Dr. Ben-Ghiat visited the University of Iowa as a guest speaker for the UI Lecture Committee on October 3rd, 2024. KRUI had the opportunity to speak to her before her public appearance to talk about her significant research findings on the blueprint of fascist movements, strongmen, and why the MAGA political movement has been so successful just over a month ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election.

Since the time of this conversation, Republican Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have been declared and confirmed as the winner of the Presidential election, and were inaugurated on January 20th, 2025. All comments were made in speculation of a tight race and in the context of rising political tensions between the two parties with the end of campaign season rapidly approaching.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Julia Anderson: In preparation for speaking with you today, of course, I watched just about every video of yours I could find on YouTube. An interesting fact that you mentioned, that I thought would be a really good starting point here is that 30% of the population at any given time has authoritarian leanings. This is in a global sense, and so according to the trending news today, there are many right-wing political movements happening across the world, such as in Hungary with President Viktor Orbán and in France with the rise of the National Rally Party led by Marine Le Pen. There’s also a couple of others I believe in Germany and whatnot, along with several places in Europe. What distinguishes fascism from other types of nationalist movements, and where do we see fascism rising in the world today?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Yeah, so that’s a great question. I mean, classic fascism was a product of the 1920s and ’30s, with Mussolini being the person who invented fascism. It was very much a product of World War I and the total upheaval of everyone’s lives, with millions and millions of men who were killed and disabled, along with changes in gender relations. One of the things I found in my research, and fascism as the first example, is that authoritarianism is appealing when societies have had a huge amount of change.

World War I was the biggest example, with progress made with gender, racial equity, and the beginning of anti-colonial activities. That leads to a backlash, and so fascism was this very pure form of state driven racism, you know? Nations wanted to turn back the clock and make women kind of the tools of the state for procreation, but only the right kinds of babies. In the Nazi version, it was having the state channel to create a master race, right? That leads to imperialist campaigns of conquering, looting, and plundering. So today, things work differently, and there are many fascist aspects that remain. For example calling people garbage, scum, or vermin, and talking about them as animals. This has remained from fascism. Hitler used it for the Jews. Mussolini used it eventually for Jews, but also for leftists.

There’s the whole idea of needing these hyper nationalist movements to defeat Marxism and defeat communism that comes out of fascism. But things work differently today. There are not as many one party states where there’s no political opposition allowed. Really, it’s places like North Korea and China, which are communist. So fascism remains in its spirit, in its language, and many policies, but today I use the word authoritarian because that encompasses the fact we still have elections. Like in Hungary or Turkey, you have authoritarians, but they have elections and they’re not one party states.

Anderson: Is it possible to see fascism in a democracy such as what we’re seeing across Europe? Are these actually considered fascist movements?

Ben-Ghiat: Some people use the word fascism for them, and there’s a whole debate on this including what we do about Trump and the GOP. Are they fascist? Do they want fascism? So, there’s a debate on whether you could use the word today, right? Or, you want to restrict it, and I’m kind of in the middle where in some ways it’s not useful to label Viktor Orbán a fascist, because then people say, “Well, wait a minute, it’s not a one party state. It’s not a pure dictatorship. So, what are you talking about?” That’s why I use the word authoritarian. Fascism was just the first stage of authoritarianism, which is when the executive, personal power of the leader kind of takes over, and eradicates or highly damages the independence of the judiciary and opposition parties. That allows the leader to have supreme power and even immunity from prosecution.

So, there are many similarities, but definitely some of the same conditions that led to fascism—like people feeling they need to turn the clock back on racial or gender emancipation, all that stuff—that exists today.

Anderson: You brought up a good point a second ago with mentioning how this relates to Donald Trump and the rise of this kind of Trumpism version of Republicanism in American politics. Since the release of your book, which served as an analysis of the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, he essentially created the blueprint for right wing dictatorship.

