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“It’s an overwhelming blitz. It is an attempt to overwhelm us and make us feel like we have already lost any type of a battle that we have to fight. And just to go ahead and reiterate it, this is weaponised abuse. That’s how authoritarianism works,” — Jared Yates Sexton.
Resonant World #127
It was one of those conversations where disparate elements I’d been tracking crystalised into a new and more coherent picture of both the gave dangers — and potential opportunities — of our moment.
I’ve been a follower of
’s writing and audio for a while now, and have found his Dispatches from a Collapsing State newsletter an essential guide to the political turmoil in the United States, and the rise of authoritarianism globally.There’s hardly a shortage of punditry online, but I felt an impulse to reach out to Jared because I had a sense he’d be able to parse the implications of the Trump presidency for the climate fight with both precision and sweep.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Jared provided a penetrating, accessible account of how President Donald Trump’s alliance with tech oligarchs represents the logical conclusion of a decades-long campaign by the “wealth class” to consolidate its grip over state power — while using disinformation to divide the rest of the population against itself.
Here’s what Jared says the climate movement needs to know:
This oligarch-autocrat alliance is intent on consolidating apartheid-style structures of border controls and surveillance designed to insulate the ultra-wealthy from the devastation the crisis is causing, while sowing disinformation to scapegoat minorities, and reaping enormous profits from disaster relief.
But Jared was also adamant when we spoke on January 24 — four days after Trump’s inauguration — that countervailing political forces are still capable of forging the kinds of broad-based alliances needed to offer a meaningful alternative.
I particularly appreciated Jared’s capacity to reimagine the sense of grievance driving support for authoritarianism, the far-right and acts of political violence as a symptom of an underlying, widespread hunger to change the status quo. What if that hunger — shared across many segments of the political spectrum — could be channelled into more constructive movements for change?
To help us bolster our psychological defences, Jared invites us to consider that authoritarianism is a form of “weaponised abuse” — carefully designed to leave opponents feeling defeated and demoralised.
As Jared explained towards the end of our conversation, having grown up in an abusive environment in rural Indiana, he can see clear parallels between the tactics employed by abusive parents, and the control mechanisms autocrats inflict on nations. By perceiving these patterns clearly, we grow our capacity to stay grounded and balanced — and not give into the despondency that lets autocrats win.
These weren’t easy truths to confront. But there was something about the combination of Jared’s intellectual lucidity and open-heartedness that left me feeling more energised at the end of our hour together — and even more committed to addressing the collective trauma at the root of our interlocking crises.
I hope our exchange — which is also being published by DeSmog, the nonprofit climate newsroom where I work as an editor — will have the same effect for you. Thank you for listening.
This episode aims to:
Concisely place events in the U.S. in their essential historical context
Explore what the rise of oligarchical autocracy means for the climate fight
Explain the links between authoritarianism and trauma
Chart new and unexpected avenues for movement-building
Provide resourcing for those feeling the weight of current events
Ideas that struck me:
Parallels between tactics used by abusive parents and autocrats
How far most media discourse is from addressing the roots of the metacrisis
Jared’s capacity to see political opportunities in unlikely places
Questions I was left with:
What would it take to provide a detailed, continually updated, brilliantly visualised map of all initiatives related to trauma healing in the U.S.?
Who could help me rapidly get up to speed on the research literature exploring the relationship between authoritarianism and trauma?
What role might facilitators skilled in working with political polarisation I’ve met potentially play in movement-building?
Transcript
Related Resources
About Jared Yates Sexton
Jared Yates Sexton is a political analyst and author whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Politico, Salon, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. He is the author of The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage, The Man They Wanted Me To Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making, American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, and the The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis. He is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast and serves on the board of the Change Campaign.
Notes
00:52 — Jared draws hope from the fact these kinds of conversations are happening
02:23 — Authoritarianism as “weaponised abuse”
06:04 — Push for control by the “wealth” class from 1970s to present
09:47 — From ‘robber barons’ to tech oligarchs; response to climate crisis
17:13 — Distractions of “going to Mars”, promised technofixes
18:28 — Elites consciously decide to introduce climate apartheid
19:49 — Right-wing push to regain initiative in the 1970s and 80s
25:24 — Climate, authoritarianism and disinformation
28:45 — Powerful interests who created climate crisis stand to profit
33:24 — Intersection between climate crisis, inequality, economy
35:37 — Tipping point where people see struggles are interconnected
38:46 — Relationship between childhood trauma and authoritarianism
41:45 — Jared’s personal journey
47:26 — Seeking new opportunities for movement-building in unlikely places
51:58 — The fight can be won
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