Afleveringen

  • The episode centers on a discussion among political commentators about contemporary geopolitical shifts, cultural dynamics, and the role of leadership in shaping the modern West. It positions the 2024 U.S. presidential election as a pivotal event, highlighting Donald Trump’s victory as emblematic of larger ideological and cultural battles. The participants explore the implications of this election for global politics, particularly in Europe, where right-wing movements are gaining traction amid widespread dissatisfaction with traditional governance structures.


    A central theme is the contrast between the so-called "blob" or entrenched establishment and the rise of populist or libertarian movements. The "blob," characterized as a bureaucratic, self-serving elite, is described as resistant to change and hostile to grassroots political shifts. This tension is paralleled in European contexts, such as Germany and the UK, where populist and conservative parties face institutional and cultural barriers despite growing public support.


    The discussion emphasizes the role of technology and media in reshaping political dynamics. Trump’s campaign is portrayed as a masterclass in leveraging media attention over financial resources, underscoring the declining influence of traditional mass media in favor of decentralized social platforms. This shift is contrasted with the bureaucratic rigidity of the European political establishment, which is criticized for its inability to adapt to the demands of an increasingly digital and globalized world.


    The commentators also delve into the ideological currents within the right-wing movements, advocating for a balance between cultural conservatism and pragmatic governance. They argue that humor, relatability, and optimism—qualities attributed to Trump’s campaign—are essential for right-wing parties in Europe to gain broader appeal and counter the doom-and-gloom narratives often associated with political conservatism.


    The conversation transitions to a broader critique of left-wing politics, focusing on the diminishing appeal of "preaching" or ideological lecturing in contemporary politics. They posit that the left’s reliance on moral superiority and cultural guilt has alienated voters who are increasingly drawn to pragmatic, results-oriented leadership. This shift, they suggest, reflects a broader cultural fatigue with progressive narratives on issues like climate change and identity politics.


    European political dynamics are examined through the lens of countries like Poland and Hungary, which are presented as models of resistance against the bureaucratic "blob." These nations are praised for their cultural confidence and economic resilience, which stand in stark contrast to the perceived stagnation of Western European states like Germany and France. The discussion highlights Poland’s unique position as a burgeoning center of ideological innovation within Europe.


    The geopolitical implications of these trends are explored, particularly in the context of U.S. foreign policy under Trump. The participants argue that a robust and assertive American presence on the world stage is essential for maintaining global stability. They view Trump’s "peace through strength" approach as a model for countering threats from authoritarian regimes, notably China and Russia, while fostering economic and cultural renewal in the West.


    Another significant focus is the role of AI and technological innovation in reshaping governance and power dynamics. The commentators suggest that the U.S. technological dominance, epitomized by figures like Elon Musk, offers a pathway for revitalizing Western leadership and countering the centralized, authoritarian approaches of rivals like China. This tech-driven vision is framed as a critical component of the West’s competitive strategy in the 21st century.


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  • Rod Dreher is a crunchy conservative from Louisiana, an editor for The American Conservative and a prolific a writer – notably of The Benedict Option which reframed the discussion about Christianity in the West in general and America in particular after the advent of Trumpism. Far from the stereotypical mold of an American conservative Dreher's erudite Europhilia runs through his work though as he never fails to remind us of the fruits of western Christian civilization. From the bittersweet and autobiographic How Dante Can Save Your Life which serves a reminder of the joys and depths of great literature as well as his most recent Live Not By Lies which charts the lives of those dissidents who spend the 20th Century imagining, suffering for, and then bringing on a better world in face of overwhelming worldly power. 

     

    We are very grateful for this beautiful conversation with Rod about the return of religion, the perennial search of Modern Man to alternatives to a Christian order and we are sure you will enjoy it as well. 


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  • Michael Gibson is the philosophy PhD who traded an Oxbridge career for tech journalism and when introduced to Peter Thiel, the venture capital and setting out to prove the Universities are not even close to the best incubators for curiosity, intellect and tallent.


