign policy between MAGA and Cold War liberalism? Bessner reminds us of John Quincy Adams's advice of not going abroad “in search of monsters to destroy.” The United States should reduce its global basing posture, slash military spending, stop meddling in other people's affairs, and allow regions to develop without outside interference. The United States should stop throwing bombs overseas, the bomb-throwing Bessner suggests. That would be the most American thing to do. Five Takeaways •       The Cold War Was an American Choice: The historian Sergei Radchenko has shown, from Soviet archival documents, that Stalin thought he could reach an agreement with the United States after World War Two. He'd gotten along well with FDR, who envisioned a world divided among four policemen: the UK, the USSR, the US, and China. It was only when the inexperienced, insecure Truman replaced FDR that the US adopted a universalistic anti-communist framework and decided the Soviet Union was an illegitimate power with which no deal was possible. The Cold War wasn't inevitable. It was chosen. And it killed an estimated twenty million people in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa while being pretty good for Western Europe. •       Liberalism Has Always Feared the Masses: Bessner traces the anxiety back to its origins: Benjamin Constant and Germaine de Staël trying to chart a path between the Terror and monarchical reaction in post-revolutionary France. From the beginning, liberals believed elites needed to tame the masses and govern in their name. The Cold War liberals institutionalised that skepticism — their fear understandable, given that many were Jewish exiles who had experienced Nazism firsthand. But understandable doesn't mean right. They built the modern American state around elite governance, purged the left from unions and government years before McCarthy finished the job, and normalized a political center that defined itself as rational and everyone else as extreme. •       Ideology Died in the Twenty-First Century: Fukuyama was right that liberalism would be the last ideology — but wrong that everywhere would become liberal. What actually happened: when every country is capitalist, you no longer need the liberalism. Biden talked about democracy versus authoritarianism for about five minutes before reverting to the language of interests and security. Trump never used the language of ideology at all. Bessner's formulation: if God died in the nineteenth century, ideology died in the twenty-first. Could you imagine people dying for communism or liberal democracy now? It happened. Now you'd be considered an idiot. Cold War liberalism is a zombie ideology — it sells books to wealthy anti-Trump readers, but it has no mass constituency. •       Goes Not Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy: John Quincy Adams, secretary of state and president, offered the restrainers' founding principle: the United States “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Bessner's alternative foreign policy: eliminate the global basing posture, slash military spending, stop meddling in other people's affairs, allow regions to develop as they would. The United States hasn't faced an existential threat since 1812. It has a nuclear deterrent. There is no good argument for the rest. Trump's Iran war is not Cold War liberalism — no ideological language, just pure power extraction — but it's not an improvement. It's just violence without even the pretence of principle. •       Mutual Ruin: Bessner ends with Marx's first page of the Communist Manifesto: either a dialectical transcendence of the old economic system, or the mutual ruin of the contending classes. Capitalism, he argues, has reached a point where there are no real profits to be made — hence financialisation, hence AI as an attempt to deindustrialise white-collar workers. There is no political-economic alternative in sight. No institutional base. The Democratic Party is corrupt, managerial, and blinkered. The only way it wins elections is because Trump is even more horrible. Something exogenous — war, climate, something else — will have to break the impasse. Until then, mutual ruin. He knows which one it feels like. About the Guest Daniel Bessner is the Anne H. H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. He is the co-editor, with Michael Brenes, of Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency (Cambridge University Press, 2026), and co-host of the American Prestige podcast. References: •       Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency, ed. Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes (Cambridge University Press, 2026). •       Sergei Radchenko, To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power — the archival revisionist case that Stalin wanted a deal. •       John Quincy Ad...

──────────────────────────────────────── [00:03:01] Trump Has No Good Options — Walking Away Collapses the Petrodollar, Escalating Means Mass Casualties A detailed breakdown of the war's dead ends: a retreat hands Iran control of the Gulf and destroys what remains of the petrodollar, while escalation through a Karg Island invasion risks catastrophic US casualties against an enemy that has already rendered 13 bases uninhabitable. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:05:53] Iran Has Bombed Every US Base in the Middle East — Military Now Hiding in Hotels The New York Times confirms that all 13 US military bases across the Middle East are now virtually uninhabitable, with troops working remotely from hotels and civilian areas. Iran has accused the US of using civilians as human shields by dispersing personnel into populated areas. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:20:31] Army Raises Draft Age to 42 — Former Israeli Defense Minister Calls for US to Seize Karg Island The US Army has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42 as a sign of manpower strain, while former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant publicly calls for thousands of American troops to seize Karg Island — an operation his own analysis concedes would carry significant expected casualties. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:22:09] BlackRock CEO Does a U-Turn — Now Warns of Multi-Year Recession if Oil Stays Above $100 Larry Fink, who weeks ago called the Iran war a good long-term investment opportunity, has reversed course and now warns oil could remain above $100 per barrel for years, potentially hitting $150 and triggering a stark and steep global recession — while the United Airlines CEO is planning for $175. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:51:25] 36 States Have Laws Barring Criticism of Israel — US Soldier Investigated as National Security Threat for Anti-Israel Posts Glenn Greenwald details how 36 states legally prohibit government contractors from boycotting Israel — with no equivalent protection for any other country. A 20-year Army veteran is simultaneously revealed to be under investigation as a national security threat solely for anti-Israel social media posts. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:53:08] Tennessee State Senator Threatens Jewish Reporter on Camera for Asking About Israel Lobbying Tennessee State Senator Paul Rose physically threatened a Jewish journalist from Tennessee Holler on camera after being asked why he was introducing legislation to ban the word "Palestine" and replace it with "Judea and Samaria" — a bill traced directly to an Israeli annexation advocacy organization. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:59:04] UK Telegraph Scrubs Article on Christian Village's Ties to Hezbollah Under Pressure The Telegraph removed an article describing how a 6,000-strong Catholic Lebanese village formed strong bonds with Hezbollah after the group defended them from ISIS, provided medical care, electricity, and Christmas trees — with the deletion occurring the same day Israel announced plans to occupy southern Lebanon. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:01:49] Greater Israel Map: Israeli Soldier's Badge Shows Territory Spanning from Nile to Euphrates — 25x Current Size A detailed breakdown of the Greater Israel doctrine reveals an Israeli soldier's badge depicting a nation stretching from Egypt's Nile to Iraq's Euphrates — 25 times Israel's current territory, encompassing parts of seven sovereign nations where 120 million people live, with Finance Minister Smotrich caught on tape directing annexation without calling it annexation. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:18:43] Constitutional Scholar: Iran War Is Flatly Unconstitutional — War Powers Act Itself Has No Basis in the Constitution John Birch Society editor Gary Benoit argues that Article I, Section 8 assigns war-making power exclusively to Congress, that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional, and that the "gang of eight" briefing Rubio gave has no constitutional basis — with both House and Senate having voted to abdicate their war authority. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:26:20] AI Combined With NSA's Decades of Stored Data Now Enables Total Surveillance Retroactively NSA whistleblower William Binney's warning — that the agency was saving everything on everyone while waiting for computing power to analyze it — is presented as now fully realized, with AI providing the retroactive collation capability Binney warned about, timed precisely with the Blackburn AI bill centralizing control in Washington. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:29:32] ICE Given Absolute Immunity — The Same Template Used to Bypass Accountability During COVID The grant of absolute immunity to ICE agents is mapped directly onto the COVID-era template of using emergency declarations to bypass constitutional constraints, with each new emergency — public health, immigration, war — ratcheting the police state further while the Overton window shifts to normalize it. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:42:04] 1913: Progressive Income Tax, Federal Reserve, and Direct Senate Elections — Three Communist Manifesto Planks in One Year The argument is made that 1913 was the pivotal year the US became structurally communist, with the 16th Amendment, Federal Reserve, and 17th Amendment all derived from Marx's Communist Manifesto — with the 17th Amendment specifically destroying the constitutional firewall between state and federal power by eliminating state representation in the Senate. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

Gary Benoit, editor-in-chief of The New American and nearly 50-year veteran of the John Birch Society, makes the case that everything unfolding today — the unconstitutional Iran war, the federal AI power grab, the surveillance state, and the collapsing dollar — was mapped out and warned about by Robert Welch back in 1958. Benoit walks through how three hammer blows in 1913 alone — the progressive income tax, the Federal Reserve, and direct election of senators — were literal planks from the Communist Manifesto, and argues the United States was already 20% communist before most Americans were born.Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

Gary Benoit, editor-in-chief of The New American and nearly 50-year veteran of the John Birch Society, makes the case that everything unfolding today — the unconstitutional Iran war, the federal AI power grab, the surveillance state, and the collapsing dollar — was mapped out and warned about by Robert Welch back in 1958. Benoit walks through how three hammer blows in 1913 alone — the progressive income tax, the Federal Reserve, and direct election of senators — were literal planks from the Communist Manifesto, and argues the United States was already 20% communist before most Americans were born.Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

