Tag Archives: fascism

Columns

America’s Tears of Sorrow

A Molten Wasteland of Civic Virtue

Peter McLaren

America is shedding torrents of molten sorrow, tears that burn like liquid fire, searing their way through the bedrock of its democratic ideals. These are no ordinary tears but a deluge of molten despair cascading down from the heavens, each drop a scorching testament to the unravelling of the nation’s sacred fabric. They carve deep […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). America’s Tears of Sorrow: A Molten Wasteland of Civic Virtue. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/americas-tears-of-sorrow/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: MIke Licht, https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/49964507196
Columns

The Death Rattle of Democracy in the Age of Trumpism

Some Dare Call It Fascism

Peter McLaren

Donald Trump is the symbolic figurehead of the MAGA cult who has achieved a towering stature in the popular imagination because of his defiant behaviour after an assassin’s bullet came within an inch of its mark, leaving blood streaming across Trump’s face. Not only should Democrats be gearing up for overcoming a much more confident, […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). The Death Rattle of Democracy in the Age of Trumpism: Some Dare Call It Fascism. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/the-death-rattle-of-democracy-in-the-age-of-trumpism/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: Elvert Barnes, https://www.flickr.com/photos/perspective/53492101666
Columns

Steve Bannon’s Ideological Juggernaut

Overlord of the Dark Enlightenment

Peter McLaren

Zachary B. Wolf described a recent conservative gathering featuring Steve Bannon as speaker. ‘Are we at war?’ Bannon demanded of the crowd, his voice slicing through the air. ‘Is this a political war to the knife?’ The phrase, steeped in historical resonance, harks back to a pro-slavery newspaper from the era preceding the American Civil […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). Steve Bannon’s Ideological Juggernaut: Overlord of the Dark Enlightenment. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/steve-bannons-ideological-juggernaut/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/
Columns

Surviving the Age of Gloom

Reflections on Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, Trumpism and the War in Ukraine

Peter McLaren

The post-truth zeitgeist relentlessly haunts us as meaning becomes ever more detached from representation, as signs now refer not to conceptually settled ‘signified’ meanings but only to other signs, vanishing in an endless chain of time-worn signifiers devoid of inherent intelligibility. Such languishing fragmentation profoundly weakens the unity of signs and their capacity to anchor […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). Surviving the Age of Gloom: Reflections on Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, Trumpism and the War in Ukraine. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/surviving-the-age-of-gloom/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Romancing the Apocalypse

Christopher Rufo’s Self-Righteous Crusade to Destroy America

Peter McLaren

Rejecting a world of communal solidarity and love that values affirmation, respect and reciprocal relations among diverse groups of human beings is irredeemably antagonistic to the purported values we associate with American citizenship. Yet such a rejection seems today to be in lockstep with the privatising and utilitarian logic of exchange value – in other […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). Romancing the Apocalypse: Christopher Rufo’s Self-Righteous Crusade to Destroy America. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/romancing-the-apocalypse/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Spiritual and Material Antisemitism, Julius Evola and the Threat of Contemporary Fascism

Peter McLaren

Kaushik Jayaram has written a cautionary essay on why fascism is on the rise the world over that should provoke angry remonstrances from the public but will likely be met with a withering indifference if not insipient and callous antipathy. Much has been written about fascism and the proliferation of fascist governments – including their connection […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2023). Spiritual and Material Antisemitism, Julius Evola and the Threat of Contemporary Fascism. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/spiritual-and-material-antisemitism-julius-evola-and-the-threat-of-contemporary-fascism/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Fearful Symmetry in Israel and Palestine (Part 3)

Scholasticide, Fascism and Ideology

Peter McLaren

This is the final part of a three-column response to the terrorist attacks against Israel by Hamas and the subsequent reaction of Israel in its attacks on Gaza. My approach over the three columns has been to reject an either/or approach to the conflict and to embrace a both/and approach. In other words, I offer […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2023). Fearful Symmetry in Israel and Palestine (Part 3): Scholasticide, Fascism and Ideology. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/fearful-symmetry-in-israel-and-palestine-3/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

The Cosmic Mountain

A Modern-Day Parable Marking the Day the Supreme Court of the United States Outlawed Affirmative Action in College Admissions

Peter McLaren

Cosmic mountains are places where human beings can retreat in order to face the ghosts of the past and ask for forgiveness. In France, there exists a cosmic mountain where the ghosts of the victims of the Deutsches Ahnenerbe-Studiengesellschaft fur Geistesurgeschichte in Natzweiler Struthoff (a Nazi camp where inmates were subjected to obscene medical experiments […]

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Too Strong to Submit, Too Weak to Prevail

