Erasing History: How Fascism Works (w/ Jason Stanley)

Mar 27, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author, dives deep into the concept of fascism, exploring its implications for democracy and education. He argues that attacks on critical race theory and historical narratives reflect a dangerous trend aimed at creating a sanitized version of the past. Stanley highlights how fascist regimes psychologically manipulate the populace, reinforcing the importance of academic freedom and resistance against authoritarianism. His insights challenge us to critically examine the erosion of democratic values in contemporary society.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Constitutional Crisis

A constitutional crisis occurs when one branch of government overreaches, another cedes power, and the judiciary pushes back.
The current US administration disregards court rulings, claiming to be the sole law.

ANECDOTE

Mahmoud Khalil's Arrest

Mahmoud Khalil's arrest resembled a scene from Stalinist Russia, involving handcuffs and an unclear agency.
The agents refused to identify themselves or speak to Khalil's lawyer.

ANECDOTE

Khalil's False Accusation

Mahmoud Khalil, a mediator between student protestors and Columbia University, was falsely accused due to Instagram posts.
Columbia targeted Khalil, despite knowing he was innocent, intensifying the situation.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Ever since the first Donald Trump administration, the word “fascism” has dominated discussion around Trump’s policies and ambitions to the extent of semantic satiation. Liberals and leftists often use fascism as a blanket term for anything right-wing politicians represent and Republicans equally use “communism” to denote Democratic or left-wing politics. Jason Stanley, author, American philosopher and Yale professor, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to give proper context to what fascism means and how the Trump administration’s second term could really mean the completion of the American fascist state.

One key element in the spread of fascism is the attack on a central pillar of democracy: education. Stanley explores the recent assault on crucial parts of the American education system, including critical race theory, Black history and now the sanctity of free speech. Legislation pushing for the suppression of these segments is expected, Stanley explains, since “it creates a fake version of the past and it tells students that you're the greatest country in history and your leaders are the greatest people in history. It's exactly what Hitler in Mein Kampf said the education system of the Third Reich should be.”

Stanley also illustrates the various ways in which fascist regimes attempt to psychologically manipulate the public into being subservient and by eliminating any reference to historic self-determination. “An education system should give people the sense that they have agency to change history,” Stanley tells Hedges. “And if you want to impose patriotic education, you want to impose the kind of education that fits into an authoritarian system, you want to remove agency from people.”

The bleakness of the near future is hard to avoid, Stanley warns. He likens the deportation and hunting down of pro-Palestinian student protestors to the stripping of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson’s passports:

“That's what happened with Du Bois and Robeson. Like if they can take down those people, they can take down anyone. And so that is clearly the next phase. Clearly the next phase is stripping the passports of people they don't like. You know, every authoritarian country does that. We've done it and I expect that to come, unfortunately.”