──────────────────────────────────────── [00:03:01] Trump Has No Good Options — Walking Away Collapses the Petrodollar, Escalating Means Mass Casualties A detailed breakdown of the war's dead ends: a retreat hands Iran control of the Gulf and destroys what remains of the petrodollar, while escalation through a Karg Island invasion risks catastrophic US casualties against an enemy that has already rendered 13 bases uninhabitable. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:05:53] Iran Has Bombed Every US Base in the Middle East — Military Now Hiding in Hotels The New York Times confirms that all 13 US military bases across the Middle East are now virtually uninhabitable, with troops working remotely from hotels and civilian areas. Iran has accused the US of using civilians as human shields by dispersing personnel into populated areas. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:20:31] Army Raises Draft Age to 42 — Former Israeli Defense Minister Calls for US to Seize Karg Island The US Army has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 42 as a sign of manpower strain, while former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant publicly calls for thousands of American troops to seize Karg Island — an operation his own analysis concedes would carry significant expected casualties. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:22:09] BlackRock CEO Does a U-Turn — Now Warns of Multi-Year Recession if Oil Stays Above $100 Larry Fink, who weeks ago called the Iran war a good long-term investment opportunity, has reversed course and now warns oil could remain above $100 per barrel for years, potentially hitting $150 and triggering a stark and steep global recession — while the United Airlines CEO is planning for $175. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:51:25] 36 States Have Laws Barring Criticism of Israel — US Soldier Investigated as National Security Threat for Anti-Israel Posts Glenn Greenwald details how 36 states legally prohibit government contractors from boycotting Israel — with no equivalent protection for any other country. A 20-year Army veteran is simultaneously revealed to be under investigation as a national security threat solely for anti-Israel social media posts. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:53:08] Tennessee State Senator Threatens Jewish Reporter on Camera for Asking About Israel Lobbying Tennessee State Senator Paul Rose physically threatened a Jewish journalist from Tennessee Holler on camera after being asked why he was introducing legislation to ban the word "Palestine" and replace it with "Judea and Samaria" — a bill traced directly to an Israeli annexation advocacy organization. ──────────────────────────────────────── [00:59:04] UK Telegraph Scrubs Article on Christian Village's Ties to Hezbollah Under Pressure The Telegraph removed an article describing how a 6,000-strong Catholic Lebanese village formed strong bonds with Hezbollah after the group defended them from ISIS, provided medical care, electricity, and Christmas trees — with the deletion occurring the same day Israel announced plans to occupy southern Lebanon. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:01:49] Greater Israel Map: Israeli Soldier's Badge Shows Territory Spanning from Nile to Euphrates — 25x Current Size A detailed breakdown of the Greater Israel doctrine reveals an Israeli soldier's badge depicting a nation stretching from Egypt's Nile to Iraq's Euphrates — 25 times Israel's current territory, encompassing parts of seven sovereign nations where 120 million people live, with Finance Minister Smotrich caught on tape directing annexation without calling it annexation. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:18:43] Constitutional Scholar: Iran War Is Flatly Unconstitutional — War Powers Act Itself Has No Basis in the Constitution John Birch Society editor Gary Benoit argues that Article I, Section 8 assigns war-making power exclusively to Congress, that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional, and that the "gang of eight" briefing Rubio gave has no constitutional basis — with both House and Senate having voted to abdicate their war authority. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:26:20] AI Combined With NSA's Decades of Stored Data Now Enables Total Surveillance Retroactively NSA whistleblower William Binney's warning — that the agency was saving everything on everyone while waiting for computing power to analyze it — is presented as now fully realized, with AI providing the retroactive collation capability Binney warned about, timed precisely with the Blackburn AI bill centralizing control in Washington. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:29:32] ICE Given Absolute Immunity — The Same Template Used to Bypass Accountability During COVID The grant of absolute immunity to ICE agents is mapped directly onto the COVID-era template of using emergency declarations to bypass constitutional constraints, with each new emergency — public health, immigration, war — ratcheting the police state further while the Overton window shifts to normalize it. ──────────────────────────────────────── [01:42:04] 1913: Progressive Income Tax, Federal Reserve, and Direct Senate Elections — Three Communist Manifesto Planks in One Year The argument is made that 1913 was the pivotal year the US became structurally communist, with the 16th Amendment, Federal Reserve, and 17th Amendment all derived from Marx's Communist Manifesto — with the 17th Amendment specifically destroying the constitutional firewall between state and federal power by eliminating state representation in the Senate. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHT Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Ahead of her new book What's So Great About the Great Books? coming out in April, Naomi Kanakia and I talked about literature from Herodotus to Tony Tulathimutte. We touched on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Scott Alexander, Shakespeare, William James, Helen deWitt, Marx and Engels, Walter Scott, Les Miserables, Jhootha Sach, the Mahabharata, and more. Naomi also talked about some of her working habits and the history and future of the Great Books movement. Naomi, of course, writes Woman of Letters here on Substack.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today, I am talking with Naomi Kanakia. Naomi is a novelist, a literary critic, and most importantly she writes a Substack called Woman of Letters, and she has a new book coming out, What's So Great About the Great Books? Naomi, welcome.Naomi Kanakia: Thanks for having me on.Oliver: How is the internet changing the way that literature gets discussed and criticized, and what is that going to mean for the future of the Great Books?Kanakia: How is the internet changing it? I can really speak to only how it has changed it for me. I started off as a writer of young adult novels and science fiction, and there's these very active online fan cultures for those two things.I was reading the Great Books all through that time. I started in 2010 through today. In the 2010s, it really felt like there was not a lot of online discussion of classic literature. Maybe that was just me and I wasn't finding it, but it didn't necessarily feel like there was that community.I think because there are so many strong, public-facing institutions that discuss classic literature, like the NYRB, London Review of Books, a lot of journals, and universities, too. But now on Substack, there are a number of blogs—yours, mine, a number of other ones—that are devoted to classic literature. All of those have these commenters, a community of commenters. I also follow bloggers who have relatively small followings who are reading Tolstoy, reading Middlemarch, reading even much more esoteric things.I know that for me, becoming involved in this online culture has given me much more of an awareness that there are many people who are reading the classics on their own. I think that was always true, but now it does feel like it's more of a community.Oliver: We are recording this the day after the Washington Post book section has been removed. You don't see some sort of relationship between the way these literary institutions are changing online and the way the Great Books are going to be conceived of in the future? Because the Great Books came out of a an old-fashioned, saving-the-institutions kind of radical approach to university education. We're now moving into a world where all those old things seem to be going.Kanakia: Yes. I agree. The Great Books began in the University of Chicago and Columbia University. If you look into the history of the movement, it really was about university education and the idea that you would have a common core and all undergraduates would read these books. The idea that the Great Books were for the ordinary person was really an afterthought, at least for Mortimer Adler and those original Great Books guys. Now, the Great Books in the university have had a resurgence that we can discuss, but I do think there's a lot more life and vitality in the kind of public-facing humanities than there has been.I talked to Irina Dumitrescu, who writes for TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), LRB (The London Review of Books), a lot of these places, and she also said the same thing—that a lot of these journals are going into podcasts, and they're noticing a huge interest in the humanities and in the classics even at the same time as big institutions are really scaling back on those things. Humanities majors are dropping, classics majors are getting cut, book coverage at major periodicals is going down. It does seem like there are signals that are conflicting. I don't really know totally what to make of it. I do think there is some relation between those two things.Ted Gioia on Substack is always talking about how culture is stagnant, basically, and one of the symptoms of that is that “back list” really outsells “front list” for books. Even in 2010, 50 percent of the books that were sold were front-list titles, books that had been released in the last 18 months. Now it's something like only 35 percent of books or something like that are front-list titles. These could be completely wrong, but there's been a trend.I think the decrease in interest in front-list books is really what drives the loss of these book-review pages because they mostly review front-list books. So, I think that does imply that there's a lot of interest in old books. That's what our stagnant culture means.Oliver: Why do you think your own blog is popular with the rationalists?Kanakia: I don't know for certain. There was a story I wrote that was a joke. There are all these pop nonfiction books that aim to prove something that seems counterintuitive, so I wrote a parody of one of those where I aim to prove that reading is bad for you. This book has many scientific studies that show the more you read, the worse it is because it makes you very rigid.Scott Alexander, who is the archrationalist, really liked that, and he added me to his blog roll. Because of that, I got a thousand rationalist subscribers. I have found that rationalists at least somewhat interested in the classics. I think they are definitely interested in enduring sources of value. I've observed a fair amount of interest.Oliver: How much of a lay reader are you really? Because you read scholarship and critics and you can just quote John Gilroy in the middle of a piece or something.Kanakia: Yeah. That is a good question. I have definitely gotten more interested in secondary literature. In my book, I really talk about being a lay reader and personally having a nonacademic approach to literature. I do think that, over 15 years of being a lay reader, I have developed a lot of knowledge.I've also learned the kind of secondary literature that is really important. I think having historical context adds a lot and is invaluable. Right now I'm rereading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. When I first read it in 2010, I hardly knew anything about French history. I was even talking online with someone about how most people who read Les Miserables think it's set in the French Revolution. That's basically because Americans don't really know anything about French history.Everything makes just a lot more sense the more you know about the time because it was written for people in it. For people in 1860s France, who knew everything about their own recent history, that really adds a lot to it. I still don't tend to go that much into interpretive literature, literature that tries to do readings of the stories or tell me the meaning of the stories. I feel like I haven't really gotten that much out of that.Oliver: How long have you been learning Anglo-Saxon?Kanakia: I went through a big Anglo-Saxon phase. That was in 2010. It started because I started reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. There is a great app online called General Prologue created by one of your countrymen, Terry Richardson [NB it is Terry Jones], who loved Middle English. In this app, he recites the Middle English of the General Prologue. I started listening to this app, and I thought, I just really love the rhythms and the sounds of Middle English. And it's quite easy to learn. So then, I got really into that.And then I thought, but what about Anglo-Saxon? I'm very bad at languages. I studied Latin for seven years in middle school and high school. I never really got very far, but I thought, Anglo-Saxon has to be the easiest foreign language you can learn, right? So, I got into it.I cannot sight read Anglo-Saxon, but I really got into Anglo-Saxon poetry. I really liked the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Most people probably would not like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle because it's very repetitive, but that makes it great if you're a language learner because every entry is in this very repetitive structure. I just felt such a connection. I get in trouble when I say this kind of stuff, because I'm never quiet sure if it's 100 percent true. But it's certainly one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Europe. It's just so much older than most of the other medieval literature I've read. And it just was such a window into a different part of history I never knew about.Oliver: And you particularly like “The Dream of the Rood”?Kanakia: Yeah, “The Dream of the Rood” is my favorite Anglo-Saxon poem. “The Dream of the Rood” is a poem that is told from the point of view of Christ's cross. A man is having a dream. In this dream he encounters Christ's cross, and Christ's cross starts reciting to him basically the story of the crucifixion. At the end, the cross is buried. I don't