    We discuss his journey and his intellectual memoir and spirited screed against the current institutions of learning, governance and dissemination of information, The Paper Belt on Fire.


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  • As conservatives and leftists get their asses kicked in the West and liberalism, while not particularly popular at the ballot box is as dominant as ever as the culture becomes increasingly totalitarian, are we at a kind of Jacobite moment? In today's episode this is what we argue. That the protracted line of revolutions since 1517 - 1688, 1789 etc has left a significant part us in internal exile. So as mental emigrees we review the state of things in the summer of 2024 as well as very apparent the longing for a Prince beyond the sea. 


    By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,

    Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,

    Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,

    On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.


    Chorus:

    O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,

    And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,

    But me and my true love will never meet again,

    On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.


    'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen,

    On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond,

    Where in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view,

    And the moon coming out in the gloaming.


    Chorus


    The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring,

    And in sunshine the waters are sleeping.

    But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,

    Though the waeful may cease frae their grieving.


    Chorus


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  • We are here to save the West. We see that politics and the political systems have failed or reached a dead end. But how does one save a moribund system from the grasp of an elite, of institutions and to be frank - a significant part of the electorate that benefits from it?


    Since 2016 the very word for change is the dread and promise that is Populism. In its promise is a belief that our democracy is not just a finely tuned system and a machine that can, and should be managed, but the ultimate expression of a sovereign people.


    The challenge is both national and supra-national. For today institutions not only span across countries but engulf entire continents. The whole of Europe and the whole of the West is intertwined in a myriad of ways – through academia, through the media and through law.


    Populism is often decried by its detractors as mere demagoguery – the dark art of fanning popular unrest or the great unwashed ashes to seize power for the sake of power alone. But if we are to use Populism, what is it that we wish to conjure up? The election of Donald Trump as People’s Tribune in 2016 along with Brexit started the trend of vast numbers of voters breaking away from traditional voting patterns to support radical change. Before any of this, however, ‘populism’ referred mostly to left-wing movements – SYRIZA in Greece and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela come to mind. Are we here coming up against the limitations of this word? Is populism a guiding principle or a political method?


    The idea of popular uprisings has always been a double-edged sword - the promise of liberation, symbolized in the 1989 great German slogan “Wir sind das Volk!”, but also seen in the violent passions of mob rule, and the corruption historically following in its wake.

    Are we to condemn Caesar for crossing the Rubicon? Or condemn that arch-populist Pompey for forcing Caesar to do so, while backing a corrupt system? This is a timeless question, and one that shakes the very foundations of the Western world as we speak. There has never been a more apt time to answer them.


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  • Patrick Deneen is a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Deneen rose to prominence with his 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed. It drew a readership from the entire spectrum of American politics; from Cornel West, Jacobin Magazine and President Obama to the likes of Jonah Goldberg and George Will. The book drew praise and criticism alike as well as throwing a wrench in the smooth workings of the left-right divide of American intellectual life. He is a noted student of American democracy and shares many perspectives with one of its most noted observers and commenters, Alexis de Tocqueville. 


    He visits our podcast to talk about his latest book, Regime Change - Towards a Postliberal future.


    A conservative who rejects both the dogma of Republican Party “freemarket” corporatism as well as libertarian atomism he instead advances the argument for a common good conservatism. Being branded simultaneously dangerous radical and nefarious reactionary Professor Deneen traces the common good doctrine back to the very foundations of America and ties it to a wider European tradition. 


    If our post-liberal future is to have a chance it is time to slaughter sacred cows and do battle against all both the current political regime and the nihilism of those who say that nothing can be done. 


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  • Why is modern architecture so ugly? Since at least 1950 the world has gotten immensely less attractive. Under the banner of poverty alleviating and social housing beauty in urban spaces became an outdated concept. Progress demanded that the bourgeoisie notion of function be discarded which is why your local library and Opera house now looks something designed by a wicked totalitarian regime totally obsessed with off putting shapes in steel and glass.


