Comparing America to the Soviet Union and the Importance of Intention

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the octagon! The summer of 2024 has been one of epic feuds: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake, Joe Biden vs. George Clooney, and, most notably, Jonah vs. Hoover Institute fellow and Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson.

Jonah and Niall duke it out over the latter’s controversial claim: that America is the new Soviet Union. Jonah says nyet. Questions fly and accusations abound. Why is U.S. life expectancy declining? Is Jonah in denial? Is Niall just a provocateur? This match-up covers it all: the distinction between excess freedom and excess repression, why fentanyl is different than vodka, what causes deaths of despair, how illiberalism shapes both institutions and social outcomes, and what Cold War II could look like. As for the title-winner? We’ll let you be the judge, comrade.

Show Notes:

—Niall Ferguson: “We’re All Soviets Now”

—Jonah Goldberg: “No, We Are Not Living in ‘Late Soviet America”

—The Twitter Spat

—“The Flight 93 Election”

—“Why Socialism Failed in the United States”

—Joseph Schumpeter: “Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy”

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