The Challenge of Supporting Ukraine in a Time of Crisis

Peter McLaren

If, in some ways, the strength of Ukraine is made perfect in its weakness, then how can it prevail against the Russian imperialist leviathan? With support from another imperialist mega-state, the United States, of course. But does such support justify the position of the campist left who might offer a limp, eye-wink condemnation of Russia’s […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2022). Too Strong to Submit, Too Weak to Prevail: The Challenge of Supporting Ukraine in a Time of Crisis. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/too-strong-to-submit-too-weak-to-prevail/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Christian Nationalism

The Chilling Presence of a Post-Digital Anti-Kingdom in America with a White God on Its Side

Peter McLaren

One of the obstacles in building critical constituencies in our schools that could effectively over time challenge neoliberal capitalism and promote more humane socialist alternatives is the sweetheart deal historically consecrated between capitalism and religion.  Serving as a barrier to much needed debates in our classrooms about the economy, inequality, racism, gender discrimination, racial capitalism, […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2022). Christian Nationalism: The Chilling Presence of a Post-Digital Anti-Kingdom in America with a White God on Its Side. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/christian-nationalism/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

The Scourge of Fascist Politics and the Rise of White Nationalism

From Orbán to Desantis

Henry A. Giroux

[This article is republished by permission of the author. It first appeared in Counterpunch.] The Orbánisation of Fascist Politics The malicious passions of fascism are with us once again, evident in the emergence of diverse regimes of predatory repression and exclusion that increasingly legitimate their hatred of democracy through appeals to a notion of illiberal […]

Full Citation Information:
Giroux, H. A. (2022). The Scourge of Fascist Politics and the Rise of White Nationalism: From Orbán to Desantis. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/the-scourge-of-fascist-politics-and-the-rise-of-white-nationalism/

Henry A. Giroux

Henry A. Giroux is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. Henry is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, and has written extensively on public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory, winning many awards. His interviews on neoliberalism appear in Truthout.  Henry is past co-Editor-in-chief of the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies.  In 2002 Routledge named him as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period.

 

Columns

Viktor Orbán, the Pimp of Putinism; Tucker Carlson’s Fascist Flirtations; and the Contradictions of ‘Traditional’ Values

Peter McLaren

An exceptional session of America’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is currently being held in Budapest, Hungary, the first-ever CPAC meeting held in Europe, which has been described as ‘an effort to cement bonds between the radical right on both sides of the Atlantic under the banner of the “great replacement” ideology.’ The conference is being hosted […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2022). Viktor Orbán, the Pimp of Putinism; Tucker Carlson’s Fascist Flirtations; and the Contradictions of ‘Traditional’ Values. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/viktor-orban-the-pimp-of-putinism-tucker-carlsons-fascist-flirtations-and-the-contradictions-of-traditional-values/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

A Reading List for Henry Giroux’s Pedagogy of Resistance

Henry A. Giroux

(Republished with the permission of the author and the Seminary Co-op.) The author shared this reading list of works that informed his latest book, Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance, published by Bloomsbury last month. In the post-Trump era, the politics of historical amnesia, disappearance and disposability continue to thrive. Trump may have lost the election […]

Full Citation Information:
Giroux, H. A. (2022). A Reading List for Henry Giroux’s Pedagogy of Resistance. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/a-reading-list-for-henry-girouxs-pedagogy-of-resistance/

Henry A. Giroux

Henry A. Giroux is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. Henry is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, and has written extensively on public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory, winning many awards. His interviews on neoliberalism appear in Truthout.  Henry is past co-Editor-in-chief of the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies.  In 2002 Routledge named him as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period.

 

Columns

Fascism, the Republican Party of Death, Structural Racism, QAnon, the War in Ukraine and the Coming Metaverse

Are We All Doomed?

Peter McLaren

Fascism in America Is calling Trump a fascist tantamount to indulging in some kind of essentialist trope? Should we describe him as an authoritarian or para-fascist instead? Is comparing him to Hitler a form of political opportunism or engaging in a strawman argument? Is Trump merely a bloviating apologist for sexism, racism, Islamophobia, white supremacy, […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2022). Fascism, the Republican Party of Death, Structural Racism, QAnon, the War in Ukraine and the Coming Metaverse: Are We All Doomed?. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/fascism-the-republican-party-of-death-structural-racism-qanon-the-war-in-ukraine-and-the-coming-metaverse/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Columns

Steve Bannon, Fascism and Making Sense of the Invasion of Ukraine

How the Left Divides Itself

Peter McLaren

The death-cough of Covid has both broken into politics and broken politics, bringing with it an army of the dead, charmed by the rusty voice of Steve Bannon: anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists are harnessing the night sky with wagging fascist tongues, soaked by the kerosene madness of quiet rage limping through the pock-marked corridors of […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2022). Steve Bannon, Fascism and Making Sense of the Invasion of Ukraine: How the Left Divides Itself. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/steve-bannon-fascism-and-making-sense-of-the-invasion-of-ukraine/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.