know, it was just so haunting and powerful. Yeah, it was one of my favorites.Oliver: Why do you think Byron is a better poet than Alexander Pope?Kanakia: This is an argument I cannot get into. I think this is coming up because T. S. Eliot felt that Alexander Pope was a great poet because he really exemplified the spirit of the age. I don't know. I've tried to read Pope. It just doesn't do it for me. Whereas with Byron, I read Don Juan and found it entertaining. I enjoyed it. Then, his lyric poetry is just more entertaining to read. With Alexander Pope, I'm learning a lot about what kind of poetry people wrote in the 18th century, but the joy is not there.Oliver: Okay. Can we do a quick fire round where I say the name of a book and you just say what you think of it, whatever you think of it?Kanakia: Sure.Oliver: Okay. The Odyssey.Kanakia: The Odyssey. Oh, I love The Odyssey. It has a very strange structure, where it starts with Telemachus and then there's this flashback in the middle of it. It is much more readable than The Iliad; I'll say that.Oliver: Herodotus.Kanakia: Herodotus is wild. Going into Herodotus, I really thought it was about the Persian war, which it is, but it's mostly a general overview of everything that Herodotus knew, about anything. It's been a long time since I read it. I really appreciate the voice of Herodotus, how human it is, and the accumulation of facts. It was great.Oliver: I love the first half actually. The bit about the Persian war I'm less interested in, but the first half I think is fantastic. I particularly love the Egypt book.Kanakia: Oh yeah, the Egypt book is really good.Oliver: All those like giant beetles that are made of fire or whatever; I can't remember the details, but it's completely…Kanakia: The Greeks are also so fascinated by Egypt. They go down there like what is going on out there? Then, most of what we know about Egypt comes from this Hellenistic period, when the Greeks went to Egypt. Our Egyptian kings list comes from the Hellenistic period where some scholar decided to sort out what everybody was up to and put it all into order. That's why we have such an orderly story about Egypt. That's the story that the Greeks tried to tell themselves.Oliver: Marcus Aurelius.Kanakia: Marcus Aurelius. When I first read The Meditations, which I loved, obviously, I thought, “being the Roman emperor cannot be this hard.” It really was a black pill moment because I thought, “if the emperor of Rome is so unhappy, maybe human power really doesn't do it.”Knowing more about Marcus Aurelius, he did have quite a difficult life. He was at war for most of his—just stuck in the region in Germany for ages. He had various troubles, but yeah, it really was very stoic. It was, oh, I just have to do my duty. Very “heavy is the head that wears the crown” kind of stuff. I thought, “okay, I guess being Roman emperor is not so great.”Oliver: Omar Khayyam.Kanakia: Omar Khayyam. Okay, I've only read The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, which I loved, but I cannot formulate a strong opinion right now.Oliver: As You Like It.Kanakia: No opinions.Oliver: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.Kanakia: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I do have an opinion about this, which is that they should make a redacted version of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I normally am not a big believer in abridgements because I feel like whatever is there is there. But, Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, first of all, has a long portion before Boswell even meets Johnson. That portion drags; it's not that great. Then it has all these like letters that Johnson wrote, which also are not that great. What's really good is when Boswell just reports everything Johnson ever said, which is about half the book. You get a sense of Johnson's conversation and his personality, and that is very gripping. I've definitely thought that with a different presentation, this could still be popular. People would still read this.Oliver: The Communist Manifesto.Kanakia: The Communist Manifesto. It's very stirring. I love The Communist Manifesto. It has very haunting, powerful lines. I won't try to quote from it because I'll misquote them.Oliver: But it is remarkably well written.Kanakia: Oh yeah, it is a great work of literature.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: I read Capital [Das Kapital], which is not a great work of literature, and I would venture to say that it is not necessarily worth reading. It really feels like Marx's reputation is built on other political writings like The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and works like that, which really seem to have a lot more meat on the bone than Capital.Oliver: Pragmatism by William James.Kanakia: Pragmatism. I mean, I've mentioned that in my book. I love William James in general. I think William James was writing in this 19th-century environment where it seemed like some form of skepticism was the only rational solution. You couldn't have any source of value, and he really tried to cut through that with Pragmatism and was like, let's just believe the things that are good to believe. It is definitely at least useful to think, although someone else can always argue with you about what is useful to believe. But, as a personal guide for belief, I think it is still useful.Oliver: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw.Kanakia: No strong opinions. It was a long time ago that I read Major Barbara.Oliver: Tell me what you like about James Fenimore Cooper.Kanakia: James Fenimore Cooper. Oh, this is great. I have basically a list of Great Books that I want to read, but four or five years ago, I thought, “what's in all the other books that I know the names of but that are not reputed, are not the kind of books you still read?”That was when I read Walter Scott, who I really love. And I just started reading all kinds of books that were kind of well known but have kind of fallen into literary disfavor. In almost every case, I felt like I got a lot out of these books. So, nowadays when I approach any realm of literature, I always look for those books.In 19th-century American literature, the biggest no-longer-read book is The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which was America's first bestseller. He was the first American novelist that had a high reputation in Europe. The Last of the Mohicans is kind of a historical romance, à la Walter Scott, but much more tightly written and much more tightly plotted.Cooper has written five novels, the Leatherstocking Tales, that are all centered around this very virtuous, rough-hewn frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. He has his best friend, Chingachgook, who is the last of the Mohicans. He's the last of his tribe. And the two of these guys are basically very sad and stoic. Chingachgook is distanced from his tribe. Chingachgook has a tribe of Native Americans that he hates—I want to say it's the Huron. He's always like, “they're the bad ones,” and he's always fighting them. Then, Natty Bumppo doesn't really love settled civilization. He's not precisely at war with it, but he does not like the settlers. They're kind of stuck in the middle. They have various adventures, and I just thought it was so haunting and powerful.I've been reading a lot of other 19th-century American literature, and virtually none of it treats Native Americans with this kind of respect. There's a lot of diversity in the Native American characters; there's really an attempt to show how their society works and the various ways that leadership and chiefship works among them. There's this very haunting moment in The Last of the Mohicans, where this aged chief, Tamenund, comes out and starts speaking. This is a chief who, in American mythology, was famous for being a friend to the white people. But, James Fenimore Cooper writing in the 1820s has Tamenund come out at 80 years old and say, “we have to fight; we have to fight the white people. That's our only option.” It was just such a powerful moment and such a powerful book.I was really, really enthused. I read all of these Leatherstocking Tales. It was also a very strange experience to read these books that are generally supposed to be very turgid and boring, and then I read them and was like, “I understand. I'm so transported.” I understand exactly why readers in the 1820s loved this.Oliver: Which Walter Scott books do you like?Kanakia: I love all the Walter Scott books I've read, but the one I liked best was Kenilworth. Have you ever read Kenilworth?Oliver: I don't know that one.Kanakia: Yeah, it's about Elizabeth I, who had a romantic relationship with one of her courtiers.Oliver: The Earl of Essex?Kanakia: Yeah. She really thought they were going to get married, but then it turned out he was secretly married. Basically, I guess the implication is that he killed his wife in order to marry Queen Elizabeth I. It's a novel all about him and that situation, and it just felt very tightly plotted. I really enjoyed it.Oliver: What did you think of Rejection?Kanakia: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte? Initially when I read this book, I enjoyed it, but I was like, “life cannot possibly be this sad.” It's five or six stories about these people who just have nothing going on. Their lives are so miserable, they can't find anyone to sleep with, and they're just doomed to be alone forever. I was like, “life can't be this bad.” But now thinking back over it, it is one of the most memorable books I've read in the last year. It really sticks with you. I feel like my opinion of this book has gone up a lot in retrospect.Oliver: How antisemitic is the House of Mirth?Kanakia: That is a hotly debated question, which I mentioned in my book. I think there has been a good case made that Edith Wharton, the author of House of Mirth, who was from an old New York family, was herself fairly antisemitic and did not personally like Jewish people. What she portrays in this book is that this old New York society also was highly suspicious of Jewish people and was organized to keep Jewish people out.In this book there is a rich Jewish man, Simon Rosedale, and there's a poor woman, Lily Bart. Lily Bart's main thing is whether she's going to marry the poor guy, Lawrence Selden, or the rich guy, Percy Gryce. She can't choose. She doesn't want to be poor, but she also is always bored by the rich guys. Meanwhile, through the whole book, there's Simon Rosedale, who's always like, “you should marry me.” He's the rich Jewish guy. He's like, “you should marry me. I will give you lots of money. You can do whatever you want.”Everybody else kind of just sees her as a woman and as a wife; he really sees her as an ally in his social climbing. That's his main motivation. The book is relatively clear that he has a kind of respect for her that nobody else does. Then, over the course of the book, she also gains a lot more respect for him. Basically, late in the book, she decides to marry him, but she has fallen a lot in the world. He's like, “that particular deal is not available anymore,” but he does offer her another deal that—although she finds it not to her taste—is still pretty good.He basically is like, “I'll give you some money, you'll figure out how to rehabilitate your reputation, and later down the line, we can figure something out.” So, I think with a great author like Edith Wharton, there's power in these portrayals. I felt it hard to come away from it feeling like the book is like a really antisemitic book.Oliver: Now, you note that the Great Books movement started out as something quite socially aspirational. Do you think it's still like that?Kanakia: I do think so. Yeah. For me, that's 100 percent what it was because I majored in econ. I always felt kind of inadequate as a writer against people who had majored in English. Then I started off as a science fiction writer, young adult writer, and I was like, “I'm going to read all these Great Books and then I'll have read the books that everybody else has read.” In my mind, that's also what it was—that there was some upper crust or literary society that was reading all these Great Books.That's really what did it. I do think there's still an element of aspiration to it because it's a club that you can join, that anyone can join. It's very straightforward to be a Great Books reader, and so I think there's still something there. I think because the Great Books movement has such a democratic quality to it, it actually doesn't get you to the top socially, which has always been the true, always been the case. But, that's okay. As long as you end up higher than where you started, that's fine.Oliver: What makes a book great?Kanakia: I talk about it this in the book, and I go through many different authors' conceptions of what makes a book great or what constitutes a classic. I don't know that anyone has come up with a really satisfying answer. The Horatian formulation from Horace—that a book is great or an author is great if it has lasted for a hundred years—is the one that seems to be the most accurate. Like, any book that's still being read a hundred years after it was written has a greatness.I do think that T. S. Eliott's formulation—that a civilization at its height produces certain literature and that literature partakes of the greatness of the civilization and summarizes the greatness of the civilization—does seem to have some kind of truth to it.But it's hard, right? Because the greatest French novel is In Search of Lost Time, but I don't know that anyone would say that the France in the 1920s was at its height. It's not a prescriptive thing, but it does seem like the way we read many of these Great Books, like Moby Dick, it feels like you're like communing with the entire society that produced it. So, maybe there's something there.Oliver: Now, you've used a list from Clifton Fadiman.Kanakia: Yes.Oliver: Rather than from Mortimer Adler or Harold Bloom or several others. Why this list?Kanakia: Well, the best reason is that it's actually the list I've just been using for the last 15 years. I went to a science fiction convention in 2009, Readercon, and at this science fiction convention was Michael Dirda, who was a Washington Post book critic. He had recently come out with his book, Classics for Pleasure, which I also bought and liked. But he said that the list he had always used was this Clifton Fadiman book. And so when I decided to start reading the Great Books, I went and got that book. I have perused many other lists over time, but that was always the list that seemed best to me.It seemed to have like the best mix. There's considerable variation amongst these lists, but there's also a lot of overlap. So any of these lists is going to have Dickens on it, and Tolstoy, and stuff like that. So really, you're just thinking about, “aside from Dickens and Tolstoy and George Eliot and Walt Whitman and all these people, who are the other 50 authors that you're going be reading?”The Mortimer Adler list is very heavy on philosophy. It has Plotinus on it. It has all these scientific works. I don't know, it didn't speak to me as much. Whereas, this Clifton Fadiman and John Major list has all these Eastern works on it. It has The Tale of Genji, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Story of the Stone, and that just spoke to me a little bit more.Oliver: What modern books will be on a future Great Books list, whether it's from someone alive or someone since the war.Kanakia: Have you ever heard of Robert Caro?Oliver: Sure.Kanakia: Yeah. I think his Lyndon Johnson books are great books. They have changed the field of biography. They're so complete, they seem to summarize an entire era, epoch. They're highly rated, but I feel like they're underrated as literature.What else? I was actually a little bit surprised in this Clifton Fadiman-John Major book, which came out in 1999, that there are not more African Americans in their list. Like, Invisible Man definitely seemed like a huge missed work. You know, it's hard. You would definitely want a book that has undergone enough critical evaluation that people are pretty certain that it is great. A lot of things that are more recent have not undergone that evaluation yet, but Invisible Man has, as have some works by Martin Luther King.Oliver: What about The Autobiography of Malcolm X?Kanakia: I would have to reread. I feel like it hasn't been evaluated much as a literary document.Oliver: Helen DeWitt?Kanakia: It's hard to say. It's so idiosyncratic, The Last Samurai, but it is certainly one of the best novels of the last 25 years.