    Surprisingly not everyone thinks Modernist Architecture, the official name of the movement - think Stalinst but without the sense of grandeur, is great. Carl tends to agree. So we interviewed one of the leading lights of a popular rebellion against Modernism to ask if we are condemned to a future where architecture is still making us depressed. He was suitably optimistic but warned us that this view might be a sign of political extremism, and as he'd been told by his opponents in the architectural establishment, you guessed it, racism.


    Colour us surprised. We needed to know more.


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  • Since the collapse of Western centrism in the last decade, one thing is now very clear – the future is nationalist. The excesses of globalism and universalist thinking that deeply fractured The West has led to an upsurge of popularity for the concepts of 'national sovereignty' and ‘identity' that will dominate the 2020s and 30s.

    But still, tectonic shifts have made the ground under our feet sway and there is no going back to the self-satisfied days of Western dominance. The very phrase “The West” is by now undermined and made suspect – militarily, morally and philosophically. Within its borders and without, Western civilisation is a term of slander and abuse.


    This is a series of podcasts dedicated to those people who want to save The West, and who have the will and ideas to get it done. So: What is The West? Who are the men and ideas that will save it? Most crucially, what is to be “saved"?

    The promise of The West has always been a combination of sovereignty, pluralism, justice and identity. In that vein, this series reacts against, and rejects, attempts to reformulate the centrist and globalist project as well as the nihilism of denying the need for a civilisation. From this vantage point, we ask: What is the role of identity and tradition? What are the limits to openness and pluralism in the world we are now shaping? And what replaces conservatism and liberalism within the scope of nationalism in the digital age?


    We will strike at these concepts with a hammer and listen to what rings true. We invite you to follow us on a journey to discover this, our future. Will you be among the Men Who Saved The West?


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  • Jan Emanuel ger gammelmedia lĂ„ngfingret och gĂ€star Manifestpodden för det första lĂ€ngre samtalet efter lanseringen av Folklistan tillsammans med Sara Skyttedal. De populistiska vindarna i Folklistans segel Ă€r snĂ„lblĂ„st frĂ„n ett svenskt politiskt landskap i kaos. År av vanskötsel och naivitet gör att den enda frĂ„gan nu Ă€r vem som bĂ€st kan anklaga den andre för att vara orsaken till allt som gĂ„tt fel. ÄndĂ„ fortsĂ€tter det politiska maskineriet att rulla till samma gamla visa och samma gamla ansikten. Sossar och Moderater. I en vĂ€rld dĂ€r de flesta andra glatt skulle stannat kvar pĂ„ en strand i Marbella, Palma eller Gran Canaria vĂ€ljer Ă€ndĂ„ Jan Emanuel att spotta i handen och ge sig in i politiken igen. 


    Varför? I detta avsnitt av Manifestpodden berÀttar Jan Emanuel vad som gör svenska politiker sÄ in i helvete dÄliga.


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  • The farmers are revolting. No, literary. Always have been. Since what they do always accompanies them with that certain smell.


    Europeans are quite used to see farmers revolting. It’s a part of our long and troublesome history. The French have always been revolting, driving their tractors up and down the Champs-ÉlysĂ©es, spraying fertilizer on government buildings and keeping the baguette prices high and thus their way of life. Liberals and socialists alike have scoffed at their antics, see them as quaint relics of the past where food came from cultivating the land and that sort of reactionary nonsense. Today, modern people know that’s not where food actually comes from. Real food is either grown in a vat or is traded for from a poor country. You know really poor, where people actually work with their hands. Who needs an agri-sector when you have fair trade marked goods, right?


