Can we ever really know Primo Levi [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi]? We know his books, of course, especially If This Is A Man [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Is_a_Man], the astonishing account of his survival from Auschwitz. But what, then, of his apparent suicide in 1987? How can a man who miraculously survived Auschwitz take his own life forty years later? That’s one of the questions that Joseph Olshan [https://josepholshan.com/] asks in Milo’s Reckoning [https://greencitybooks.com/onesheet/milos-reckoning/], a new novel about Levi, suicide and our own unknowability. Olshan, himself deeply affected by Primo Levi's death when he first heard the news during a newspaper interview in Italy, explores the profound mystery of human nature and the limits of what we can truly understand about others, even those, like Levi, whose experiences have been supposedly laid bare in their autobiographical work.

5 takeaways

1. Suicide is often impulsive, not premeditated Most suicides happen in the spur of the moment when people "snap" under pressure, rather than being carefully planned decisions. The majority don't even leave notes, contrary to popular belief.

2. Personal trauma shaped Olshan's literary obsessions Olshan's lifelong fascination with suicide stems from witnessing a child's drowning at age six, followed by the suicides of an influential college professor and his aunt - experiences that ultimately inspired Milo's Reckoning.

3. We can never fully know another person Even when someone writes intimately about their experiences, as Levi did about Auschwitz, we still can't truly understand their inner life or predict their future actions - hence the shock of Levi's apparent suicide.

4. Language barriers limit authentic cultural understanding Olshan argues that American writers who spend brief periods abroad without knowing the local language cannot authentically capture those cultures, emphasizing the importance of linguistic fluency for true cultural insight.

5. Too much self-knowledge may be dangerous Olshan suggests that suicide might result from excessive self-awareness - people who contemplate life's inequities and their own perceived deficiencies too deeply may become overwhelmed by the world's suffering and their place in it.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe [https://keenon.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Tragic Paradox of Survival in Auschwitz: The Mystery of Primo Levi

Yesterday, The Talking Heads [https://keenon.substack.com/p/burning-down-the-house-do-the-talking], today, Dylan. The Great Man’s Jewish identity has long been overshadowed by his pantheistic status as American prophet. So when, for example, at the beginning of his biopic “A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Unknown] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_UnknownComplete Unknown [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Unknown]”, Dylan arrives in Greenwich Village, he is presented as having no history, like a biblical prophet wandering out of the desert. But the London-based historian Harry Freedman argues against this tabula rasa version. In Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil [https://www.harryfreedmanbooks.com/blog/book/bob-dylan-jewish-roots-american-soil/], Freedman suggests that Dylan's upbringing in a committed Jewish family in Hibbing, Minnesota—complete with B'nai B'rith leadership and summer camps—profoundly influenced his artistic vision and social consciousness. From his early protest songs to his recent embrace of Chabad fundraising, Freedman argues his Jewish heritage makes him equally Zimmerman and Dylan, a Known Unknown.

five takeaways

* Dylan's Jewish upbringing was deeply embedded - Far from superficial, his family life included his father as B'nai B'rith president, mother active in Hadassah, Jewish summer camps, and a 500-person Bar Mitzvah in a town with only 280 Jews.

* Early career involved deliberate identity concealment - Dylan spent his first 3-4 years creating elaborate backstories about circus and carnival origins to hide his middle-class Jewish background, likely due to antisemitism and desire to fit folk music's authenticity narrative.

* Jewish cultural values shaped his protest period - Freedman argues Dylan's focus on social justice and civil rights emerged from growing up in an environment emphasizing welfare and human rights, typical of Jewish immigrant communities.

* His genius lay in lyrics, not initial musicianship - Dylan's early success stemmed from extraordinary wordplay and poetic ability rather than musical skill, making him fundamentally a poet who set words to music.