As it relates to Donald Trump and with the upcoming election, you’ve spoken very publicly and been very critical of the policies contained in Project 2025, and how they relate to fascism. A common response is, “It can’t happen here in the U.S. We have too many guardrails in place. That really wouldn’t be possible. As entertaining as politics is right now, nothing’s really a threat, an actual tangible threat to our democracy.” But, what is it that experts making this claim, that there is a connection between the two, what are they seeing that indicates that the U.S. is susceptible to a fascist movement?

Ben-Ghiat: Well, we already have many signs of this. So basically, you know, Trump is an authoritarian. He’s in my book. It was one of the first books to put him in historical perspective, look at him and see how does he bring forth not just fascism, but also right wing military dictatorships. Trump has been on record many times saying he wants the military to have a new role. Not just abroad, which has been their role, but also he thinks protesters should be shot. He’s talked about executing generals who are not loyal. He wants the military to be used, in part, for domestic repression.

So, he doesn’t just borrow from fascism, he borrows from these other forms of authoritarianism. What has happened to the GOP since he became president is that in my analysis it’s become an autocratic party. Trump has a genuine leader-call. It’s extraordinary what he’s been able to do. Working in a democracy, he has been able to have this personal control over the party. Now, he has his daughter in law, Laura Trump, who’s the head of the Republican National Committee, and the money is raised from ordinary Republicans around the country. It goes to Trump and not to other campaigns. There’s a lot of personalization of politics, and the GOP is now a party that is dependent on lying, such as the idea that Trump won the 2020 election. Also, they lie about January 6th, which was an attempt to overthrow the government. So that’s an example.

How far have we come down the path of authoritarianism? We already had an attempt to overthrow the government with tens of thousands of people committing violence, along with the GOP, Fox News, and all the other allies that have been trying to cover this up and say it was just terrorists. They said it wasn’t violent, because that’s what you do in history if you’re not done. So, they’re dependent on corruption, on lying, on violence, and that’s how authoritarian parties work. They can’t really have fair and free elections anymore in countries. That’s why they engage in this election denial.

The last thing I’ll say is that we never had a national experience of dictatorship in America, but we had a regional authoritarianism which was the Jim Crow South. We have a long history, and not just in the South, of voter suppression, a lot of which is racially motivated, but also just political trickery, right? So, in places like Ohio the GOP uses voter suppression very effectively. Redistricting and gerrymandering, these are all forms of voter suppression and just trying to game the results so that it’s not really a free and fair election, even though it seems to be. So, we have all this history and that’s why it can happen here, but it always looks different. That’s why people don’t see it coming. When you analyze something like the tool book of global authoritarianism, and then look at our history here, you see how they meet.

Trump was very smart from the very beginning in 2016 to address himself to all kinds of extremists, including southern racists who never liked Barack Obama, never thought he should have been there, along with neo-Nazis and the militias. So, he created a big tent so that everybody could be part of his Trumpism and that’s why some people would say, “Okay, well, isn’t he repeating fascism?” and in part, he is, but he’s also activating things that are specific to our country, if that makes sense.

Anderson: Yes, it does seem that his popularity increased with this emotional appeal. It was like an appeal to people that felt like they had been forgotten, given that they weren’t at the forefront of the progress being made for people that have historically been left behind.

As a response, as you mentioned, the GOP does use a lot of rhetoric to combat against claims that they’re fascists, such as blaming the left, accusing the “the radical left” of being a fascist, or an authoritarian movement that’s attempting to oust him from politics and disrupt the democratic process. Is there any validity or any weight to those claims, or are they simply just diversion tactics? 

Ben-Ghiat: That part is diversion tactics. I call it the upside down world of authoritarianism, you take everything and you flip it. So, a diversionary tactic is claiming that when Joe Biden stepped aside due to age and a sense that he wasn’t as effective as he could have been, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee, the Republicans are saying that was a coup attempt. What we have to pay attention to is the big narrative lines they use, and one of them is that it’s the Democrats who are authoritarians. They’re very good at doing that.

