Chris Hedges Q&A "Fascism in the Age of Trump"
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- čas přidán 2. 12. 2017
- Journalist, author and war correspondent Chris Hedges took questions after speaking at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy NY on November 10, 2017 on fascism and empire in the age of Trump.
www.mediasanctuary.org
Chris Hedges is the best-selling author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2003), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. A quote from the book was used as the opening title quotation in the critically-acclaimed and Academy Award-winning 2009 film, The Hurt Locker. The quote reads: "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on Truthdig, has written twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), which he co-authored with the cartoonist Joe Sacco. Some of his other books include Unspeakable (2016), Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative to Revolt (2015), Death of the Liberal Class (2010), Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009), I Don’t Believe in Atheists (2008) and the best selling American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2008). In 2011, Nation Books published a collection of Hedges’ Truthdig columns called The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress. Hedges previously spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years. Hedges was part of the team of reporters at The New York Times awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. The Los Angeles Press Club honored Hedges’ original columns in Truthdig by naming the author the Online Journalist of the Year in 2009 and again in 2011. The LAPC also granted him the Best Online Column award in 2010 for his Truthdig essay “One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists.” Hedges is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and The University of Toronto. He currently teaches prisoners at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey.
Brilliant! Another great example of a honest human..
When Hedges speaks he has my undivided attention!!!!! This man is brilliant!!!!
Me too!
@LOCAL COPE Please enlighten me as I could look around. NPC sheep?
This man Hedges is some fraudulent brand of "woke" - a LEFTIST. The most deceptive kind. He wants you to believe there's no distinction between free-market capitalism and the croney capitalism that marxists infected the USA with. That way they've enlisted your help with their unelected 'world government' revolution - all the while calling you 'useful idiot'.
@@partridgefamilybus2021 This is the laziest copy-and-pasting I've seen in a while, all while being incredibly misguided. The idea that Marxists have brought about crony capitalism is very silly, as obviously the capitalist class have done that in their desire to amass wealth and power; there's no need to make up enemies, as they're right before your eyes. Also silly is the idea that Mr. Hedges, who is 1) not a Marxist himself, as you would learn from this Q&A if you had actually watched the video, and 2) has been denied many of the platforms he once had and is hardly holding the reigns of power over anyone, is somehow part of a ruling class. His message to common people is that they must fight back against the rapidly expanding encroachment of the wealthy and powerful on all we hold dear. Even if you for some baffling reason don't think that is a good and worthwhile message, try to approach the people who speak about these issues, and the people who want to hear them and engage in a dialogue about the problems we all, including you, face, with a little bit of good faith. Some of them, I'm sure, would be happy to have a respectful conversation with you about this content. I've responded with this to each instance I found of you copy-and-pasting this message.
I can’t believe I’m just now learning who he is. He’s absolutely amazing.
This is one man to whom I will listen.
No gods, no masters. No heros, no celebrities. But yeah, he has a lot of good ideas.
Always tell the truth! Sniffles aside.. Humanity is headed for a harsh awakening!!
Catcher 727
The vice of climate change is closing exponentially!
Love and compassion lives on. Mr. Chris Hedges is living proof.
My Dad was a WWII vet and one day as a child I asked him about the War. I'll never forget it.
He said, in a very serious tone, "The Germans LOST the war, but the Nazis WON."
Wow. Through the years did your father explain further how he knew that to be true?
Tremendous Sax, really!? Capitalism=Apartheid. Open your eyes! Look around.
I ALWAYS SAYS THAT IF HITLER WOULD OPEN HIS EYES FROM HIS TOMB, HE WOULD LOOK AROUND AND HE WOULD SAY, OH MY GOD, WE WIN!!!!
WE LIVE IN A NAZIFICATED WORLD, SOCIETY IS NAZI LIKE...SAD BUT TRUE, WE LIVE IN ORWELL´S 1984
Incredible foresight, almost genius.
Thank you for all the honesty you write an speak about!
I have been saying the same thing about Occupy. We will have to fight our asses off against the corporate state no matter how tired we get or things will get worse.... we haven't seen anything yet compared to what will come if we remain complacent.
Occupy was taken down by the state. Obama himself called in DHS.
+Carol Bronder occupy was taken down by itself they had critical mass and could have gotten something done but they turned it into a big bongo drum party and now they're trying to emulate their parents from the sixties mic check mic check who the fuck wants to hear that shit when you're out of protest they blew it for us and anyone that comes after us as far as protest or concerned good luck
Madd Man Not so. I was present the entire time. I saw what happened.
+Carol Bronder yeah so you got your badge your little Medal of Honor it says oh yeah I was there so so what so you were there what the fuc did you get done nothing except get the shit beat out of you by the cops who finally got tired of the block party of which set a precedent for the cops beating us willfully and to be able to shut down massive movements like occupy in a heartbeat tyranny thrives on the misdirected what say you
Ozark: You are so right. If we remain complacent, we will lose our democracy -- everyday we are losing our rights.
We should just cut through the fluff and elect Chris Hedges to high public office already, IF he'll have us.
also, another point, Public office was meant to be time serving your country, not a lifetime career. Politicians should serve one or two terms at best, to prevent corruption
I think you are a little behind the times. The system now IS corruption.
yes that is true :(
yeah but they have it so sweet they've got it set up really nice for themselves with automatic pay raises extra money for sudden on various committees Health Care subsidized by the people on and on and on we should be taking their paychecks and cutting their pay and stuff in half instead of them slicing into Social Security and Medicare Etc
federalreserve Brown Thats right!!! Malcolm X... Would've...Chould've...Sould've.. But never...
"On Power: Its Nature and the History of its Growth." By Bertrand de Jouvenel. I recommend you read it and learn it.
Used to think Chris Hedges was to doom and gloom. I know now He was right.
That was so good! Answered a number of questions I would have loved to ask. I am very keen on general strikes.
Thanks for a truth ...he is really brave and honest man . Salut!
Wisdom running rampant with true knowledge and grace. Mike Hill
Chris there is lots a lawyer they waiting for you to ask you believe me I see lots of good people in this world thank you Chris🌹👍✌️🇨🇦
Today is Feb 22 2020. Just today I was first introduced to Chris Hedges, and I am hooked. He us literally voicing what I have been voicing on line for a while now. Especially frightening is the violence inspired far right hatred being spewed in the commentary section of my subscrption to The Epoch Times. These people are truly sick and dangerous.
That was awesome Mr Hedges.
great speaker--should be on TV--amazing ideas
Chris Hedges America,s no 1 .reporter and human being
A man with a heart! Mr. Hedges and it is obvious and beautiful.
Have a “don’t buy anything Tuesday” day - fantastic - I’m doing that starting now.
It's a good start. Even better "Unless I absolutely need it, I won't buy it" It is amazing what you can do without and what you can use to make do.
His assessment of Bernie 2020 was spot on - ULTIMATELY A DEAD END
Is there anyone of the thread who is from Salt Lake City or Utah? It would be great to get together and discuss what Hedges is talking about and maybe we could do something -- start something -- you never know. Thanks.
I feel like a took a time machine back to the late 60s or early 70s to my university campus in Central America. Same discourse, different setting, Latin America. What he is talking about we learned ages ago from the perspective of the people actually living the reality of movements that tried to effect changes. Of people that were the butt of the "imperialistic" maneuvers and chess playing with our destinies. Where we actually put our lives in danger. Where we discovered that many of the left tendencies leaders that promised utopia were theoreticians living in their little world, where they pushed the students and people to expose and get beaten and killed in the hope of creating martyrs while they looked from afar. Don´t be deceived, US, the former USRR, England, France, Germany, and before that the Spanish empire, Ottoman Empire, the Romans, and so on ad infinitum back in time throughout the history of human kind, all have been imperialistic. The "great" cultures built over the shoulders of slaves. I as much as the next person, would like true change. Economic power and simply power is behind these puppet politicians. All aim for the same. It seems that people in the US have been dormant, un-involved, confident of the check and balances that should be tested and working now. Laughing at the Banana Republics which at this moment you probably do not realize is the manipulation our region lived through, from the main powers of the last more or less 300 years. I am a bit surprised of the naivette of so many intelectuals. The signals have been there, much longer that what you think. One of the things I agree with Mr. Hedges, do not think you had a saviour that lost in the elections or one before, there are so many things they were actually doing that were continuity to the status quo, they were the puppets at the time. Also, I agree anarchism is quite dangerous, and yes, groups become infiltrated. you go out and march peacefully but infiltrators want violence to justify response. Divide people, the opposite should be worked on. That he is right about.