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: It is hard to say, because there's nothing else quite like it. But I would love if The Last Samurai was on a list like this; that would be amazing.Oliver: If someone wants to try the Great Books, but they think that those sort of classic 19th-century novels are too difficult—because they're long and the sentences are weird or whatever—what else should they do? Where else should they start?Kanakia: Well, it depends on what they're into, or it depends on their personality type. I think like there are people who like very, very difficult literature. There are people who are very into James Joyce and Proust. I think for some people the cost-benefit is better. If they're going to be pouring over some book for a long time, they would prefer if it was overtly difficult.If they're not like that, then I would say, there are many Great Books that are more accessible. Hemingway is a good one and Grapes of Wrath is wonderful. The 19th-century American books tend to be written in a very different register than the English books. If you read Moby Dick, it feels like it's written in a completely different language than Charles Dickens, even though they're writing essentially at the same time.Oliver: Is there too much Freud on the list that you've used?Kanakia: Maybe. I know that Interpretation of Dreams is on that list, which I've tried to read and have decided life is too short. I didn't really buy it, but I have read a fair amount of Freud. My impression of Freud was always that I would read Freud and somehow it would just seem completely fanciful or far out, like wouldn't ring true. But then when I started reading Freud, it was more the opposite. I was like, oh yeah, this seems very, very true.Like this battle between like the id and the ego and the super ego, and this feeling that like the psyche is at war with itself. Human beings really desire to be singular and exceptional, but then you're constantly under assault by the reality principle, which is that you're insignificant. That all seemed completely true. But then he tries to cure this somehow, which does not seem a curable problem. And he also situates the problem in some early sexual development, which also did not necessarily ring true. But no, I wouldn't say there's too much. Freud is a lot of fun. People should read Freud.Oliver: Which of the Great Books have you really not liked?Kanakia: I do get asked this quite a bit. I would say the Great Book that I really felt like—at least in translation—was not that rewarding in an unabridged version was Don Quixote. Because at least half the length of Don Quixote is these like interpolated novellas that are really long and tedious. I felt Don Quixote was a big slog. But maybe someday I'll go back and reread it and love it. Who knows?Oliver: Now you wrote that the question of biography is totally divorced from the question of what art is and how it operates. What do you think of George Orwell's supposition that if Shakespeare came back tomorrow, and we found out he used to rape children that we should—we would not say, you know, it's fine to carry on to doing that because he might write another King Lear.Kanakia: Well, if we discovered that Shakespeare was raping children, he should go to prison for that. No. It's totally divorced in both senses. You don't get any credit in the court of law because you are the writer of King Lear. If I murdered someone and then I was hauled in front of a judge and they were like, oh, Naomi's a genius, I wouldn't get off for murder. Nor should I get off for murder.So in terms of like whether we would punish Shakespeare for his crime of raping children, I don't think King Lear should count at all, but it's never used that way. It's never should someone go to prison or not for their crimes, because they're a genius. It's always used the other way, which is should we read King Lear knowing that the author raped children, but I also feel like that is immaterial. If you read King Lear, you're not enabling someone to rape children.Oliver: There's an almost endless amount of discussion these days about the Great Books and education and the value of the humanities, and what's the future of it all. What is your short opinion on that?Kanakia: My short opinion is that the Great Books at least are going to be fine. The Great Books will continue to be read, and they would even survive the university. All these books predate the university and they will survive the university. I feel like the university has stewarded literature in its own way for a while now and has made certain choices in that stewardship. I think if that stewardship was given up to more voluntary associations that had less financial support, then I think the choices would probably be very different. But I still think the greatest works would survive.Oliver: Now this is a quote from the book: “I am glad that reactionaries love the Great Books. They've invited a Trojan horse into their own camp.” Tell us what you mean by that.Kanakia: Let's say you believed in Christian theocracy, that you thought America should be organized on explicitly Christian principles. And because you believe in Christian theocracy, you organize a school that teaches the Great Books. Many of these schools that are Christian schools that have Great Books programs will also teach Nietzsche. They definitely put some kind of spin on Nietzsche. But they will teach anti-Christ, and that is a counterpoint to Christian morality and Christian theology. There are many things that you'll read in the Great Books that are corrosive to various kinds of certainties.If someone who I think is bad starts educating themselves in the Great Books, I don't think that the Great Books are going to make them worse from my perspective. So it's good.Oliver: How did reading the Mahabharata change you?Kanakia: Oh yeah, so the Mahabharata is a Hindu epic from, let's say, the first century AD. I'm Indian and most Indians are familiar with the basic outline of the Mahabharata story because it's told in various retellings, and there's a TV serial that my parents would rent from the Indian store growing up and we would watch it tape by tape. So I'm very familiar with it. Like there's never been a time I have not known this story.But I was also familiar with the idea that there is a written version in Sanskrit that's extremely long. It is 10 times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. This Mahabharata story is not that long. I've read a version of it that's about 800 pages long. So how could something that's 10 times this long be the same? A new unabridged translation came out 10 years ago. So I started reading it, and it basically contains the entire Sanskrit Vedic worldview in it.I had never been exposed to this very coherently laid-out version of what I would call Hindu cosmology and ethics. Hindus don't really get taught those things in a very organized way. The book is basically about dharma, the principle of rightness and how this principle of rightness orders the universe and how it basically results in everybody getting their just deserts in various ways. As I was reading the book, I was like, this seems very true that there is some cosmic rebalancing here, and that everything does turn out more or less the way it should, which is not something that I can defend on a rational level.But just reading the book, it just made me feel like, yes, that is true. There is justice, the universe is organized by justice. It took me about a year to read the whole thing. I started waking up at 5:00 a.m. and reading for an hour each morning, and it just was a really magical, profound experience that brought me a lot closer to my grandmother's religious beliefs.Oliver: Is it ever possible to persuade someone with arguments that they should read literature, or is it just something that they have to have an inclination toward and then follow someone's example? Because I feel like we have so many columns and op-eds and “books are good because of X reason, and it's very important because of Y reason.” And like, who cares? No one cares. If you are persuaded, you take all that very seriously and you argue about what exactly are the precise reasons we should say. And if you're not persuaded, you don't even know this is happening.And what really persuades you is like, oh, Naomi sounds pretty compelling about the Mahabharata. That sounds cool. I'll try that. It's much more of a temperamental, feelingsy kind of thing. Is it possible to argue people into thinking about this differently? Or should we just be doing what we do and setting an example and hoping that people will follow.Kanakia: As to whether it's possible or not, I do not know. But I do think these columns are too ambitious. A thousand-word column and the imagined audience for this column is somebody who doesn't read books at all, who doesn't care about literature at all. And then in a thousand-word column, you're going to persuade them to care about literature. This is no good. It's so unnecessary.Whereas there's a much broader range of people who love to read books, but have never picked up Moby Dick or have never picked up Middlemarch, or who like maybe loved Middlemarch, but never thought maybe I should then go on and read Jane Austen and George Eliot.I think trying to shift people from “I don't read books at all; reading books is not something I do,” to being a Great Books card-carrying lover of literature is a lot. I really aim for a much lower result than that, which is to whatever extent people are interested in literature, they should pursue that interest. And as the rationalists would say, there's a lot of alpha in that; there's a lot to be gained from converting people who are somewhat interested into people who are very interested.Oliver: If there was a more widespread practice of humanism in education and the general culture, would that make America into a more liberal country in any way?Kanakia: What do you mean by humanism?Oliver: You know, the old-fashioned liberal arts approach, the revival of the literary journal culture, the sort of depolitical approach to literature, the way things used to be, as it were.Kanakia: It couldn't hurt. It couldn't hurt is my answer to that question.Oliver: Okay.Kanakia: What you're describing is basically the way I was educated. I went to Catholic school in DC at St. Anselm's Abbey School, in Northeast, DC, grade school. Highly recommend sending your little boys there. No complaints about the school. They talked about humanism all the time and all these civic virtues. I thought it was great. I don't know what people in other schools learn, but I really feel like it was a superior way of teaching.Now, you know, it was Catholic school, so a lot of people who graduated from my school are conservatives and don't really have the beliefs that I have, but that's okay.Oliver: Tell us about your reading habits.Kanakia: I read mostly ebooks. I really love ebooks because you can make the type bigger. I just read all the time. They vary. I don't wake up at 5:00 a.m. to read anymore. Sometimes if I feel like I'm not reading enough—because I write this blog, and the blog doesn't get written unless I'm reading. That's the engine, and so sometimes I set aside a day each week to read. But generally, the reading mostly takes care of itself.What I tend to get is very into a particular thing, and then I'll start reading more and more in that area. Recently, I was reading a lot of New Yorker stories. So I started reading more and more of these storywriters that have been published in the New Yorker and old anthologies of New Yorker stories. And then eventually I am done. I'm tired. It's time to move on.Oliver: But do you read several books at once? Do you make notes? Do you abandon books? How many hours a day do you read?Kanakia: Hours a day: Because my e-reader keeps these stats, I'd say 15 or 20 hours a week of reading. Nowadays because I write for the blog, I often think as I'm reading how I would frame a post about this. So I look for quotes, like what quote I would look at. I take different kinds of notes. I'll make more notes if I'm more confused by what is going on. Especially with nonfiction books, I'll try sometimes to make notes just to iron out what exactly I think is happening or what I think the argument is. But no, not much of a note taker.Oliver: What will you read next?Kanakia: What will I read next? Well, I've been thinking about getting back into Indian literature. Right now I'm reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. But there's an Indian novel called Jhootha Sach, which is a partition novel that is originally in Hindi. And it's also a thousand pages long, and is frequently compared to Les Miserables and War and Peace. So I'm thinking about tackling that finally.Oliver: Naomi Kanakia, thank you very much.Kanakia: Thanks for having me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

