What is Reddit's opinion of The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent?

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I really couldn't give much of a crap about drilling down on the definitions of either 'tribalism' or 'white supremacy', but I agree with the OPs general point that Sam's asymmetry is completely backwards.

I generally admire and agree with Sam, but in that podcast, he really showed his blind spots and biases, especially when it comes to Trump, Republicans, and right-wing media.

1) He repeatedly downplayed the impact of right-wing media, along the lines of 'everyone knows they're full of shit'. Well, no, Sam. A massive chunk of real Americans don't. Tucker Carlson is the #1 cable news program and they are not applying the same filter as you. They lap that shit up as gospel. Quit downplaying how seriously people take Fox and Breitbart and the rest of the right-wing media ecosystem. That's dangerous in and of itself.

2) Ben Shapiro. Sam said that in the wake of Jan 6, Shapiro said all the right things to distance himself from Trump. This is a huge problem with Sam's thinking, and he did it with Trump himself in the Charlottesville presser. It's difficult to take *anything* a troll says at face value. You can't just look at one op-ed where Shapiro says he condemns Trump's big lie and ignore what he says on his podcast on a daily basis or books they write (https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarian-Moment-Weaponized-Americas-Institutions/dp/0063001829). Just read the first couple of pages of this idiotic screed, where Shapiro mocks the idea that Jan 6th was anything to be taken seriously and projects that liberals are the true autocratic threat to America. If you can't keep up with the gist of what someone is saying publicly DON'T COMMENT ON WHAT THEY SAY AT ALL. Just say I have no idea what they're up to. Instead, he DEFENDED Shapiro on the issue of the Big Lie. Pathetic.

3) Similar deal with Trump and Charlottesville. Trump says a bunch of stuff about how there are very fine people marching alongside neo-Nazis and somewhere in there he also condemns the neo-Nazis. Okay, Sam has to admit that Trump often sends mixed signals and says contradictory things. Which ones are we supposed to take at face value. Trump has also said no one respects women more than him. Do we extend Sam's incredible charity to that nonsense? Why not? Because we're dealing with a troll, an unreliable narrator. Everything they say is suspect. They've burned all their bridges to credibility, and such people have to earn their trustworthiness through being consistent and truthful. They don't get to play footsie with Nazis and wash it all away with a single statement that we have many reasons to suspect is completely bullshit.

I don't actually think Sam has any sympathy whatsoever with white nationalism, whatever it may be. But I think he's in a weird kind of bubble where he can't really comprehend just how threatening the stuff coming out of the extreme right can be because to him it's transparently nonsense and he can't see enough people taking it seriously for it to be an existential threat to democracy. On the other hand, like the OP says, he's been attacked by the far Left to an extent that he disproportionately views them as a bigger problem than the Right, which is just absurd.

The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063001829/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_V4V3DCY8TCN6Y2DXHV41

Thanks to the tens of thousands who have already bought my brand new book -- and tell your friends to pick up a copy!

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Shameless reminder: today is the release of my brand new book!

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My new book has sailed up the bestseller charts -- and I really appreciate it! If you haven't picked up a copy yet, here's the link yet again.

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Shameless reminder: today is the release of my brand new book!

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Time for a shameless pitch for my new book, which is all about the renormalization and weaponization of our institutions on behalf of the militant Left. It's important.

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