* Late-career Jewish reconnection - After his Christian period in the 1980s, Dylan has become increasingly involved with Jewish causes, particularly Chabad fundraising, suggesting his roots remained significant throughout his life.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe [https://keenon.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

A Known Unknown: Harry Freedman on Bob Dylan's Jewish Roots

Do The Talking Heads, the quinessential art school band of the East Village scene of the 1970’s, still matter? Very much so. At least according to the band’s biographer, Jonathan Gould [https://www.jonathangouldauthor.com/], who believes that The Talking Heads remain "the archetype of what we now think of as the alternative rock group" - a band prioritizing aesthetic evolution over commercial success. Born from New York's affordable cultural moment when rent cost $275 and abandoned industrial spaces fostered creativity, Talking Heads, Gould argues in Burning the House Down [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/burning-down-the-house-jonathan-gould?variant=43110379356194], emerged as agnostic questioners of rock conventions. They rejected "rock hair, rock lights, and singing like a black man," creating minimalist performances under stark white lighting. Their 1984 film "Stop Making Sense" appears utterly modern today, Gould says, suggesting their systematic deconstruction of musical expectations continues influencing artists four decades later.

Five Key Takeaways

1. The Agnostic Approach Talking Heads were "agnostic about everything" - not just religion, but romantic love, rock conventions, and musical preconceptions. This systematic questioning of accepted norms became their defining creative principle.

2. Class and Ambition Shaped Their Art Unlike working-class rock predecessors, they were privileged art school graduates who grew up expecting to "be something." This background fostered artistic ambition over simple commercial success, making them prototypes of the alternative rock ethos.

3. New York's Economic Crisis Created Cultural Opportunity The city's 1970s near-bankruptcy made it affordable ($275/month rent) for young artists. The exodus of residents and businesses left vast industrial spaces available, enabling an unprecedented downtown cultural scene.

4. Minimalism as Rebellion Their aesthetic rebellion involved subtraction, not addition - "no rock hair, no rock lights, no long guitar solos." Working with Brian Eno, they removed rather than added tracks, creating space through restraint.

5. Timeless Modernity "Stop Making Sense" appears contemporary today because they focused on modernity rather than trends. Their systematic rejection of rock clichés created work that transcends its 1980s origins, explaining their continued influence on alternative music.

Jonathan Gould is a writer and a former professional musician. Born and raised in New York City, he began playing drums in high school and became serious about it while attending Cornell University, which led him to move to Boston in 1975 to study with the eminent jazz drummer Alan Dawson. He went on to spend many years working in bands and recording studios in Boston, Woodstock, and New York City before turning his full attention to writing about music in the early 1990s under the mentorship of the retired New Yorker editor William Shawn. In addition to his playing and writing about music, Jonathan also raised a family, served in local politics, and took an active role in the life of the upstate New York community where he lived for twenty-five years. He currently divides his time between Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Livingston, NY.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe [https://keenon.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Burning Down The House: Do The Talking Heads Still Matter?

What does it really mean to be a “good woman”? For the controversial podcaster and writer Elise Loehnen [https://www.eliseloehnen.com/], female goodness is a misery trap. And so reclaim their happiness, to make themselves whole, Loehnen says, women need to stop being good. The former goop executive and co-author of the upcoming Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/771811/choosing-wholeness-over-goodness-by-elise-loehnen-and-courtney-smith/] explains how the seven deadly sins reveal women's hidden conditioning, how the wellness industry became toxic, and why the Enneagram can help women embrace their full selves—including the darker, "unacceptable" parts they've been taught to suppress.

five key takeaways

1. The "Good Woman" Performance is Exhausting Women are conditioned to suppress basic human instincts—never being tired, needing no praise, having compliant bodies, avoiding anger—which requires enormous energy and is driven by fear of social rejection.

2. The Seven Deadly Sins Reveal Female Conditioning What society labels as "sins" (pride, envy, sloth, etc.) are actually normal human traits that women are taught to repress, creating a "punch card" for performing goodness to the world.

3. Women Police Each Other Through Envy Instead of recognizing envy as a signal pointing toward what we want, women often use it destructively to tear down other women who have what they desire—like the backlash against Goop.

4. The Drama Triangle Keeps Us Stuck Most people operate in victim-villain-hero dynamics, blaming others instead of taking responsibility. Breaking free requires recognizing these patterns and creating different conditions in your life.

5. Wholeness Beats Goodness True liberation comes from integrating all parts of yourself—including the "darker" aspects you've been taught to hide—rather than performing an impossible standard of perfection.

Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and podcast host who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their two sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast focused on pulling apart the stories we tell about who we are—and then putting those threads back together.

Current Work & Recent Publications: Elise is the author of the New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior. She has co-written thirteen books, five of which were New York Times bestsellers, including True and False Magic with psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Her upcoming co-authored Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness will be published in August.

