Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels

Victor Davis Hanson: The Dangerous Ideologies America Is Sleepwalking Back Into

Nov 16, 2025
Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and expert on war and civilizations, joins to explore the dangerous resurgence of ideologies like Marxism and socialism. He delves into Karl Marx’s core beliefs and contrasts socialism with communism, revealing the dangers of creeping ideologies. Hanson also discusses the historical intersection of religion and politics, highlighting Christianity’s moral foundations and critiques from socialists. Lastly, he warns against crony capitalism's perils and the threat of extremism in contemporary discourse.
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INSIGHT

Marx's Core Economic Vision

  • Karl Marx framed socialism as abolishing private ownership of production and paying by need rather than output.
  • Victor Davis Hanson explains Marx arose from industrial-era urban misery and philosophical traditions like Hegel and Rousseau.
ANECDOTE

Marx's Salon Money Tray Story

  • Hanson recounts Marx hosting salons where money was pooled and people took what they needed as an experiment in communal sharing.
  • He uses this anecdote to show why the theory failed: people took more than they needed.
INSIGHT

Why Communism Requires Coercion

  • Bolshevik implementation required force, show trials, and mass killings to impose Marxist ideals.
  • Hanson stresses that communism must coerce people because it conflicts with human nature and individuality.
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