Hedges is like Noam Chomsky but he speaks with soul instead of just logic.
This man is brilliant. Why does anything of his that is posted, get taken down? People have a right to listen to what they want.
I’m only 12 minutes in and I’m loving it
Thank you.
great questions here but some people just need to learn to ask questions and let Chris speak
*When Chris Hedges pointed out that FDR was NOT democratic-minded but rater was by nature and by birth an oligarch who wanted to protect and preserve capitalism ... it reminded me of a story that illustrates Chris Hedges' point about putting pressure on whomever is in power, whether it's Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.*
The story goes as follows ...
In the darkest days of the Depression a group of grassroots activists were given a few minutes to talk to FDR in the White House about a program they wanted him to support ... a program that would help the people most devastated by the Depression.
And FDR listened. And he listened. ...
And then finally he said, "Okay, now go out and force me to support your program."
Meaning -- organize!
Otherwise, the people who ARE organized, and have money as well, e.g., Corporate America -- the banks, the insurance companies, the oil companies, Big Pharma etc. -- they will force the political system to do THEIR bidding.
FDR put it in the same way Michael Corlieone put it -- "It's nothing personal. It's just business." And the political capital the democratic-many have, vis-a-vis the oligarchic-few, is their sheer numbers -- they dwarf in numbers the oligarchic-few -- but without being organized their power means nothing.
People like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Abby Martin, Robert Scheer, Tichard Wolff and Jill Stein distinguish themselves from many of the media-notables on the Left by, for one thing, above all, BEING SERIOUS! Unlike entertainers such as, say, Cenk Uygur and Jon Stewart, their goal is to not to entertain their audience but rather to seriously and systematically uncover ROOT CAUSES. ... And then not back off and, as in the case of Cenk Uygur say -- well, okay but we have to vote for the lesser of the two evils. Again. ... You want a simple answer, here it is. ... *Nothing matters other than what FDR said: "Now make me do it!" ... Or what Frederick Douglass said: "Power is not given, it must be taken."* ... And nonviolently. Otherwise the power of the democratic-many will immediately be demonized and suppressed by the people with the media, the police and the military in their corner.
Excellent point. Organize and keep the head cool. Keep out the hot heads. That is all I saw after the elections. It looked so bad and childish. Most are intellectuals, they need to start using their brains and stop the tantrums. Strategies, actions but focused and avoid confrontation. You lose energy. It is a long road.
thats a great idea ... when the last question was ask and the lady said why not hit them where it hurts ..i said to myself.. LETS HIT THE FOR CHRISTMAS .. DONT BUY MERCHANDISE GIVE MONEY INSTEAD TO UR FAMILY AND FRIENDS SO THEY CAN PAY OF DEBTS OR EXPENSES OR EVEN BUY FOOD ..WHO KNOWS... BUT IF WE DONT BUY MERCHANDISE THEY WILL THINK TWICE BEFORE BUYING THEIR SECOND YACHT !!!
An Italian: in childhood I've seen all my relatives cry for having fought Italian fascism just to be enslaved of an horrid nazilike empire (that pretends that their army actually fought any real battle here).
Excellent
Wow!
So true about Bernie at 31:00 a "dead end" wasted everyone's time and resources, for his friend Joe.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FAMILY, TELL YOUR FRIENDS, THOSE YOU GO TO SCHOOL WITH AND NEIGHBORS.TELL EVERYONE WITH EARS. WE HAVE NO TIME LEFT. 375000 VIEWS WE CAN START IT RIGHT NOW.THIS IS REAL!!!
great all you fine humans
More excellent Hedges leaving me inspired or maybe clarified if that's better and highly anxious if that's the right word. Couldn't disagree more with the fellow who says we should ignore eastern Europe as an example although they have embraced the far right recently. I'm just done with the resistance that prioritizes voices, concerns and perspectives. So I guess I'll respond by paying more attention to eastern Europe past and present. Unfortunately stasi east Germany is all too relevant.
Make humanity great again. Or maybe, make humanity great for once
God damn the number of people who want to give a speech instead of ask a question
I' an electrician, get a robot to make house calls. I'll be available to repair them, when it don't work.
so that makes it ok for others who lose their livelihood in the name of greed? the word is "doesn't" idiot
... the times we live in, shows that George Orwell was a huge optimist.
