Family Fueds During These Politcal Times (FULL SHOW)

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Transcript

Family Fueds During These Politcal Times (FULL SHOW)

Dissecting Global Authoritarianism + Open Phones LA

Feb 24, 2025

Transcript

Ah, the road to tyranny isn’t paved with the footsteps of villains alone. No, it is smoothed and widened by the well-meaning, by the hopeful, by those who—through some twist of history, some whisper of propaganda—become the unwitting accomplices of their own oppression.

Take Germany, for instance. A nation battered, humiliated, and economically crippled after the First World War. Its people—intelligent, cultured, and deeply wounded—it wanted nothing more than dignity, prosperity, and security. And so, when a charismatic leader arrived, promising revival, strength, and unity… the promise to make Germany great again… they listened. Not because they were cruel, but because they believed in something better. They saw a man who spoke their grievances, who promised to shield them from the chaos of modernity, who swore that the enemy was not within, but without. And isn’t that a comforting thought? That one’s suffering isn’t one’s own doing, but the result of an external force—be it a group, a race, or a set of ideals that must be eliminated for the good of the people?

It never begins with atrocities. It begins with small concessions. A newspaper is shut down because it spreads "misinformation." A professor is dismissed because his ideas "weaken the moral fabric of society." A neighbor is arrested because, well, "he was always a bit suspicious, wasn’t he?" The well-meaning shrug, tell themselves these are necessary adjustments, temporary measures for the greater good. They believe it is their duty, their responsibility, to uphold the fabric of their civilization, even as the very hands they trust are unweaving it thread by thread.

But Germany isn’t the only story. The same melody plays throughout history, different instruments, same tune. The Soviet farmer, desperate for land reform, gives his loyalty to a system that will later take his land and leave him starving. The Chinese intellectual, dreaming of a fairer society, kneels before a revolution that will devour him for thinking too much. The Venezuelan worker, weary of corruption, cheers for a leader who promises justice but delivers ruin.

You see, authoritarianism rarely marches in with a snarl. It smiles. It reassures. It promises solutions. It presents itself as the logical choice, the only choice. And the well-meaning? They welcome it, convinced that their ideals—justice, order, security—are finally within reach. They don’t realize, until it is too late, that they have bartered their freedom for chains.

And perhaps the cruelest irony of all is that when the truth becomes too evident to ignore, when the atrocities mount, the brainwashing holds fast. The well-meaning become the defenders of their own undoing, too proud, too frightened, too invested to admit they were wrong. So they double down. They justify. They say, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but what choice do we have now?”

And that’s how the descent completes itself. Not with a single moment of surrender, but with a thousand small nods of agreement. Not with an iron fist crashing down overnight, but with a slow, suffocating embrace.

Yet, let’s not be naïve—some really don’t march blindly into the abyss. Some see exactly what is happening and welcome it.

For them, authoritarianism isn’t a tragic accident but a golden opportunity. They are the ones who hear the rhetoric of exclusion and smile, because it ensures that power remains in hands that look like theirs. They watch as the walls close in around the weak, the different, the inconvenient—and they breathe easier, knowing that the chaos of true equality will never touch them.

They are self-aware, these architects of oppression. They know these official speeches about a new “unity” are a lie, that the scapegoats of today will be the corpses of tomorrow.

FastClass: How authoritarianism takes root (in Spanish)

But they don’t care. They don’t need to believe in the ideology as long as it serves them. The demagogue gives them permission—not just to rule, but to indulge, to discriminate, to erase. And in return, they prop him up, protect him, and whisper in his ear what he already knows: That the illusion of order is best maintained when the privileged few get to write the rules and hoard the spoils.

And so, they toast to the suffering of others, justifying it as the natural order, the price of security, the reward of the “deserving.” Not misled, not brainwashed—just willing executioners of a world designed for them and them alone.

These are the completely invented red state-blue state divisions in a single country of United States. States that are disunited, even though they are federally-tethered. Families who can’t even visit together on holidays because stabbing each other would somehow be more delicious than the turkey. Yet, the same people watch the same shows on Netflix, eat the same Krispy Kreme doughnuts, drive on the same freeways. But when reminded that their own children are the enemy or that their cousins voted in a certain way, it is the union versus the Confederacy… with no actual reward for the emotional victor. Parents who love their children but who would actually blindly slaughter them with a carving knife if the right manufactured topic arose.

I speak of my own late father who would be exactly in that knife-wielding, self justifying blind rage to hold onto this self-assessed power that he was told was his and his alone. Many of us are disenfranchised from our own families in these recent times. With us is yet another daughter of parents who can turn like pitbulls at the silent ding of the propaganda bell. You can see the beautiful face of our next guest right now on YouTube at the Cary Harrison YouTube channel or go straight to kpfk.net

WITH ME IS ACTRESS Jordan Roberts, also a writer / producer… and political activist…. studied Journalism, Film and TV writing at UCLA, served on Women In Film’s Board of Directors among others and is a professional voice actor and is slated to star and produce two dramatic features (SECOND CHANCES & UNDENIABLE). And happens to be a daughter during these times when parents can often feel like foreign objects.