Podcast & Media: She hosts Pulling the Thread where she interviews cultural luminaries on the big questions of the day, including Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Harriet Lerner, Loretta Ross, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Joy Harjo, Dr. B.J. Miller, Nedra Tawwab, Dr. Suzanne Simard, Susan Cain, Heather McGhee, Dr. Riane Eisler, and Terry Real.

Professional Background: Previously, she was the chief content officer of goop, where she co-hosted The goop Podcast and The goop Lab on Netflix, and led the brand's content strategy and programming, including the launch of a magazine with Condé Nast and a book imprint. Prior to goop, she was the editorial projects director of Conde Nast Traveler. Before Traveler, she was the editor at large and ultimately deputy editor of Lucky Magazine, where she also served as the on-air spokesperson, appearing regularly on shows like Today, E!, Good Morning America, and The Early Show. She has a B.A. from Yale where she majored in English and Fine Arts.

Why Being a 'Good Woman' Is Making Women (and Men) Miserable

“Let me tell you about the very rich”, Scott Fitzgerald once said. “They are different from you and me”. One way they are different, the New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos [https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/evan-osnos] reports, is that they own yachts - very very big, expensive yachts. In The Haves and The Have-Yachts [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Haves-and-Have-Yachts/Evan-Osnos/9781668204481], Osnos’ dispatches about today’s ultrarich, he takes us on board these boats to reveal the obscenity of our new gilded age. From Mark Zuckerberg's obsession with Augustus Caesar to the thin-skinned grievances of figures like Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk, Osnos explores how the personal quirks and anxieties of just 19 American plutocrats - the 0.00001% - are now reshaping our entire society. He argues we're living in an era of "flamboyant oligarchy," where billionaires openly flaunt their wealth. Citing the extraordinary tableau of tech moguls lining up in homage to Trump at his inauguration, Osnos describes our age as "the complete and total fusion of politics and plutocracy in the United States."

five key takeaways

1. We're Living in an Era of "Flamboyant Oligarchy" Unlike past wealthy elites who stayed hidden ("a whale that never surfaces doesn't get harpooned"), today's billionaires openly compete for attention and flaunt their wealth, fundamentally changing the relationship between extreme wealth and public life.

2. Just 19 People Could Control 18% of America's Wealth The 0.00001% - currently 19 Americans - control 1.8% of national wealth today. If current trends continue, this could reach 18% within 40 years, representing an unprecedented concentration of economic power in human history.

3. Personal Quirks Have Massive Social Consequences Billionaires' individual obsessions and blind spots shape society at scale - from Facebook being blue because Zuckerberg is colorblind, to his Augustus Caesar fixation influencing how he thinks about power and empire-building.

4. The Complete Fusion of Politics and Plutocracy Trump's inauguration, featuring tech moguls "lined up in homage," represents the total merger of political and economic power in America - what Osnos calls a "sultanistic oligarchy" where billionaires have elevated Trump to rule on their behalf.

5. Billionaires Are Surprisingly Thin-Skinned and Aggrieved Despite their wealth, figures like Musk and Andreessen are easily offended and resentful about public criticism, leading them not to retreat but to actively seek control over politics and media to reshape the narrative in their favor.

Biography

Evan Lionel Richard Osnos (born December 24, 1976) is an American journalist and author who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008, specializing in politics and foreign affairs coverage in the United States and China. Osnos continues to be one of America's most prominent foreign correspondents and political journalists, known for his deep reporting and narrative storytelling that bridges international and domestic affairs.

Current Positions

Osnos is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker, a CNN contributor, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, based in Washington D.C.

Early Life and Education

Osnos was born in London when his parents, Susan (née Sherer) Osnos and Peter L.W. Osnos, were visiting from Moscow, where his father was assigned as a correspondent for The Washington Post. He graduated with high honors from Harvard University with a Bachelor's Degree.