    Something has gone very wrong though because it seems now non-Gallic farmers are revolting. First the Dutch, ever dependable calvinists, took to the streets and led a campaign that brought down the centre-right government. But now its serious. Germany, the most serious country in all of Europe, where there are actual banks and industry and such, has got a peasant revolt on its hands.


    It’s time to care about farmers again. Well, as it happens, Johan was born on a farm. And Carl likes to eat actual non-vat grown food. There seems to be actual stakes now. So what the hell is going on anyway?!


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  • I have been told, ever since I was young, that if the world is coming to an end it's going to end in fire. Too many people, too few resources and as all the charts tracking human progress point upwards we're going to either exhaust our planet, or nuke each other in the process. 


    But lately both malthusian and liberal optimist narratives have come under fire from a quite unexpected corner. Elon Musk travels the globe talking about it and the people driving the movement seem to be coming as much from the San Francisco tech scene as from rural traditionalists. 


    So timely in this time of the most celebrated nativity, we wanted to talk with two of the leading lights of the pro-natalist movement. 


    If you're a city dweller you probably already knew that babies aren't being born at replacement rates. But Simone and Malcolm Collins are making it their lives work to make the points just how catastrophic the numbers really are. 


    So we invite you to an end of the year discussion about babies, religion found and lost. About new Gods and Old. 


    Merry Christmas. 


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  • As the fossilized shell of the old consensus of values in Western democracies falls apart and slides into the ocean, it's time to get some priorities straight.


    “It's Not The Economy, Stupid” 


    If there is a story to be told about the last thirty years, and the story that will be told about the coming thirty years that is not one of economics, then it is about social, cultural and spiritual decline fuelled by, yes, demographics. 


    The End of the Boomer era has left most Western countries struggling for their soul because the post-war system was built and managed by the people, values and - yes money, that will soon be gone. Ours is a time when society functions less and less on liberal merit and more and more on tribe and race. 


    One of the best chroniclers of this development is our guest this episode – Eric Kaufmann – whose book White Shift, and upcoming book about the taboo of race, is a great guide to this new world. We ask him about what can be salvaged from the ruins of the old order.


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  • The notion of Conservative Socialism or Blue Labour would to many people seem bizarrely paradoxical. It ought to. The British Labour party has in the 83 years since George Orwell made his case for a distinctly patriotic and English version of socialism and socialist in The Lion and the Unicorn has been the party of large scale nationalization and militant leftism. Until it capitulated to the Thatcherite view of the world during the End of History and has since oscillated between its old tendencies and a sort of liberal centrism well in tune with the times and of course, the City.


    Too intune, too fashionable and too destructive - too European, as some would have it. The man who symbolizes that some more than anyone else is a, of all people, Labour peer in the House of Lords. Lord Maurice Glasman is a radical and a reactionary (he would surely prefer another word) all at once, advocating for a populist, conservative but most strikingly pre-French Revolution notion of politics. Arguing the country and its politics has lost itself we embark on a conversation that echoes Eric Arthur Blair's wartime cri de coeur and is sure to get everyone on the spectrum angry, frustrated - but above all, thinking.


    As the twenties thunder head on into the next series of crises, it’s precisely the kind of conversation we want to have.


    Because we too, “Fucking hate the French revolution” and the clichĂ©s of right-left politics we still wrestle with every day.


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  • Nathan Cofnas is a heretic. It's not a title nor a career path he has chosen, rather, he has had the bad taste of delving into the wrong subject at the wrong time. Because in a world where social sciences and polite society has decided that humankind is essentially fully moldable beings, constructed as the post-moderns would have it - to study the subject of IQ is not only a poor choice, but a dangerous one at that. Delving even further into the dark arts, Cofnas field of study is that of race and intelligence.


    Here be dragons. 


    What does his research really show? What should we do with that information?


    This and more in our latest episode. 


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  • Javier Milei — professor i ekonomi, motorsĂ„gsaffecionado, tantrasexinstruktör och anarkokapitalist vinner presidentvalet i Argentina.