The US is the Gold Standard as both the men and women's hockey teams took home gold medals in the Olympics. Why is Dom so ecstatic about the way the players were speaking after the game? 1215 - Side - all time bad idea 1220 - How did an unsanctioned student protest by Quakertown High School turn so violent? Are the kids kind of telling on themselves? 1230 - Former Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran joins us today. What is his takeaway from the Quakertown protest? Is it a good idea for the county's police chief and county manager to be the same person? Should more officers have been wearing a vest or some sort of identification when corralling the unruly kids? How tough is it handcuffing somebody without any pain? Why should kids not emulate the protests they see on TV? 1250 - How boring is The Communist Manifesto? Your calls.

12 - The US is the Gold Standard as both the men and women's hockey teams took hom e gold medals in the Olympics. Why is Dom so ecstatic about the way the players were speaking after the game? 1215 - Side - all time bad idea 1220 - How did an unsanctioned student protest by Quakertown High School turn so violent? Are the kids kind of telling on themselves? 1230 - Former Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran joins us today. What is his takeaway from the Quakertown protest? Is it a good idea for the county's police chief and county manager to be the same person? Should more officers have been wearing a vest or some sort of identification when corralling the unruly kids? How tough is it handcuffing somebody without any pain? Why should kids not emulate the protests they see on TV? 1250 - How boring is The Communist Manifesto? Your calls. 1 - Allante McAuley drops in as he has to move his meet and greet today because of inclement weather, but that he is still going door to door asking for signatures he needs to be the GOP Chair in Philadelphia. What is his plan to get out there today and the next few days before the next storm hits? What does the Philly GOP not understand about its voters? 115 - Is Gavin Newsom being racist as he's trying to pander to an African-American crowd? Is it a good look to be privileged and stupid? 120 - AOC tells her constituents how snow works. Is that a good look? 130 - Kirsten Fleming, Features Columnist at The New York Post, joins us today. How big of a headline maker is Mamdani? Is he really mandating that potential shovelers for the city need three forms of ID to get the job? Did Zohran learn his lessons about not clearing homeless encampments before big storms like we're going through today? What is Kirsten's takeaway of the patriotism shown by the US Men's Olympic Hockey Team? Will they be honored tomorrow night? With Bruce Springsteen announcing his latest tour, are fans really going to put up with his politics and his shtick as an arbiter of goodness? 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild! Your calls. 2 - Did our Intelligence help the Mexican Army and police take down the leader of the Cartels? 205 - Scott Presler joins us for his weekly segment yet again today. Why is restoring voter integrity so important not just for accuracy, but for the psyche of the American people? Why is funding DHS imperative as Mexican plunges into darkness after the killing of a cartel leader? Why are Democrats using scare tactics into thinking that voter ID laws are actually detrimental to elections when an overwhelming majority of Americans are for them? Will be be at the SOTU tomorrow? 220 - Dom's Money Melody! 235 - Why are some of the members of the Olympic Women's hockey team not going to the white House tomorrow? 240 - Your calls. Will Democrats clap for the US Men's hockey team? 250 - The Lightning Round!

