Recent literature explores the intersection of corporate power and autocratic politics, such as Paul Heideman’s analysis in Rogue Elephant, which examines how business leaders came to embrace Donald Trump and chaotic governance. Meanwhile, journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan investigate the realities of a potential second administration in Regime Change, while financial backer Elon Musk trades vast financial contributions to Trump for unprecedented governmental sway. Silicon Valley’s growing political influence is further dissected in Karen Hao’s Empire of AI alongside Gil Durán’s newly released title, The Nerd Reich. Offering a contrasting perspective, economist Branko Milanović uses his Substack platform to debate whether describing Trump’s second movement as fascist is truly accurate.
Central to this debate is the concept of “end times fascism”, a theoretical framework initially crafted as a Guardian essay before evolving into a published work by authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. In a comprehensive conversation with host Aditya Chakrabortty on the Radical Thinking broadcast, the duo contend that society has progressed past routine, isolated turmoil into a distinctly precarious era. Their dialogue spans an array of global emergencies, touching upon the assault on Gaza, accelerating ecological destruction, and the surge of technological oligarchs. Despite these grim diagnoses, both thinkers maintain that popular resistance and collective counteractions remain entirely viable pathways forward.
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