    Högerlibertarianer över hela vÀrlden jublar, vÀnstern pratar oroligt om populist-fascism.


    Men vad sÀger en motorsÄgspopulists seger i vÀrldens mest populistiska land egentligen om tidsandan? Vi Àr mer intresserade om vad han sÀger om oss Àn vad tvÄ svenskar har att sÀga om honom.


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  • For a long time, France was seen as an alternative model to the prevailing anglo-saxon one - where New York and London represented the liberal dream of the melting pot, Paris stood bent, but unbowed, for a distinct French republican idea.


    Now, with the Middle East alight once again the relationship the West has with immigrants from that region again comes into focus. The idea of french republicanism, the last vestige of old french glories now seems cracked if not shattered.


    Republican laicité is challenged from within by Islamists and the left. Is it too late to save the secular Republic? Should we even try?


    Florence Bergeaud-Blackler is a French anthropologist at CNRS who has done extensive research about integration and the activities of political islamism and especially the Muslim Brotherhood in France.


    Fanny Forsberg Lundell is professor of French at Stockholm University who has recently published ”Kameleonter och kosmopoliter ”(2023) a book comparing French and Swedish integration.


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  • The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.


    — Ralph Waldo Emerson


    Dougald Hine is not your typical thinker on Climate Change, Crisis, Hoax - whatever your flavor or politics happen to be. When many of his friends became radicalized and formed Extinction Rebellion he took the road less traveled and ended up demanding that we ask fundamentally different questions rather than demand radical answers.


    Questions like "What the hell is being done in the name of progress anyway?"


    Doesn't matter if you are a believer, skeptic, sinner or pillar-saint. Dougald Hine will challenge you to think differently about Catastrophe, Climate and Civilisation.


    We had a very pleasant discussion with him about changing one's mind. About the relationship between Romanticism and the Environmental Movement. About paths not taken.


    Oh and how Andreas Malm saved him by hating his guts.


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  • Omar Bradley famously quipped about professionals talking about logistics instead of strategy, so we figured we'd talk to someone literally driving globalization for a living. 


    The Lorryist gives us his view from the driving seat. From the possibility of AI and Elon Musk stealing his job to running the gauntlet of Calais and coming face to  face with the anarchy and deprivation of European migration policy. 


    What's the most dangerous thing in the world? A Trucker with an Audible subscription.


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  • “Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?”

    ― Axel Oxenstierna, High Lord Chancellor of Sweden, 1648


    Curtis Yarvin descends upon Sweden


    A thought experiment: How would the World's Most Modern Countryℱ and the former Moral Superpower¼ fit into the thought of one Curtis Yarvin — the Pùre Joseph of American illiberalism? Surely even approaching the curious case of Sweden, the ur-heimat of modernist-progressive excellence on earth, would cause him to burst into a purifying flame or at least hit against some angelic force field?


    Alas the carcass of Sweden, lit up by the muzzle-flashes of gang war executions, is filled with just the sort of juicy, overly ripe entrails that the mouldbug usually feasts on.


     A modern progressive-technocratic state built for and by middle managers in the 30s? Check!


    An empire-of-the-mind built on (seemingly protestant) virtue that seeks to save the world? Check!


    Deeply muddled past, not-nearly-forgotten imperial ambitions and a system crashed into whatever the Scandinavian version of the Chappaquiddick is by a vapid and corrupt elite? Triple check!


    We take a deep dive into the Myrdals — through lines of Swedish kings and into the dark corners of the souls (and graphs) of the prophet-Hans and Gretas of the north to discover a reality that is less a paradise on earth, and more dark social democratic mirror to the American empire.


    And upon this plain the two progressive juggernauts of the 20th century collide.


    While Yarvin might jeer at the Swedish quaintness in world affairs but knows that inside every Swedish soul lies the embers of High Lord Chancellor Oxenstierna, waiting for a stiff breeze..


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