Is There Something Within the Ideology That Allows for Authoritarianism?

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I think that it's not just socialism, any sort of ideology that appeals to the collective and appeals to our long-term destiny can lend itself to authoritarianism. So you can see this in many of the nationalisms of the 20th century. Now, I think that that's really the case for making sure that we have a bedrock of civil rights and democracy. And then on top of that, we could debate different national destinies. We could debate different appeals, different visions of the world. But as long as people have a say in what sacrifices they're being asked to do, and as long as those sacrifices don't take away what's fundamentally ours, which is our life

Bhaskar Sunkara is a democratic socialist, political writer, founding editor of Jacobin, president of The Nation, and author of The Socialist Manifesto. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(13:24) – Socialism
(31:54) – Communism
(58:31) – Class struggle
(1:09:33) – Quality of life
(1:17:29) – Unions
(1:29:57) – Corruption
(1:43:15) – Freedom of speech
(1:51:38) – War
(1:59:24) – Karl Marx
(2:13:03) – Socialist vision
(2:18:28) – AI and socialism
(2:23:26) – Socialist policies
(2:48:45) – Billionaires
(2:54:43) – Bernie Sanders
(3:05:10) – AOC
(3:17:11) – 2024 presidential election
(3:22:05) – China
(3:31:06) – Jacobin
(3:38:35) – The Socialist Manifesto
(3:45:55) – Advice for young people
(3:49:28) – Meaning of life