Questions not speeches! These guys all try to be their own mini-Hedges!
Peaceful ACTIVISIM....=....AMERICANS, WHO ARE PEACE KEEPERS /// DEFENDING RIGHTEOUSNESS!
REAL PATRIOTISM...IS OUR RIGHT TO BE....🦅....WHO... WE CHOOSE TO BE!
FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
We need some joy to counteract all the negativity.
59:45
Please read the book by Wilhelm Reich "The Mass Psychology of Fascism"
Hedges is right about the necessity of a movement. eg, list en to his comments re Bernie Sanders @ 30 min.s . Sanders is just another long term Senator, he isnt a saviour as so many of his supporters seem to believe. No politician or party is going to overcome oppression+fix this mess.
Soldiers in WWII weren't bigots because he saw black men beside him die, he saw the horrors of war. My father came back not a biot either. My mom said it was specifically because he saw many black men stand beside him who fought for this country, they were equals as soldiers.
What a powerful speaker - sad that most people won’t even hear this through the typical brainless BS they will see on TV
Keep your questions short please.
help me here, when and where was the last non-violent revolution?
Ghandi?
@@russellgentile4719 ... do not think so. At the end of WW II, Churchill was told to give up the empire, because there is a new sheriff in town, namely, the USA. It was coincidental for Ghandy to lead the revolution as you see it. Learning from history never stops.
@@cavejug3086 I agree that's probably the case. But you asked the question. Whether it happened incidentally or not it was not a violent revolution.
@@russellgentile4719 ... just to clear up something. It seems the ability for nuanced exchange escapes great many. Irony, sarcasm, methaphor is absent from considerations. I've tried to say, there is no such thing as a 'peaceful (bloodless) revolution. It is a misnoma.
Until we get rid of the R and D nothing will change. A carbon tax would be another nail in our pine box.
Criss has many great ideas, however, to get anywhere with them, the fundamental knowledge is essential. ... it is demonstratively obvious it is impossible because of the systematic destruction of education has been undertaken for decades and nowadays privatized, for the selected few.
*_Chris Hedges is a dreamer and he is already marginalized by the ruling class._*
Some of the critiques of Bernie aren't quite so valid in 2020. Otherwise, pretty good.
What about the party of Davos are they Democrats and Republicans
The example came from the Pope Francis. He lost patience, noticed that it was a small Chinese woman who pulled his hand so he smacked her and yelled at her . It seems that losing patience excuses violence even in the pope.
Showdow Stats say uninployment is 22%
Brothers and Sisters: The culture in the United State is a culture of extreme competition and you either make it in the States and become a hero in the eyes of people, and we all know how glorified rich people are especially those who had to make it from zero, or you don't make it and struggle or become poor and in that case you are labelled as a looser and a failure. A lot of times people become rich because they manipulate, lie, back stabb, etc etc and they don't necessarily become rich because of their hard work. Capitalism promotes getting filthy rich no matter how, just get rich. There is no place for goodness, kind heartedness and honesty in a Capitalist state. Moreover and because those who don't make it are scorned, criticized and labelled as failures and loosers, few are willing to step forward and question the system or challenge it. People feel ashamed and hide if they don't make and the blame is always on you for not being able to make it, when others did. It is a vicious cycle that will only end in a few becoming filthy rich and the rest of the population struggling and I believe when things get so bad, only then people will revolt. You need a huge number of people struggling with poverty for a revolution to happen. Capitalism was compared to the game of musical chair, SIX will go around in a circle around FIVE chairs and someone will always be left out and when the numberr of people left out becomes huge, then and like i said earlier people will revolt. It is not your fault it is the system that is exploiting people.
I really like Chris Hedges, but I have never been able to make the connection between Trump and Fascism. Trump may be a lot of things we find despicable, but he was not a dictator nor authoritarian. Other tenants of Fascism such as centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests of the nation and race seem to be more in tune with who Biden is.
Now I know where Andrew Yang found his calling.
The gold fringe on American flags... means ADMIRALTY LAW... not CONSTITUTIONAL LAW... Google it...........
At around 25:40, When talking about how capitalists use different means to produce using cheap labor/automation. Chris neglects to mention INSOURCING. I.E.- utilizing vast prison populations in order to produce cheap goods to turn a higher profit. Companies such as Whole Foods, AT&T, Victoria's Secret, Target etc utilisee prison populations as a source of cheap labor.