First published in 1848, The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential political and philosophical texts in modern history. Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it presents a materialist analysis of society, examining class struggle, capitalism, and the historical forces shaping economic and social relations. The manifesto outlines the theory of communism, critiques...

Chuck Todd takes a hard look at the state of American governance and institutional trust — or the lack of it. He starts by reflecting on the historical significance of three consecutive one-term presidents, ranking his top five most underrated commanders-in-chief and arguing that both Biden and Trump are unlikely to be viewed as consequential a century from now. From there, Todd pivots to a searing indictment of the current moment: from the Epstein reckoning exposing the government's inability to tell the truth, to DHS being treated as a political plaything by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, to the DOD endangering lives in the El Paso FAA incident with zero accountability, to Moderna alleging that HHS refused to even review an mRNA flu vaccine under RFK Jr.'s watch. He connects the dots across a pattern of institutional dishonesty — a Justice Department focused on narrative management, masked ICE agents no one can justify, a fired antitrust chief clearing the way for powerful interests, and a "hostage system" style of governing that holds federal paychecks as leverage — making the case that when the government lies this often, it forfeits the benefit of the doubt on everything, and that the Epstein scandal isn't just a story about one man, but a mirror reflecting a system designed to protect the powerful. Then, Gene Sperling — the only person to serve as Director of the National Economic Council under two presidents (Clinton and Obama), a senior advisor to President Biden who oversaw the American Rescue Plan, and a consultant and co-writer on NBC's The West Wing — joins the Chuck Toddcast for a wide-ranging conversation. Sperling shares the wild story of how he ended up in Santa Monica, his brush with Aaron Sorkin's legal troubles, and his insider take on how real Washington compares to its fictional portrayals. The conversation then turns to Sperling's deep expertise on the economy, from his defense of the Biden administration's "soft landing" amid global post-Covid inflation to the political lessons of how rising prices have sunk presidencies on both sides of the aisle — including Biden's own re-election bid. The back half of the episode looks squarely at the future. Sperling, who says he's unlikely to serve in another Democratic administration, offers a forceful argument about what comes next: the rising threat of unchecked corporate and tech power, the urgent need for AI policy that puts working people first, and the lessons of globalization that policymakers can't afford to repeat. Drawing on themes from his book Economic Dignity, he makes the case that Americans are hungry for leaders who pair optimism with a real confrontation of economic injustice — and warns that a handful of AI and crypto companies, flush with lobbying dollars, could end up shaping the structure of the economy if left unchallenged. Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit the publishing of the Communist Manifesto and argues that while its critiques of the excesses of capitalism were correct… it’s revolutionary prescriptions led to the worst authoritarian states in modern history. He also answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment. Get your wardrobe sorted and your gift list handled with Quince. Don't wait! Go to https://Quince.com/CHUCK for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Thank you Wildgrain for sponsoring. Visit http://wildgrain.com/TODDCAST and use the code "TODDCAST" at checkout to receive $30 off your first box PLUS free Croissants for life! Link in bio or go to https://getsoul.com & enter code TODDCAST for 30% off your first order. Timeline: (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction 03:30 We’ve had 3 straight one term presidents, deem them all failures 04:45 Inability to win reelection will always be seen as an asterisk 05:45 Top 5 most underrated presidents 06:00 James Polk was the only voluntary one term president 06:45 James Garfield was a fierce advocate for civil rights 07:30 George H.W. Bush was accomplished, but not a good politician 08:30 John Quincy Adams laid out modern American infrastructure 09:00 Jimmy Carter did many things that have aged well 10:15 In 100 years, Biden & Trump likely won’t be viewed as consequential 11:45 Biden & Trump can’t be evaluated fairly for many years 12:30 What does a real reckoning look like in the Trump era? 13:45 The institution least capable of reckoning with Epstein is the government 14:15 The private sector is forcing accountability, the government isn’t 15:15 Trust is the currency of government, and Trump’s doesn’t have it 16:15 The Justice Department is only worried about narrative management 17:30 The system looks like a club, designed to protect the powerful 18:45 Epstein is a test of whether the government can tell the truth 20:00 DHS shutting down, politicians using paychecks as leverage 20:30 We a governing via a “hostage system” 21:45 There isn’t a single good argument for masking ICE agents 22:15 The Democrats’ demands are not extreme, they’re common sense 23:15 Noem & Lewandowski treating DHS like their personal plaything 24:00 Pattern of government saying one thing, facts saying another 25:15 Whatever Noem says first, you can’t believe it. She gaslights the public 26:00 The government has lied too many times, gets no benefit of the doubt 26:45 El Paso FAA incident is case study for public distrusting institutions 27:45 DoD was lying to the FAA, FAA pulled the emergency brakes 29:00 DoD put lives in danger with no accountability 29:30 Moderna says HHS refused to review MRNA flu vaccine 30:15 The U.S. is not a stable country to develop & release products 31:00 Kennedy only offers crackpot theories & totally unfit for office 32:00 We can’t trust the government to tell us the truth about anything 32:30 DOJ fired antitrust chief, powerful interests get what they want 34:00 Epstein isn’t just a scandal, it’s a mirror 43:30 Gene Sperling joins the Chuck Toddcast 45:30 The wild story of how Gene ended up in Santa Monica 46:45 Aaron Sorkin couldn’t meet with Gene due to legal trouble 49:45 Real politics/news look nothing like “West Wing” or “The Newsroom” 51:00 The one truism about the West Wing is good people trying to do good 52:45 Politics is NOT like House of Cards 54:15 West Wing still remains viable, any chance of a reboot? 55:30 What’s the state of the economy? What do you look for? 56:15 Biden economy was strong growth, but high inflation 57:00 Biden achieved the “soft landing” they were trying for 58:15 Inflation was global and mostly due to Covid supply chain shocks 59:45 The American Rescue Plan had many positive effects 1:00:45 Every head of state poured money into economies during Covid 1:01:45 Covid was going to result in either inflation or recession 1:03:30 Obama couldn’t pass enough stimulus during Great Recession 1:04:30 A little extra stimulus can help offset future unknowns 1:05:15 Millennials’ future was permanently damaged by Great Recession 1:06:30 A generation had never seen high inflation until Covid 1:07:30 Anger over inflation sunk Biden’s re-election 1:08:30 Inflation is bipartisan, took down 3 different presidents 1:09:30 Inflation affects everyone, jobs & unemployment don’t 1:10:45 Every head of state suffered politically post pandemic 1:12:45 Will Biden baggage sink Pete Buttigieg, or is that overstated? 1:14:30 Biden’s conflict was empathy for suffering vs touting achievements 1:16:45 Biden had the tiniest of margins to pass major legislation 1:18:00 Gene is unlikely to work in a future Democratic administration 1:18:45 Pitchforks are being sharpened for corporations and big tech 1:19:30 Will worker rage fuel the next election? 1:20:30 Presidents that do well offer optimism, but confront economic injustice 1:22:00 People don’t want to feel like they are being extracted for profits 1:24:00 AI growth can’t come at the expense of working people 1:25:30 AI policy should be shaped around improving conditions for people 1:26:45 What lessons from globalization can be used to alleviate AI disruption? 1:28:30 Clinton believed in robust response to globalization 1:29:30 Clinton couldn’t implement strong safety net after losing congress 1:31:15 You have to have policies where people don’t feel left behind 1:33:00 We need to create and fund jobs that create dignity 1:33:45 We need to create an economic dignity floor for all Americans 1:35:45 When is a company too big to regulate? 1:38:00 If companies are disproportionately determining policies, they’re too big 1:38:45 Crypto & AI are getting what they want from huge lobbying money 1:39:30 A handful of AI companies could determine structure of the economy 1:41:45 The Trump White House has invited corporate influence 1:49:45 What if Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie ran on “accountability” ticket 1:51:00 A bipartisan ticket of “pox on both their houses” could be powerful 1:51:45 ToddCast Time Machine February 21st, 1848 1:52:00 Marx & Engels publish the communist manifesto 1:52:45 Monarchies were colliding with modern economic forces 1:54:15 Marx argued that capitalism is destabilizing if left unchecked 1:55:15 If the manifesto was called something else, how would we view it? 1:55:45 Marx doesn’t argue reform, says that capitalism will destroy itself 1:56:30 Communist states didn’t emerge until decades after manifesto 1:57:15 Manifesto gave dictators arguments to grab power 1:58:00 Marx talked in economics, dictators exploited his language 1:59:30 Communism took hold in places where industrialization fell behind 2:00:15 Manifesto gets invoked badly by both sides in American politics 2:01:00 Marx’s diagnosis was spot on, his solutions were questionable 2:02:30 Lack of regulation for AI will push people to radicalism 2:03:00 Ask Chuck 2:03:15 Does something seem off with the administration’s economic numbers? 2:07:30 Do we need a punchier title than “Gate” for political scandals? 2:10:00 Do we need to withhold congressional salaries during shutdowns? 2:14:00 Missing intellectuals like Rahm Emmanuel leading the country 2:16:00 What is the criteria for impeachment of cabinet members? 2:18:45 Favorite football/baseball players as a kid?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Todd takes a hard look at the state of American governance and institutional trust — or the lack of it. He starts by reflecting on the historical significance of three consecutive one-term presidents, ranking his top five most underrated commanders-in-chief and arguing that both Biden and Trump are unlikely to be viewed as consequential a century from now. From there, Todd pivots to a searing indictment of the current moment: from the Epstein reckoning exposing the government's inability to tell the truth, to DHS being treated as a political plaything by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, to the DOD endangering lives in the El Paso FAA incident with zero accountability, to Moderna alleging that HHS refused to even review an mRNA flu vaccine under RFK Jr.'s watch. He connects the dots across a pattern of institutional dishonesty — a Justice Department focused on narrative management, masked ICE agents no one can justify, a fired antitrust chief clearing the way for powerful interests, and a "hostage system" style of governing that holds federal paychecks as leverage — making the case that when the government lies this often, it forfeits the benefit of the doubt on everything, and that the Epstein scandal isn't just a story about one man, but a mirror reflecting a system designed to protect the powerful. Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit the publishing of the Communist Manifesto and argues that while its critiques of the excesses of capitalism were correct… it’s revolutionary prescriptions led to the worst authoritarian states in modern history. He also answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment. Get your wardrobe sorted and your gift list handled with Quince. Don't wait! Go to https://Quince.com/CHUCK for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Thank you Wildgrain for sponsoring. Visit http://wildgrain.com/TODDCAST and use the code "TODDCAST" at checkout to receive $30 off your first box PLUS free Croissants for life! Link in bio or go to https://getsoul.com & enter code TODDCAST for 30% off your first order. Timeline: (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction 02:30 We’ve had 3 straight one term presidents, deem them all failures 03:45 Inability to win reelection will always be seen as an asterisk 04:45 Top 5 most underrated presidents 05:00 James Polk was the only voluntary one term president 05:45 James Garfield was a fierce advocate for civil rights 06:30 George H.W. Bush was accomplished, but not a good politician 07:30 John Quincy Adams laid out modern American infrastructure 08:00 Jimmy Carter did many things that have aged well 09:15 In 100 years, Biden & Trump likely won’t be viewed as consequential 10:45 Biden & Trump can’t be evaluated fairly for many years 11:30 What does a real reckoning look like in the Trump era? 12:45 The institution least capable of reckoning with Epstein is the government 13:15 The private sector is forcing accountability, the government isn’t 14:15 Trust is the currency of government, and Trump’s doesn’t have it 15:15 The Justice Department is only worried about narrative management 16:30 The system looks like a club, designed to protect the powerful 17:45 Epstein is a test of whether the government can tell the truth 19:00 DHS shutting down, politicians using paychecks as leverage 19:30 We a governing via a “hostage system” 20:45 There isn’t a single good argument for masking ICE agents 21:15 The Democrats’ demands are not extreme, they’re common sense 22:15 Noem & Lewandowski treating DHS like their personal plaything 23:00 Pattern of government saying one thing, facts saying another 24:15 Whatever Noem says first, you can’t believe it. She gaslights the public 25:00 The government has lied too many times, gets no benefit of the doubt 25:45 El Paso FAA incident is case study for public distrusting institutions 26:45 DoD was lying to the FAA, FAA pulled the emergency brakes 28:00 DoD put lives in danger with no accountability 28:30 Moderna says HHS refused to review MRNA flu vaccine 29:15 The U.S. is not a stable country to develop & release products 30:00 Kennedy only offers crackpot theories & totally unfit for office 31:00 We can’t trust the government to tell us the truth about anything 31:30 DOJ fired antitrust chief, powerful interests get what they want 33:00 Epstein isn’t just a scandal, it’s a mirror 42:15 What if Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie ran on “accountability” ticket 43:30 A bipartisan ticket of “pox on both their houses” could be powerful 44:15 ToddCast Time Machine February 21st, 1848 44:30 Marx & Engels publish the communist manifesto 45:15 Monarchies were colliding with modern economic forces 46:45 Marx argued that capitalism is destabilizing if left unchecked 47:45 If the manifesto was called something else, how would we view it? 48:15 Marx doesn’t argue reform, says that capitalism will destroy itself 49:00 Communist states didn’t emerge until decades after manifesto 49:45 Manifesto gave dictators arguments to grab power 50:30 Marx talked in economics, dictators exploited his language 52:00 Communism took hold in places where industrialization fell behind 52:45 Manifesto gets invoked badly by both sides in American politics 53:30 Marx’s diagnosis was spot on, his solutions were questionable 55:00 Lack of regulation for AI will push people to radicalism 55:30 Ask Chuck 55:45 Does something seem off with the administration’s economic numbers? 1:00:00 Do we need a punchier title than “Gate” for political scandals? 1:02:30 Do we need to withhold congressional salaries during shutdowns? 1:06:30 Missing intellectuals like Rahm Emmanuel leading the country 1:08:30 What is the criteria for impeachment of cabinet members? 1:11:15 Favorite football/baseball players as a kid?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 143 As normal people who value ideological and logical consistency, we tend to find movements like the Red-Green Alliance (Communists and Islamists) and "Queers for Palestine" confusing. How can people with such different views and goals work together? Obviously, part of the answer is the simple one: they have a common enemy to defeat and can work out their differences after they solve that problem. Nevertheless, the answer to this question, at least from the Communist side, is written explicitly as a command on the last page of the Communist Manifesto. Communists will always take the side of any movement against the existing order of things, simple as that. Host James Lindsay explains this to you in this important episode of New Discourses Bullets. You don't want to miss it. Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Communist

The simplistic binary thinking of the Republican partisan - "Everyone who disagrees with Trump is a leftist/communist!" Ironically, the GOP is running the 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto on a daily basis. And Trump is leading them even further LEFT. And our newest "economist", Dr. Oz, says "More work for the collective, tax slave!" Rubio, the Neo-Con darling of MAGA, cares deeply for the Iranian people! Not so much about Americans.    

MAO'S XENOPHOBIC REVOLUTION AND THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD Colleague Professor Sean McMeekin. Moving to China, McMeekin explains that Mao Zedong's ideology was a "bizarre melange" of Marxism, class envy, and intense xenophobia. Unlike European communists, Chinese communism was driven by a deep resentment of foreign imperialism. The conversation analyzes the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward, where Maoattempted to surpass British economic output by collectivizing agriculture and creating "industrial armies"—an idea taken directly from the Communist Manifesto and Stalin's Five-Year Plans. This experiment resulted in the death of 40 to 45 million people. McMeekin notes that Mao ignored warnings from Soviet advisors to avoid their past mistakes, driven instead by a competitive desire to outdo the Soviets and a "fantasmagorical" hatred of foreign influence. NUMBER 5

When Karl Marx unleashed his manifesto on the world it went largely unnoticed. Even countries with strict book laws let it pass because it was seen as absurd and something no one would read or be interested in.  Who was Karl Marx? Why did only a hand full of people show up at his funeral? Was Karl Marx a genius or a madman with the fever dream of the ultimate slacker?Email us at: downtherh@protonmail.com

When Karl Marx unleashed his "manifesto" on the world it went largely unnoticed. Even countries with strict book laws let it pass because it was seen as absurd and something no one would read or be interested in.Who was Karl Marx? Why did only a hand full of people show up at his funeral?Was Karl Marx a genius or a madman with the fever dream of the ultimate slacker?Email us at: downtherh@protonmail.com

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto. This episode examines the Marxist critique of other forms of Socialism articulated in the third part of the Communist manifesto, as well as the Marxist argument that only their program can adequately address the condition of the Proletariat To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto. This episode examines what Marx and Engels envision the role of the Communist Party to be in relation to leadership of, and the development of class consciousness in, the Proletariat. They also address some of the objections made against the Communist program, and set out what their particular goals are. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto. This episode examines Marx and Engel's description of the formation and emergence of the revolutionary class in industrial capitalism, the Proletariat To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 19th century philosophers and social theorists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, articulated in their work The Communist Manifesto. This episode examines Marx and Engel's conception of class struggle and history in the Communist Manifesto, particularly the rise of the bourgeoisie from a minor class in earlier historical periods to the dominant class in the modern industrial period. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can find the Communist Manifesto free online here https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

