I spoke with Ezra Klein
I had a long conversation with Ezra Klein about the current moment, its parallels and divergences from the Second Red Scare of the McCarthy era, and three recommendations for books to read. I chose one book of poetry, which I hope you will all ready, one book of history, and one book of political theory.
Klein had nice things to say about my book The Reactionary Mind: “in my opinion,” he said, it’s “one of the most insightful books you can read on the Trumpist right and what is behind it.” He read it twice, and I could see all the notes he had taken on it.
The funnest part of the interview happened off-screen. I wore my “city workers for Zohran” pin, which you can see prominently displayed throughout the show. One of the security guards asked me about it. I said I was big supporter of Zohran and asked her whether she was, too. She flashed me a sly smile, looked around the lobby as if to remind me where we were, in the Palace of Objectivity, and said, in a faux-officious voice, “I work for the New York Times.” I laughed so hard I’m sure they heard me in Times Square.
Anyway, have a listen.
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7 Comments
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Cliff
It was a fantastic conversation! Very helpful in getting a fix on the expanding morass. Thank you.
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Doig Scott
Great podcast with Ezra Klein
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Jeff Kisseloff
hi, I was amazed that you could make so many factual mistakes about Alger Hiss and then go on to pronounce him guilty, even though it’s clear you know nothing about the case. I actually laughed out loud at some of the things you said. Still, it was sad that Klein didn’t know enough to respond. This is the newspaper of record. What happened to journalistic standards?
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oh, Hiss was never a high aide to Acheson. Where do you get this stuff from?
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This was excellent, thx
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TheRick
This was a great discussion Corey, I learned a lot from a much more nuanced conversation about the Red Scare than I’ve heard before. One thing about Ezra — love his politics or not — he’s always well-prepared, having read and digested his guests’ books, which allows for more of a discussion than a straight-up interview.
It was also interesting to hear you talk about how and why your assessment of Trump changed between his first and second terms. I recall your opinion piece in The Guardian from 2017 “Think Trump is an authoritarian? Look at his actions, not his words.” When you posted the link to that widely read piece on FaceBook I made a comment to your post, respectfully I should add, that everything I knew from life (and not just politics) had taught me to never underestimate the opposition. I was obviously one of those hair-on-fire liberals that believed I/we recognized a wannabe demagogue when we saw one. I’ve been blocked from your FB page since that day.
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Katherine Quinn
Maybe I’m too much of an idealist leftie, but I have trouble with this drawing of a line from “cancel culture” on campus (students protesting speakers they don’t like, social media mobs, etc.) to what the Trump admin and universities are doing now. The students on campus and random people on social media have very little real power. Very few professors, speakers, celebrities, etc., even lost their jobs, let alone their freedom. To me, it suggests that the far right is somehow lacking agency. That the reason they’re doing these things is because the left made them.