Is Troy a progressive town ?
Write In CHRIS HEDGES FOR PRESIDENT 2020.
How do you feel about Bernie now Chris he's got a movement behind them he's going to be president
I feel very disappointed in Bernie Sanders I'm voting independent and writing in Ralph Nader
We need to organize BOYCOTTING because it works ! ! !
Chris Hedge is a talented writer and a strong orator but he calls it the way he sees it, not necessarily the way it is. I respectfully disagree with many of his starting points and conclusions.
I was thumbs up that made 666 lmao
Polar ice caps, BWAHAHAHA
WHAT ABOUT 3 BILLION OR MORE AMERIKA GIVE TO IZRAEL WHY????????????????????????????
damn, I wish folks would keep the Q in the Q&A's.... rather than flopping a t-shirt version of their own crap on the floor first.
presidents should be elected 2 years at a time, 4 or 8 years is far too long of a term D:
Congress men should be 2 years
That is where the trouble lies. They are all bought and paid for
58:12
I was so into this, until he started his respectability bs around 51:00
37:09
It does not say, two words about democracy... no where does it say anything...in the US CONSTITUTION... NOT TWO WORDS........ read it.........
And he worried about Trump 4 years ago?? Wonder what Chris thinks now, 4 years later.
The ' so called ' danger of Trump pales, and reduces itself to nothing when compared to what has followed.
Trump shook up the establishment, now you are back with that wonderful establishment. Oh, joy!
nothing to learn here
Well Bernie is running 2020 and their is no one But Bernie... (So i'm right to feel we are doomed)
people together en mass with energy & might/ change, just as them took the reins.
It's been predicted: " there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the world's beginning . . .in fact, unless those days work were cut short, no flesh would survive; . . . those days will be cut short. " -Matt. 24:22.
Mr Hedges can you tell me if what the Bible calls God haters are people who try to legitimize evil?
Robert Caraher
Religions poisons everything - Christopher Hitchens
Religions were the first attempt of humanity to explain natural phenomena but it’s time has passed for the vice of climate change is closing exponentially!
2nd questioner, get to fucking point.
Hedges sounds reasonable until the cognitive dissonance kicks in manifested in his Trump hysteria.
It never fails, and it's never supported with logic and reason. Just another True Believer.
is still trump dangerous:)
I am still amazed that people respect Bernie Sanders after he supported Hillary.
the anti-capitalism bothers me when he offers no solutions especially how to get out of poverty when the viewer is factually poor.
I don't think much of Ralph Nader, if he wasn't so damn liberal
gatekeeper.
poor little me 35:24 you're doomed with this shit
I'm sorry
Chris, You're an unusually bright guy. But you show here you don't understand the most fundamental electoral structure of the USA. You know well that when this country was established, political parties did not yet exist and were not foreseen as more than there rational fear of fragmentation and partisanship. In a Presidential system as created here as opposed to a Parliamentarian system, votes don't count unless you get more than 49% of the vote. Parliamentarians of course get a huge representation and in our system they get none. The math is simple. While I love Ralph Nader, in this dysfunctional version of democracy, third parties have no role until the GOP or DNC COMPLETELY disintegrates. Sad but true. Bernie was never afraid of being isolated. He just understood what you apparently have not yet processed. In the dysfunctional politics in which we live, there is no elected NATIONAL political position available except taking on this or that Corporate Run political party. All Bernie was doing and is doing is attempting to take on the lesser of two evils -- without illusion -- he says electing him will accomplish nothing unless it is accompanied by a "political revolution" in the sense of developing a coherent voice for common people rather than sucking up to the corporate structure monetarily owning government world wide. I agree with your Calvin interpretation of man. Yet the avenues through which one may authentically rebel in Camus' sense is not pursued along one track. Bernie's effort deserves respect, even if it too will fail.
Chris "Droopy" Hedges.....
More sociopathic pseudo-intellectual bs masquerading as rational thought I see.
An hour and a half of muh socialism muh free stuff. Jfl at the plebs eating this shit up
"free stuff". . . like Corporate welfare? Not paying taxes in spite of millions or billions in profits? Of course you Welfare Queen Righties love that stuff. Go pick up your XXXL Klan robe from the cleaners.
Boring stuff.
Always tell the truth! Sniffles aside.. Humanity is headed for a harsh awakening!!