“I've been fighting communism by teaching capitalism,” says Robert Kiyosaki, holding up a copy of Karl Marx's “Communist Manifesto” and a copy of his book “The Capitalist Manifesto.”Robert Kiyosaki became famous as the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” a book that has sold 48 million copies worldwide since its 1997 publication.Kiyosaki maintains that in today's America, plagued by high inflation and a crumbling dollar, rich dads are getting ever richer while poor dads are getting poorer:“Food gets up in price, but the poor and middle class have to pay for it. So my apartment houses go up, but the poor middle class go homeless. And that's the seed of communism, that's the seed of revolt,” he says.In this episode, we dive into what he sees as the roots of America's economic woes and what young people can do in today's economy to build wealth and prosperity.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

This week on Crack the Book, we dive into a fascinating mix of political and philosophical texts from Ted Gioia's Immersive Humanities List: the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Communist Manifesto, and Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women.I revisit the Declaration with fresh eyes—its sharp list of grievances and its insistence on mutual respect still sparkle with clarity. The Constitution, shorter than I expected, impressed me with how firmly it centers the individual while still designing a workable government.From there we move to Marx and Engels, whose Manifesto frames history as a struggle between classes and calls for radical redistribution of power. Finally, I explore Wollstonecraft's early feminist argument for women's education and its importance for society's progress.Next week: a palate-cleansing turn to Jane Austen. Join me!LINKTed Gioia/The Honest Broker's 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)The Preamble, in case you need a refresher!CONNECTThe complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2rTo read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com.Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTENSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bdApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

“. . . who, remembering that these (policies of high taxation and centralisation of credit) were the demands of the Manifesto (issued by Marx and Engels in 1848), can doubt our common inspiration.” -Professor Harold Laski, famous Fabian Socialist theoretician in his Appreciation of the Communist Manifesto for the Labour Party (1948)Communist Canada New World Order (Pierre Elliott Trudeau) February 22, 1977Fabian Socialist Penetration in OttawaTHE FABIAN SOCIALIST CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNIST ADVANCE BY ERIC D. BUTLE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dwtruthwarrior.substack.com/subscribe

Harriet Langley-Swindon and Producer Martin speak to Chancellor Rachel Reeves about the similarities between this week's budget and the Communist Manifesto; Producer Martin goes undercover to expose two members of the House Of Lords who are willing to lobby - and more - for cash; Eshaan Akbar asks if Marjorie Taylor Green... is Woke?Thanks to Jon Blyth for singing up to our Patreon this week. He, like all our Patreons, will also hear an interview with a man who suffers from Replytis, a devastating condition that prevents you from shutting up online - but you can only hear that by going to Patreon.com/NonCensored and signing up for just £4/£8 month. You'd also get every episode early and without adverts, access to the full video of the interviews and podcasts, as well as bonus segments.All the cool kids are filling in this survey: http://bit.ly/noncensored-survey. You don't want to be an uncool kid, do you?With thanks to Rosie Holt, Brendan Murphy, Eshaan Akbar, Davina Bentley, Larry & Paul, Cody Dahler and Ed Morrish.Rosie's book, Why We Were Right, is available now.Brendan is currently on tour with his show, Buffy ReVamped.Eshaan has an hour-long special, The Pretender, available to watch on YouTube.Davina does sketches on Instagram, and is doing a work-in-progress at the Bill Murray in January, in a double bill with Rosie.Larry & Paul put their best work on their YouTube channel, these days.Ed also produces Sound Heap With John-Luke Roberts, another improvised sketch comedy podcast. Show photography is by Karla Gowlett and design is by Chris Barker. Original music is by Paddy Gervers and Rob Sell at Torch and Compass.NonCensored is a Lead Mojo production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HEADLINE: Mao Zedong, Xenophobia, and the Failure of the Great Leap Forward GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Mao Zedong blended Marxism with fierce anti-imperialism and xenophobia, targeting the "global imperialistic system" and foreign influence. The Great Leap Forward combined elements from The Communist Manifesto, Stalin's collectivization, and competition with Khrushchev. This disastrous experiment, aiming to surpass Britain, led to chaos, famine, and the deaths of 40 to 45 million people.

"Capitalism, then, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary." - Austrian Economist Joseph Schumpeter (1950) The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was recently awarded to Joel Mokyr, an economic historian at Northwestern University, Philippe Aghion, who is affiliated with universities in France and the U.K., and Peter Howitt, a professor of economics at Brown University. Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt worked together for decades to develop and publish a model that makes it possible to better understand business growth - but not just any growth. The growth fueled by Creative Destruction. Creative Destruction was first described by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942 in response to ideas from Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. In fact, Marx thought, and Schumpeter agreed, that it would lead to the end of capitalism… they just didn't agree on why. In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers: What Creative Destruction is, and why it is no ordinary form of growth How the idea is connected to the potential end of capitalism Why it is so fascinating that this idea is being highlighted at this moment in time, with the rise of AI right before us. Links: Kelly Barner on LinkedIn Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter Art of Supply on AOP Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Communism isn't just another economic theory—it's a calculated strategy to destroy traditional institutions and seize absolute power. Matt Shea and his Gen Z co-host expose the Communist Manifesto's explicit calls for abolishing family, religion, and national identity while highlighting how these destructive ideas are infiltrating modern society through seemingly progressive movements. ____________ VERITY METALS Convert your 401k or IRA into physical gold to protect your retirement from a volatile stock market and inflation. Your gold can be safely stored at a location of your choice, including your own business. https://converttogold.com ____________ FOLLOW US X: https://x.com/RepMattShea Telegram: https://t.me/patriotradious Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/patriotradious Podcast: https://mattshea.podbean.com #live #patriotradious #news #truth #america

New Sode Glitter Ledger; I must be the only person on God's Green Earth who is so deeply unimpressed with AI. Have you ever heard one of your peers or staff speak with authority on the topic without sounding like a complete pompous asshole with small anatomy and/or a  troubling complexion? Alas, I consider myself a deeply attractive pompous asshole with a kind stalker-like disposition . As such, I use ChatGPT like rest of my well bred waspy goldigging alcoholic materialistic sxually starved intellectuals for concoctions on how to seduce a Sheik or for how to leverage all of my alimony into a House in St St. Tropez. Otherwise, I see the AI use cases as a Communist Manifesto; good idea in practice, but everyone ends up #poor.  Perhaps automated workflows are uninteresting to yours truly because I have no workflow to automate. Ipso Facto; wake me when #AI can give my husband a uknowwhat and design a powerpoint that designs a plan to launder money for the lazy. I digress,, my guest today is a real Crypto Nigerian Prince, side ordered as a well dressed Zoologist turned Ava Labs Executive. Not to be confused with an Avalanche Foundation executive. Yes, Afeez Awowole. He is a sought after guest and heavily edited my questions because most were too personal and likely  indictable.  I was looking forward to learning how to cook the books beyond throwing my journals into boiling water. I asked him why #accounting is so boring. I asked how to talk about balance sheets with a hint of mortifying sexual tension. When I was high on quaaludes I took out a mortgage that I made on crayons to buy more #AVAX and could only eat chickpeas and prosecco for 3 weeks. ButI lost a stone so I am bullish. Furthermore, my ex had a penchant for the P-chain.#Avalanche is the less cute stepsister of #Solana with an Ivy League degree and a #vicodin problem. She has what it takes to succeed with meaningful useless institutional partnerships for real world assets that I cannot melt down into a bullet. Real world assets should not be on-chain and should be in a #vault. Although I have some assets onchain I lost them because it is too goddamn complicated to retrieve. But like #Jesus Christ rising on Easter, Avax too will rise. I digress, Awkle met during the early days of Facebook in Ireland, I was working as a cocktail waitress on the lam and he helped set up a sick album. I was desperately in love with him but he maintained that he couldn't marry a married woman . Instead he agreed to help me put my ConED on autopay and teach me the zoology of #Ocelots. He is deeply intelligent to the point of sinister intrigue. His accent is a country club pour of Miles Davis meets Michael Saylor meets Liam Neeson. If this Nigerian Prince says Avalanche will change the world then it's indeed time to take out a third mortgage in Cray Paux right in time for Halloween. #GlitterLedger #Avax #AutomateMyPChainSupport the show

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 180 After a long wait, we return to finish our exploration (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/07/the-communist-manifesto-volume-one/) of The Communist Manifesto (pdf: https://newdiscourses.com/2025/07/the-communist-manifesto-volume-one/) here on the New Discourses Podcast. In this episode, host James Lindsay takes you through the last chapter of the Manifesto itself and then continues to "The Principles of Communism," which Friedrich Engels wrote, originally as a "Communist Confession of Faith" in 1847, a year before the Manifesto was published with Karl Marx. He and Marx wrote it for the Communist League, which is given as an offshoot of the League of the Just, a revolutionary secret society made up of scattered French radicals and the remnant-in-exile of the Bavarian Illuminati. Join James for this clear look into the foundations of organized Communism and the principles upon which it was organized. Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2025 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay

James Lindsay once exposed the woke left's insanity with a hoax. Now he's exposed part of the right for bashing liberty and even embracing Marxist ideas.To prove it, he sent a conservative magazine a revised version of "The Communist Manifesto." They published it! He calls them the “woke right" because they "behave like the tyrants of the woke left." In this podcast, Lindsay explains why they're a problem. We also discuss why capitalism is hated, and how normal people fall for dangerous ideas.

The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential and divisive works of political philosophy. Yet it almost seems quaint and harmless in a modern world of global Capitalist reach, and more rhetorical than scientific compared to the more systematic and explanatory Capital. Is Marx's theory of capitalist greed and social upheaval still relevant in a post Cold War world? Or is this a harmless historical phenomenon, relevant only in its time?Additional readings include: Bakunin's God and the State, Bernstein's Evolutionary Socialism, Sorel's Reflections on Violence, Chernyshevsky's What is to Be Done?, Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, and Morris' News from Nowhere. And while I suspect I should be able to find a better mechanical representation of political revolution in video game history, I'm stuck instead with Red Faction: Guerrilla, which is a smarter game then it first seems, but is still pretty dang dumb.If you would rather check out Professor Kozlowski's other online projects than immediately rise up against your oppressors (all you have to lose are your chains!), check out his website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠professorkozlowski.wordpress.com

Though various forms of Capitalism have existed since ancient times, Adam Smith in 1776, was the first to philosophize the concept of free markets. The Industrial Revolution gave Capitalism a massive boost but the exploitation of labor led Karl Marx to publish the Communist Manifesto in 1848 and Das Kapital in 1867.

