A Conversation with Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about Authoritarianism and Donald Trump's Violent Predatory Masculinity

The Chauncey DeVega Show is a labor of love. It is also very time intensive. Each weekly episode takes an average of 7 hours to produce. Twice a year–once in June and once in December–I push out the old begging bowl in the form of an online fundraiser to support the podcast and my other projects. If you value the podcast as well as my writing–and are able–please click on the right hand side of the screen at chaunceydevega.com on the Paypal link and throw in some silver, gold, pennies or paper. The monies will go towards the video podcast series that I am still developing (it is more expensive than I originally thought) and to help finance an additional project that is in its early stages.

The Chauncey DeVega Show has featured some amazing guests including Van Jones, Timothy Snyder, Sheldon Solomon, Bandy Lee, Cornell Belcher, Malcolm Nance, Naveed Jamali, Philip Zimbardo and so many others as part of my effort to help the public understand the threat to American democracy and the world posed by Donald Trump and his regime. I have received a good number of offers to advertise on the podcast as well as on my site Indomitable but have always refused them. I can do this in part because of the kind donations that good folks such as yourself offer up during the twice a year fundraiser. I set a fixed amount for the fundraisers in June and December and then conclude them once that goal is reached. With some kind donations from just a few of the many thousands of people who listen to each podcast episode and read my essays online each month, I hope that we can reach this goal very quickly.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the guest on this week’s episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. She is a historian at New York University who specializes in authoritarianism, aesthetics, cultural politics, and Italian history. She is the author of numerous books including an upcoming project on authoritarianism and political strongmen. Ben-Ghiat is also a regular contributor to CNN, The Atlantic, and The Huffington Post.

During this week’s show, Professor Ben-Ghiat and Chauncey discuss Donald Trump’s rise to power, authoritarianism and American politics, the global color line, masculinity, and how violence is a central component of Donald Trump’s appeal for his voters.

In this week’s episode Chauncey DeVega offers some thoughts on the recent white supremacist murders in Portland as well as Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Chauncey also gives out a special prize for the “prank monkeys” who fell for Trump’s “covfefe” foolishness. For this special fundraising episode of the podcast Chauncey responds to some listeners’ and readers’ questions about white privilege and white supremacy as well as how best to resist Trump’s fascist foot soldiers. Chauncey also has fun reading hate mail from a white supremacist.

This episode with Ruth Ben-Ghiat can be downloaded from Libysn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.

The Chauncey DeVega Show can now be found on iHeartRadio.