Sometimes there's an interview that brings radical clarity about the current moment. Professor Anita Say Chan's book Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech & Our Fight for an Independent Future ties Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and the tech billionaires empowered under Trump to eugenics movement of the 19th and 20th centuries with chilling specificity. She offers two key insights: first, that the focus on "merit" is an effort to convince Americans to give up democracy (in which everyone gets a vote/say/rights on the basis of their humanity) in favor of a system where various characteristics (such as IQ/race) "qualify" one for human rights. Second, she argues that by claiming only they (and their individual genius) can save the world, tech giants are persuading Americans that government should shrink to a "benevolent autocracy" where the rich rule. As Peter Thiel has said, "I no longer believe that freedom and Democracy are compatible." Seen through the lens of the eugenics movement, the end goals become shockingly clear, as does the role the left must play.
Vanity Fair recently published a provocatively-titled piece saying "Chapo Trap House Isn't Going to Save the Democrats." Comedian and podcaster Jake Flores joins Bad Faith along with Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding communications director Hamid Bendaas for a deep dive on the article, whether the trajectory of one of the left's most popular podcasts is reflective of the broader despondency on the left, and whether the pod has the power to help course correct the left back toward the optimism of the Bernie years. Hamid brings important IMEU stats showing the effect of the Gaza genocide on electoral outcomes, and the pair assess the liberal blame game which seeks to put the onus on everything except for the Democrats' own failures -- including the "dirtbag left."
Two top leftist TikTokers Jessica Burbank & James Li join Bad Faith to offer their perspective on the app's potential ban, the RedNote phenomenon, whether the left is too sanguine about Chinese censorship, and what makes TikTok, well, tick.
What's next for labor under Trump? Biden's reputation as the most pro-union President in a generation took a hit with his opposition to the railroad strike a year ago and was further diminished following recent reporting that Kamala Harris dismissed Teamsters president Sean O'Brien saying, "I'll win with or without you." The Democrats' procedural bungle also resulted in the National Labor Relations Board swinging Republican two years before it had to. Certainly things could get worse under Trump, but is there evidence for optimism in the labor space? Author of the new book We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor & Winning Big Eric Blanc joins Bad Faith to make the case.
Civil rights defense attorneys Michael Bloch and Ben White join Bad Faith to discuss the fatal beating of prisoner Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in New York and a similar case that their law firm Bloch & White is handling. How has advocacy for criminal justice reform changed since the BLM era, and to what extent did Democratic leadership fail the moment? Is there any optimism that liberals will recommit to the criminal justice promises they claimed to espouse during Trump's first term now that he's returning to the White House? Or does the decision of blue state liberals like NY Gov. Kathy Hochul to run to the right on these issues portend a further rightward drift over the next four years? And did the left bring this rightward shift on itself by not taking crime concerns seriously (à la Ana Kasparian's argument)? Or is something else at play?
BreakThrough News journalist Eugene Puryear returns to Bad Faith to talk left opportunities under the Trump administration and respond to Pod Save America's insane 2028 presidential draft picks: A liberal fever dream and a lefty nightmare.