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 170 It is long past time we take a look at the Communist Manifesto (instead of just sending it to dubious Woke Right outlets and getting them to publish it: https://newdiscourses.com/2024/12/a-communist-manifesto-for-christian-nationalists-testing-the-woke-right/). Obviously, this infamous document (pdf: https://www.marxists.org/admin/books/manifesto/Manifesto.pdf) is not the beginning point of Communism, but is the beginning point of organized Communism, particularly of the Marxist type, which we have recently (https://newdiscourses.com/2025/06/communism-is-not-atheist) and thoroughly discussed. In this long-overdue episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes you through the main body of the Manifesto of the Communist Party: preface, chapter one, and chapter two. In a subsequent episode (Volume Two in this mini-series) he will cover a later addition called "The Principles of Communism." There's a lot here, and you won't want to miss it. Latest book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2025 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #communism

When you're born into wealth, attend the best schools, and still manage to get kicked out of half of Europe, you might be Karl Marx, the bearded chaos merchant who thought capitalism sucked and spent most of his life borrowing rent money from his contemporary/co-writer/patron Friedrich Engels.In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, we take a cold, sobering plunge into the life of the man who gave us The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, inspired countless revolutions, and yet somehow couldn't hold down a job or manage a budget to save his life (or his children's lives, sadly). From his toxic academic ego to the world's slowest writing habits and a bizarre refusal to bathe, Marx was less a revolutionary hero and more “guy who ruins the pub chat by quoting Hegel.”Join us as we explore how a man with brilliant ideas and disastrous follow-through became one of the most influential (and, in many ways, idiotic) figures in modern history.⁠https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Artist: Sarah Chey⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Animation: Daniel Wilson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/wilson_the_wilson/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music: Andrew Wilson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrews_electric_sheep⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://streamyard.com/pal/d/4675161203933184⁠

Rogers for America with Lt. Steve Rogers – Some young people even think communism is not such a bad idea. President Trump has already sounded the alarm about what is occurring in New York City, and it is imperative that every American begin to sound the alarm about the clear and present danger of what is clearly an anti-American movement that can spread across America like never before in history...

Hi everyone! We are thrilled to announce that we will be performing live on August 7 at the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago.This is a one-time only event and tickets are limited! Get yours here:https://epiphanychi.com/events/whats-left-of-philosophy-live-show-karl-marxs-communist-manifesto/Among other things, we're planning to talk about the Communist Manifesto. The event will be filmed and released as a special episode.We're really excited about this – it's going to be a fantastic time, and we hope to see you there! Thanks for all your support.leftofphilosophy.comMusic: “Bubble” by Sun Cuts | https://get.slip.stream/3wxjrv/

Part 1 The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx SummaryThe Communist Manifesto: Summary Introduction: The Communist Manifesto, authored by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and published in 1848, serves as a political pamphlet that outlines the principles of communism and the authors' critique of capitalism. It is divided into four sections, each addressing different aspects of societal development, class struggles, and the concept of communism as a revolutionary response to pervasive inequality. Bourgeois and Proletarians: The manifesto begins by explaining the history of society as a history of class struggles. It delineates two primary classes: the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class who own the means of production) and the proletariat (the working class who sell their labor). The authors argue that the rise of the bourgeoisie during the industrial revolution has led to the oppression of the proletariat. They assert that the capitalist system is inherently exploitative, as the value generated by workers is appropriated by the capitalist class, resulting in vast profits for the bourgeoisie and impoverishment for the proletariat. Proletarians and Communists: In this section, Marx and Engels clarify the role of communists within the broader working-class movement. They emphasize that communists do not form a separate party but rather represent the interests of the proletariat as a whole. The manifesto asserts that communists aim to abolish private property, which they claim is the root of class division and exploitation. They advocate for the transformation of society through collective ownership of the means of production, establishing a classless society that prioritizes human needs over profit. Socialist and Communist Literature: Marx and Engels critique various contemporary socialist and communist literature, exposing their limitations and misconceptions. They criticize utopian socialism for being overly idealistic and lacking a practical political strategy. Instead, they call for a revolutionary approach to dismantle the capitalist system, arguing that the working class must unite to achieve their emancipation. Position of Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties: The final section addresses the political landscape of Europe at the time, discussing the various radical movements against the ruling class. Marx and Engels encourage the workers of the world to rally together in solidarity, emphasizing internationalism and the idea that workers of all nations have a common interest in overthrowing their oppressors. They conclude with a famous rallying cry: "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!" Conclusion: The Communist Manifesto is both a political document and a call to action. It articulates the grievances of the working class under capitalism, while advocating for revolutionary change. Marx and Engels' work has had a profound impact on political thought and movements across the globe, shaping the discourse on class struggle, socialism, and communism.Part 2 The Communist Manifesto AuthorKarl Marx, the German philosopher, economist, and political theorist, co-authored "The Communist Manifesto" with Friedrich Engels. This pivotal political document was first published in London on February 21, 1848. It lays out the principles of Communism and argues for class struggle as the engine of historical and social change. Other Notable Works by Karl Marx:Das Kapital (Capital: Critique of Political Economy) The first volume was published in 1867, and subsequent volumes were published posthumously by Friedrich Engels. "Das Kapital" is considered Marx's major work, in which he critiques the political economy and explores the nature of capitalism.The German Ideology (written in 1845-46, published posthumously in 1932) This work, co-authored...

J.D. Hayworth, former U.S. Congressman (R-AZ) and spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance (PRA), calls-in to the show to discuss his recent piece “Big pharma puts other countries first and America last. It’s time we change that” from The Washington Times. A listener call-in on reading the Communist Manifesto as a religious person.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Sep 27, 2023 In this crossover conversation, Jared from Millennials Are Killing Capitalism joins Breht to dive deep into Friedrich Engels' Principles of Communism—a crucial draft that laid the groundwork for the Communist Manifesto. Together, they unpack the text's key insights, from the historical development of class struggle to the revolutionary role of the proletariat. This episode explores Engels' clear, accessible articulation of communist principles, examines the dialectical materialist worldview that underpins the document, and connects these foundational ideas to today's struggles under late capitalism. Along the way, Jared and Breht reflect on the enduring relevance of Engels' thought, challenge liberal misreadings of Marxism, and offer a grounded, revolutionary take on what it means to fight for communism in the 21st century. Whether you're new to socialist theory or looking to revisit its roots, this episode provides both historical clarity and political urgency. ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio: https://revleftradio.com/ Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood  

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Mar 6, 2023 In this insightful episode, bestselling author and acclaimed literary critic China Miéville joins Breht to explore his newest book, "A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto." Together, they examine the enduring literary power and historical significance of Marx and Engels' groundbreaking text, unpacking its vibrant prose and revolutionary fervor. They also delve into the historical circumstances surrounding its creation and discuss its growing contemporary relevance amid today's global challenges. A must-listen for those interested in literature, history, and the ongoing relevance of radical political thought. ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio HERE

Patrick engages with a variety of fascinating topics, starting with his responses to listener emails, where he discusses the implications of Christian nationalism and the allure of communism, particularly among young students. Patrick addresses the false promises of communism and shines a light on the pervasive influence of media messaging, with a focus on historical context and current social media trends. The episode also features discussions on ideologies, media manipulation, and dynamics within the Church. Mary (Email) - Do you think The Communist Manifesto is appropriate for a 13-year-old to read? (00:40) Audio: KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov's warning to America (1984) (11:16) Audio: This is Dangerous to our Democracy (17:29) Audio: Brought to you by Pfizer (24:01) Greg - What is a good book about Confession? I bring Communion to nursing homes and one of the residents is a fallen away Catholic. (27:42) Carmen - I worked for mainstream media and left it about 4 months ago. It is funny because everything is scripted by the producer. We HAVE to follow the script. (36:32) Margaret – I disagree with you. I think the priest should have given her communion. Why does Biden get communion if women in nursing homes don’t get to receive Jesus? (42:59) Kim - If you have been annulled in the Catholic Church 4 times, can you be a Eucharistic minister? (49:02)

February 21, 1848. In London, a small publishing house releases the first edition of a book that will change the world: The Communist Manifesto.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 152 On December 3, 2024, James Lindsay revealed to the world that he had perpetrated a hoax (https://newdiscourses.co/2024/12/a-communist-manifesto-for-christian-nationalists-testing-the-woke-right/) against the nominally "Christian Nationalist" magazine American Reformer in which he had rewritten a significant portion of the Communist Manifesto to flatter their "Woke Right" ideology. In the ensuing days, the hoax has caused quite a stir on the conservative side of the internet, generating a completely unexpected response in which, in addition to deflecting from the hoax and bashing James, many ostensible conservatives launched into robust defenses of Marxist analysis, critical theory, and postmodernism. How good was the hoax, though, and what did it actually say? In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay reads through a rough side-by-side comparison text (https://newdiscourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CM-for-CN-Appendix-Docs.pdf) he prepared showing how close the hoax actually was so you can hear and decide for yourself. Join him and see if you agree that the hoax was good. New book! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/ Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2024 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Hoax

Vejas Liulevicius is a historian specializing in Germany and Eastern Europe, who has lectured extensively on Marxism and the rise, the reign, and the fall of Communism. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep444-sc See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. CONTACT LEX: Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: Vejas's Courses: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/vejas-gabriel-liulevicius Vejas's Books: https://amzn.to/4e3R1rz Vejas's Audible: https://adbl.co/4esRrHt SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drinks. Go to https://drinkag1.com/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex Notion: Note-taking and team collaboration. Go to https://notion.com/lex LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex Eight Sleep: Temp-controlled smart mattress. Go to https://eightsleep.com/lex OUTLINE: (00:00) - Introduction (08:48) - Marxism (36:33) - Anarchism (51:30) - The Communist Manifesto (1:00:29) - Communism in the Soviet Union (1:20:23) - Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin (1:30:11) - Stalin (1:37:26) - Holodomor (1:51:16) - The Great Terror (2:04:17) - Totalitarianism (2:15:19) - Response to Darryl Cooper (2:30:27) - Nazis vs Communists in Germany (2:36:50) - Mao (2:41:57) - Great Leap Forward (2:48:58) - China after Mao (2:54:30) - North Korea (2:58:34) - Communism in US (3:06:04) - Russia after Soviet Union (3:17:35) - Advice for Lex (3:25:17) - Book recommendations (3:28:16) - Advice for young people (3:35:08) - Hope PODCAST LINKS: - Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast - Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr - Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 - RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ - Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 - Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips SOCIAL LINKS: - X: https://x.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://instagram.com/lexfridman - TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://facebook.com/lexfridman - Patreon: https://patreon.com/lexfridman - Telegram: https://t.me/lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman