AlternativeRadio

AI, artificial intelligence, is rapidly expanding along with its promises and dangers. On the promises side, tech bros like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, thanks to AI, “We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate.” AI critics such as Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner who has been called the “Godfather of AI,” warns of the technology’s “profound risks to society and humanity.” He adds, “People haven't understood what's coming.” He likened AI to “a very fast car with no steering wheel.” Unregulated AI will likely trigger a global economic crisis with its projection of massive layoffs. AI can speed up production, thus making corporations richer, but many workers will be laid off, e.g., Meta is cutting thousands of jobs. Amazon and Microsoft will follow. How will the capitalist economic system deal with AI?

What is fascism? Michael Parenti, author and historian, says, “Fascism historically has been used to secure the interests of large capitalist interests against the demands of popular democracy. Then and now, fascism has made irrational mass appeals in order to secure the rational ends of class domination.”  Fascism flourishes in times of economic insecurity and cultural backlash. Opportunistic politicians offer up a platter of racism, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism. They stoke fear and resentment using simplistic slogans such as “Drain the Swamp” and “Build the Wall.” In the U.S. today, there is a whiff of fascism in the air. Witness the march of white supremacists with torches held high in Charlottesville, chanting “Blood and Soil,” an old Nazi slogan and “Jews Will Not Replace Us.” The president called them “very fine people.” Recorded at Trent University.

On February 28th, Israel attacked Iran. Almost immediately, the U.S. joined the fray. The claims against Iran are eerily similar to those made against Iraq in 2003. Remember back then, Baghdad supposedly was a great danger. Today, it is Iran we are to fear. It’s an “imminent” threat we are told. No evidence is given. None is needed. The master has spoken. The U.S. must take military action. To paraphrase an old song, “propaganda runs deep, into your brains it will seep.” Washington has never forgiven Iran for ousting the Shah. If the U.S. didn't destroy democracy in Iran in the 1953 coup, things would have turned out differently. The geopolitical and economic consequences of this war will be felt not just in the U.S. but around the world for years to come. Recorded at Princeton University.

A new world order is emerging that is dangerously more wicked and destructive. Led by the United States, it is marked by savagery at home and abroad. The old order has collapsed, buried under the weight of its contradictions, mendacities and hypocrisies. The so-called rules-based international system was never what it was designed to be but it had some merit, such as the United Nations and its agencies. Today, that framework is shattered. The U.S. is the imperial hegemon, the global robocop. Rules, laws, treaties, and agreements are all gone. Washington, with its trillion-dollar military budget, commands the waves and the skies. Law, UN resolutions, and judgments from the International Court of Justice are for designated enemies. The master and his servants are exempt. Our media, with few exceptions, are stenographers to power.

The post-WW1 Weimar Republic in Germany was the height of European civilization. Its scientists and scholars led the world. Its Bauhaus architecture was the rage. Its arts featured such luminaries as Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Thomas Mann. Yet, out of this modern democracy sprang Nazism, German fascism, and one of the most barbaric regimes ever. How did Hitler happen? It is one of the most important questions of history. What happened in Germany has disturbing resonances for our own time. Fascist-like regimes are taking power in many countries. We ignore disturbing signs at our peril from torchlight parades in Charlottesville with crowds chanting, “Jews Will Not Replace Us” to a synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh to the murder of African-Americans in a church in Charleston. What can we learn from the past to ensure it doesn’t happen again? Recorded at Hunter College. Interviewed by David Barsamian