This is What Rough Beast!
We’re talking with Ben Wizner, the director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, which works to protect and expand the First Amendment freedoms of expression, association, and inquiry, and ensure that civil liberties are enhanced rather than compromised by new advances in science and technology.
In this episode, we discuss:
* The strategic theater behind ICE arrests - How dramatic detentions of elected officials like NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander are designed as performances for an audience of one: Donald Trump
* Why litigation is winning but can't solve Trumpism - Wizner explains how civil rights lawyers have filed 53 lawsuits in 100 days, winning many, but why legal victories alone won't address the deeper political crisis
* The cases of detained activists - Updates on Rumeysa Ozturk (released from detention) and Mahmoud Khalil (still detained in Louisiana), and what their cases reveal about the administration's tactics
* Terror tactics vs. autocratic control - Why the current approach resembles a protection racket more than systematic authoritarianism, using fear and spectacle rather than total surveillance
* The limits and power of resistance - How 5 million people in the streets for the "No Kings" protest shows Americans aren't too afraid to mobilize, and why our response determines what kind of crisis we're actually in
* The multipolar world after Trump - How three consecutive elections featuring Trump have permanently changed America's global standing, regardless of future election outcomes
Unlock more content and support the project of What Rough Beast by becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiaheffernan.substack.com/subscribe