Career Highlights

Early Career: In 2002, he was ass

The Haves and The Have-Yachts: Evan Osnos Explores the Minds of the Ultrarich

It all began [https://www.megangreenwell.com/the-adults-in-the-room] in 2019 at DeadSpin where Megan Greenwell [https://www.megangreenwell.com/] was editor-in-chief. She had her dream job at the sports publication she'd always loved, leading a profitable digital media company with a devoted readership. Then the curse of private equity arrived. Within three months, everything collapsed. As Greenwell argues in her new book, Bad Company, [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bad-company-megan-greenwell?variant=43151012757538] she was pushed out, her entire staff followed, and the site was eventually sold to a Maltese gambling operation. What should have been a routine business acquisition became a personal awakening. Greenwell realized she'd witnessed something much larger than corporate mismanagement—she'd seen how private equity is producing avampire economy sucking the blood out of the American Dream.

five takeaways

1. Private Equity Violates Free Market Principles Greenwell argues that PE actually corrupts capitalism rather than representing it—citing Milton Friedman's own exceptions for public services like healthcare and education, which are now PE's biggest targets.

2. The Debt Transfer Loophole Creates Perverse Incentives In leveraged buyouts, PE firms load companies with 70-80% debt but transfer responsibility to the acquired company, allowing firms to profit even when businesses fail—as happened with Toys"R"Us.

3. Workers Rarely Know PE Owns Their Employer Until It's Too Late Most employees discover private equity ownership only when everything falls apart, because the company name on their paycheck remains the same while control shifts to financial engineers.

4. The Vampire Effect Goes Beyond Individual Companies PE isn't just killing businesses—it's hollowing out entire communities, from rural hospitals in Wyoming to local newspapers, destroying the infrastructure that sustains small American towns.

5. Solutions Exist at State and Local Levels While federal regulation remains unlikely, progress is happening through state laws (like Massachusetts healthcare regulations), pension fund pressure campaigns, and nonprofit alternatives that prioritize sustainability over shareholder value.

Megan Greenwell is an American journalist, editor, and writer with extensive experience across print and digital media. She was the first female editor-in-chief of Deadspin and editor of Wired.com

Background & Education: Greenwell grew up in Berkeley, California. Her mother is an Episcopal priest who currently serves as the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. She attended Berkeley High School, where she was a reporter for the school newspaper and graduated from Columbia University (Barnard College) in 2006, where she was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Spectator

Career Highlights:

* Started as a staff writer at The Washington Post, covering education, philanthropy, and the war in Iraq, including a three-month stint at the paper's Baghdad bureau

* Was part of The Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Greenwell]Megangreenwell [https://www.megangreenwell.com/about]

* Worked as managing editor of GOOD Magazine, inaugural features editor at New York magazine's The Cut, and senior editor of ESPN The Magazine

* Served as executive features editor for Esquire.com before becoming the fifth and first female editor-in-chief of Deadspin in 2018

* Later wor

The Vampire Economy: How Private Equity is Sucking the Blood out of the American Dream

25 years after serving as the bridge between the Web 1.0 and 2.0 revolutions, Google stands at the vortex of another technological revolution. The company's new AI mode threatens to destroy the "simple bargain" that has sustained the web since 2005 — Google’s deal with websites which sent them traffic in exchange for indexing their content. Unlike traditional search results with links, Google’s revolutionary new AI Mode [https://search.google/ways-to-search/ai-mode/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22427785677&gbraid=0AAAAADjHCnbkYDoQILqLbYCUJHY6TzoT2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu7TCBhCYARIsAM_S3NhTGIarGQrLIIBVZxMM43Lbkf6uAqO4sZZnaMjZUmLyhButkYkB37gaAhOcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds] delivers knowledge directly from training data, eliminating the traffic pipeline that media companies depend on. As That Was The Week’ [https://www.thatwastheweek.com/]s Keith Teare and I discuss, this marks the end of the Web 2.0 era and the beginning of the AI age, fundamentally changing how information flows online. By eating the Web 1.0 internet, Google established itself as the dominant Web 2.0 power. The multi-trillion-dollar question now is whether today’s AI revolution will eat Google.

Five Takeaways

* Google Was the Web 2.0 Bridge - Though its hard to determine if Google was really a Web 1.0 or 2.0 business, the company clearly served as the crucial bridge between these two eras, evolving from a pure search engine to a centralized monetization platform that dominated the web for two decades.

* The "Simple Bargain" is Breaking - Google's 20-year social contract with websites (free content indexing in exchange for traffic referrals) is ending as AI mode delivers answers directly without sending users to source sites.

* AI Mode Eliminates Links - Google's new AI search produces results from training data rather than indexed links, meaning no traffic flows to original content creators—fundamentally breaking the web's economic model.

* Search Quality Declined After 2010 - Google morphed from scientific link-counting to revenue-focused curation as social media grew, with the top third of search results becoming advertising rather than organic results.

* Google Faces a Binary Choice - The company must choose between traditional search mode (with links and traffic) or AI mode (pure knowledge delivery), as trying to mix both models with advertising would damage the AI users’ expectations.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe [https://keenon.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Company That Ate the Web: Google's Quarter Century Journey from Bridge Builder to Web Destroyer

Happy NO KINGS DAY! Today, as nationwide protests sweep America, historian and activist Mark Bray [https://markmbray.wordpress.com/]argues that Trump and his MAGA movement represent a type of American fascism rooted in the country's long history of racist backlash against the struggle for civil rights. As the author of the iconic Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa:_The_Anti-Fascist_Handbook], Bray connects today's resistance to Trump to historical anti-fascist movements, from the KKK's post-Civil War violence to European fascism of the 1930s. He discusses protest strategies, the role of violence in resistance movements, social media's impact on organizing, and why disrupting "business as usual" matters more than just electoral politics in fighting authoritarianism. Long Live the NO KING.

Five Key Takeaways

* Trump represents American fascism, not just populism or patrimonialism - Bray argues the MAGA movement is "pretty unequivocally fascist," drawing on ultranationalism, militarism, and the glorification of violence that characterizes historical fascism.

* American fascism has deep historical roots - Rather than being imported from Europe, fascistic tendencies emerged from America's own racist institutions, with the post-Civil War KKK representing the first "proto-fascist formation" in functional terms.

* Disruption matters more than electoral politics - Effective resistance requires making "business as usual" impossible, forcing issues into national conversation and raising the political costs of authoritarian policies beyond just voting.

* Violence remains a tactical question, not a moral absolute - Bray argues that while reasonable people can disagree about when to use force, removing it entirely from the "toolbox" of resistance may prove too late when facing genuine fascism.

* Social media is a double-edged organizing tool - While platforms can rapidly mobilize movements like Occupy Wall Street, they also create instability, allow right-wing manipulation, and risk replacing sustained community organizing with quick digital fixes.

MARK BRAY is a historian of human rights, political violence, and politics in Modern Europe at Rutgers University. He earned his BA in Philosophy from Wesleyan University in 2005 and his PhD in History from Rutgers University in 2016. He is the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (Melville House 2017), The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France (Cornell 2022), Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street (Zero 2013), and the co-editor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader (PM Press 2018). His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Salon, Boston Review, and numerous edited volumes.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



This is a public episode. If you'd like

Long Live the NO KING: An Anti-Fascist Handbook on How to Resist Trump

So what, exactly, is libertarianism? Spike Cohen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Cohen], the Libertarian Party's 2020 vice presidential nominee, boils it down to "the principle of human respect"—treating people as individuals, not as what he calls "tax cattle." Speaking from FreedomFest [https://freedomfest.com/about-us/] in Palm Springs, the founder of You Are The Power [https://www.youarethepower.net/about/] offers a scathing critique of both major parties while exposing what he calls a federal funding scheme that encourages states to separate children from their families. From defending controversial Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht to challenging Big Tech monopolies, Cohen argues that government overreach—not lack of regulation—creates the very problems politicians claim to solve. And then, of course, there’s Donald Trump who spoke at last year’s FreedomFest. According to Cohen, Trump has betrayed his libertarian supporters by increasing both government spending and debt by more than almost all of his predecessors. For all his libertarian promises, Cohen argues, Trump is now amongst the most dangerous exponents of big government overreach.

Five Takeaways

1. Libertarianism as "Human Respect" Cohen defines libertarianism not as chaos, but as "the principle of human respect"—allowing individuals to make their own choices as long as they don't violate others' lives, rights, or property. Government should treat citizens as people, not "tax cattle."

2. Big Government Creates Big Business Contrary to progressive solutions, Cohen argues that regulatory capture by large corporations is the root cause of "Big Pharma," "Big Tech," and other monopolistic industries. More regulation protects incumbents; less regulation enables competition.

3. Trump Betrayed Libertarian Voters Despite campaigning on reducing government, Trump grew spending and debt more than most predecessors. Cohen credits Trump for freeing Ross Ulbricht but argues his first term should have warned voters about his true governing philosophy.

