243 / Meeting Basic Human Needs / Shane Burley

In this episode, I speak with author, journalist, and political researcher Shane Burley. We discuss mutual aid in the time of COVID-19, the Autumn of the Alt Right, and the underlying structure of conspiracy theories in the age of information. We begin this discussion with Shane describing what mutual aid and solidarity looks like in our time of the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of workers in the United State without jobs as a result of widespread economic disruption and lack of a comprehensive government aid. From there, we move into what he explored in an earlier article he published at Commune Magazine, titled Autumn of the Alt Right. I asked him what the state of the Alt Right is currently, in particular what the ultimate failures and successes the far right movement has made in their attempt to shift the political discourse in the U.S. further to the Right. Finally, we end this interview with an examination of the underlying structure of conspiracy theories in the age of information, which is especially relevant in light of the spread of baseless suppositions surrounding the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the pandemic is a “hoax,” and so on. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shane-burley-4 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast