The Nazi Lies Podcast Ep. 0: Trailer

 

The Nazi Lies Podcast is an antidote to a neutral fascist studies. Fascist studies–the interdisciplinary exploration of the fascist phenomenon–has an unfortunate habit of looking at fascism in a historical and social vacuum. In the quest for objectivity, many scholars believe an exploration of fascism requires the shedding of all prior knowledge so as not to taint the investigation with our “moral biases.”

For example, Roger Griffin, probably the most cited scholar today in studies on fascist ideology, had this to say in the preface to his edited volume International Fascism: Theories, Causes, and the New Consensus:

The use of an abstract, detached language to analyze phenomena associated with fanaticism and violence should not be seen as callousness, however, but rather as a means to counteract and exorcise the appalling threat which they have posed in the twentieth century to Enlightenment humanism and its legacy of tolerance and respect for human rights.

What this often ends up meaning in practice, however–particularly for those who focus on fascist ideology–is the proliferation of mere reconstructions and syntheses of existing fascist dogma without checking the claims and theories of fascists against actual evidence for fear of appearing biased. The outcome of this is an effective widening of the fascist literary canon, as fascists can say, ‘Every political theory has inspired mass violence but not every political theory is scientifically correct.’

Fascism is not scientifically correct. On The Nazi Lies Podcast, I’m gonna talk to a variety of scholars, journalists, and other people with expertise about the things that fascists lie about. I expect it to be entertaining. Ridiculing fascist lies with people who actually know what they’re talking about usually is. But I also want to inoculate people against fascist dogma, and maybe even turn some people away from it.

A little about me. My name is Mike Isaacson. I first started learning about fascism through force of circumstance. I was taking a history of economic thought class in 2011 for my master’s at Howard University in DC. The professor assigned a pretty wide open term paper. I was starting to see mainstream economics as the practice of using math problems as ill-fitting metaphors for a hagiography of markets, so the prospect of writing a history of that thought bored me. The professor himself was a communist, so I didn’t want to elicit additional scrutiny by exploring Marxian economics. So I wrote my term paper about fascist economic theory.

Fast forward a year and my Occupy DC friends and I stumble across an upcoming Aryan Nations march to the Capitol. We were aware of the existence of antifa organizations, but we chose to call our organization (which we thought would be temporary) Smash Racism DC, because in 2012 hardly anyone knew what fascism was, much less anti-fascism. We did some community outreach, put up some fliers, did some panels, knocked on doors, and managed to pull out about two to three hundred people against about fifteen to twenty nazis.

The Aryan Nations planned to march from Lincoln Park to the Capitol and speak for two hours on the Capitol lawn. With sitdown blockades at every intersection, we slowed their march to a crawl. It ended up taking two hours to march what would have taken twenty to thirty minutes with their enormous police escort. Because of how loud we were, the Aryan Nations left the site of their speakout after about ten minutes because no one could hear them.

Smash Racism DC existed for a couple years after that as mostly a social media presence. I used it in 2015 to organize a not-very-successful response to the National Policy Institute’s conference on Halloween. In the wake of the Mother Emanuel church shooting, that year’s conference blew attendance for their increasingly frequent conferences out of the water, with about 300 attendees, mostly under the age of 30. This would portend the eclipsing of politics by the fascist-centered alt-right during the 2016 election.

In the wake of that election, Smash Racism DC was given new life as the mouthpiece for the newly formed DC Anti-Fascist Coalition. They would organize a large response to that year’s NPI conference, disrupting their pre-conference dinner, and pulling out about three to four hundred community members to oppose the conference the following day. The DC Anti-Fascist Coalition would continue to mobilize DC’s anti-fascists for years to come.

Currently, I’m working on my doctorate in economics and history at the New School for Social Research. My research focuses on the development of 21st century neo-fascism–its ideologies, its institutions, its networks, and how it spreads. I don’t get much of an opportunity in that research to get lost in the weeds of the absolutely bizarre things that some fascists earnestly believe. That’s why I’m starting this podcast.

We’re gonna cover all sorts of nazi lies on this podcast. Is Hitler alive? Were the gas chambers fake? Is the earth hollow? It’s gonna be a wild ride. We’re gonna be launching on April 30th to celebrate Hitler’s death, but in the meantime like us on Facebook @TheNSLiesPod and follow us on Twitter @NaziLies for updates.

Also, I’m looking to pay my guests, and putting this podcast up online isn’t free either. You can help out by sending your contributions either to paypal.me/NaziLies or via Cash App at $NaziLies. Patrons on our Patreon get access to exclusive pre-show banter clips and other perks. I’m also on the lookout for advertisers committed to the anti-fascist cause. Feel free to reach out at [email protected] or send us a DM via Twitter or Facebook.

Let’s have some fun.