4. Federal Funding Drives Family Separation Cohen's "You Are the Power" organization exposes how Title IV-D incentivizes states to remove children from families—receiving more money for accusations, removals, and permanent separations, especially involving chronically ill children.

5. Direct Action Over Electoral Politics After getting just 1% in 2020, Cohen shifted from campaigns to grassroots activism, claiming 100% success in specific cases by mobilizing public pressure on government officials through targeted advocacy.

Spike Cohen is a successful business owner, Libertarian activist, and media figure. He is the Founder and President of You Are The Power, a nonprofit focused on using solutions-oriented activism to grow the Liberty movement. Spike started a web design company as a teenager in 1998. In 2017, he retired from web design to focus on effective political messaging, entertainment, and activism. This culminated with him becoming Libertarian candidate for Vice President in 2020, where he traveled across the nation by plane and bus, meeting countless Americans and sharing the message of Liberty with them. Spike is a tireless advocate for freedom with a commitment to help grow the movement at the grassroots level, training candidates and activists in positive and principled messaging to explain libertarian ideas to everyday Americans, and working with elected officials to implement common-sense reforms to improve people’s lives. Since the 2020 election, Spike has become a regular guest on cable news networks, nationally syndicated radio, international media outlets, and podcasts across the globe.

<

An Existential Threat to American Freedom: Spike Cohen on Donald Trump's Betrayal of Libertarianism

According to Deborah Baker [https://deborahbaker.net/], author of Charlottesville: An American Story [https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/charlottesville], America has become the Charlottesville of the Unite the Right Rally of August 12, 2017. Baker, who grew up in Charlottesville in the shadow of Jefferson's Monticello, watched in shock as neo-Nazis marched through her hometown in August 2017 with torches and flags. What began as her attempt to understand how such hatred could manifest in a progressive college town became a deeper reckoning with America's buried histories and recurring tragedies. The fascist ideologies that once seemed confined to internet forums and fringe rallies have now, she argues, been institutionalized at the highest levels of government. The warning signs were there in 2017—but too many people, from university administrators to progressive leaders, chose to look away. If we close our eyes, she warns, it won’t go away.

five key takeaways

1. America Has Institutionalized Extremism

What began as fringe internet movements and basement trolling has now moved into the mainstream of American politics and government institutions. The ideologies that shocked people in Charlottesville 2017 are now, according to Baker, embedded at the highest levels of power.

2. Progressive Institutions Failed to Take the Threat Seriously

University administrators, mayors, and police chiefs in liberal Charlottesville told citizens to "stay home" and ignore the approaching Unite the Right rally. This pattern of progressive leadership closing their eyes to fascist organizing represents a dangerous institutional failure that continues today.

3. White Supremacy Has Always Married Anti-Semitism with Anti-Black Racism

The Nazi flags at Charlottesville weren't separate from the Confederate monuments debate. White supremacist ideology consistently portrays Jews as the puppet masters behind Black civil rights movements, combining European fascism with Southern white supremacy into a unified hateful worldview.

4. America's "Buried Histories" Keep Repeating

Baker discovered that Charlottesville had experienced a similar white supremacist rally in the 1950s that had been completely forgotten. This pattern of burying ugly chapters allows the same mistakes to be repeated, as communities fail to learn from their past encounters with organized hate.

5. Economic and Political Destabilization Creates Fertile Ground for Fascism

The conditions that radicalized figures like Richard Spencer include the "forever wars," the 2008 financial crisis, and the broader betrayal of working-class Americans. These "self-inflicted wounds" by American institutions create the chaos that fascist movements exploit to gain followers.

Deborah Baker was born in Charlottesville and grew up in Virginia, Puerto Rico and New England. She attended the University of Virginia and Cambridge University. Her first book, written in college, was Making a Farm: The Life of Robert Bly, published by Beacon Press in 1982. After working as a book editor and publisher, in 1990 she moved to Calcutta where she wrote In Extremis; The Life of Laura Riding. Published by Grove Press and Hamish Hamilton in the UK, it was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994. Her third book, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India was published by Penguin Press USA and Penguin India in 2008. In 2008–2009 she was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis C. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at The New York Public Library. There she researched and wrote The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, a narrative account of the life of an American convert to Islam. Pub

American Fascism: If You Close Your Eyes It Won't Go Away

The daily show about the big ideas, new technologies, books and people changing the world. Hosted by Andrew Keen.