Defining Radicalism and Its Inversions

I sat down with journalist and author Michael Shellenberger to unpack the psychology of modern radicalism and why anti-ICE activists seem more interested in perpetual agitation than problem-solving. Michael reflects on his own radical past, including his experiences in Nicaragua, Brazil, and Venezuela, where socialist idealism gave way to corruption, gangsterism, and societal collapse. We also discuss his ongoing fight for free speech and the potential global impacts of recent European regulatory attacks on Elon Musk and X (Twitter).

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Follow Michael on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/shellenberger?s=20

Read Michael’s work on Substack: https://substack.com/@shellenberger

Preorder a copy of “The Left’s War on Reality”: https://a.co/d/cnMuOGy

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Outline:

[0:00] ICE protest chaos

[13:06] Female psychology and left-wing activism

[30:19] Why Michael got involved in radical politics

[39:54] Interviewing the future President of Brazil

[42:44] Is Marxism a colonial project?

[47:46] What is “radicalism”?

[55:53] Working for Hugo Chávez in Venezuela

[1:01:41] Communism always devolves into gangsterism

[1:10:58] Liberalism, globalism, and nationalism

[1:18:02] Is “international law” a myth?

[1:22:08] Why Michael is skeptical of the Venezuela intervention

[1:31:48] The counterintuitive danger of natural resources

[1:37:13] Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural speech should scare you

[1:52:34] How elites keep mass democracy under control

[1:58:30] The Twitter Files and the next social media crackdown

[2:05:21] Free speech is a cause worth dying for

[2:13:58] Antisemitism, cancellation, and the conservative civil war

[2:24:19] Trump 2.0 proved that censorship can be overcome

[2:29:36] What Michael has learned from teaching

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