But you brought up something really important about the validity of all this. Democrats had kind of neglected white working class people and rural populations. The Biden administration has hugely corrected this, both with like manufacturing policies and stuff about addressing the opioid rhetoric epidemic, right? But they were a population that was not served by Democrats. So, Trump is a marketer at heart, and he’s a brilliant marketer. He’s not the first one, there are others in my book who scan the political marketplace and see who is underserved, and is going to be susceptible to his appeals. He doesn’t care about the working class, but he came to them and he said, “You’ve been forgotten. I love you, and I will fix it for you,” and of course they voted for him. Here was somebody speaking to them directly, and authoritarians from Mussolini, Berlusconi, even Putin do the same. They know how to use emotion to make people feel they care about them.

There are huge crowds at Trump rallies. They feel that he loves them, and he’s very good at making them think that. So, he went and he said, “You were forgotten.” Democrats didn’t have anything to compete with that. Emotion is extremely important, and it’s actually been authoritarians who have known how to use emotion until very recently, with the Kamala Harris joy and love sentiment. That’s really recent, but Hillary Clinton was not a joy and love type of emotional person. It was Trump who knew how to do that, and he gets credit for that. I believe it’s a terrible tragedy for our nation that he doesn’t actually care about the American people. He cares about his own power and riches, but he’s very good at making people feel like he cares about them.

Anderson: As someone who has obsessively watched the news since probably 2016—even when I was a little too young to understand exactly what was going on—I could tell the emotional appeal was strong, even if you don’t have much of a political background. Donald Trump on TV is someone that anyone can understand. Just breaking down his vocabulary, it’s not the most complex, but it appeals to people and it’s accessible.

Ben-Ghiat: There are studies that he, especially in the whole 2016 campaign and while he was president, was at a fourth or fifth grade level with his vocabulary. The other thing he did is that he used all caps. Most of his posts are all caps. I study propaganda, there’s a chapter in my book about propaganda, and I also studied visual things. He’s a hugely visual person, and so at the beginning, he would capitalize only some words in his tweets. They were words that he knew when people were scrolling would stand out. Stuff about his victimhood, stuff about the horrible Democrats, stuff about him being so great, he would capitalize those things, and he would use this very basic language that appealed to people who wanted a politician who they feel is down to earth.

Anderson: When there are serious, credible threats of authoritarianism or fascism on the rise globally in a political climate, what are the most effective practices in curbing that rise?

Ben-Ghiat: So recently, we had a really good example in Poland. In 2023, the opposition mobilized to the polls and voted out a far-right government that had all but banned abortion nationally and was horribly anti-immigrant, which is the same checklist of far-right things that we are having here and all kinds of other places. So, what do they do? They expose the corruption of the far-right government and their hypocrisy. That is a little harder to do here because the GOP is highly organized with a very effective party machine for messaging. They also have Fox News, and there was no Fox News equivalent in Poland. But, they did expose the hypocrisy, showing that government politicians were actually selling visas to immigrants and profiting, gouging them. People didn’t like that. They also appealed to women about abortion rights and so and they had positive messaging.

They also had like a six party coalition. Now, we are really hindered with this because we’ve only got the two parties. We’re a giant nation, a big, powerful nation, and when one of those parties leaves democracy, doesn’t recognize election results anymore, and uses violence, what do you do? That’s hard, and that’s why we have Republicans endorsing Harris now. Hundreds and hundreds of prominent Republicans, people who served with Trump, and generals are coming out and saying things like, “For the good of the country,” and “Put country over party this time and keep him out,” because we know how dangerous it is for national security. So in Poland, the polls were able to get six parties representing a wide swath of opinions. They all unified against the far-right government.

The final thing they did was mobilize emotion. They had the March of a Million Hearts, and literally a heart as their logo. It was about positivity, solidarity, kindness, all of it was a values based campaign. Plus, the anti-corruption and pro-reproductive rights. It was the largest turnout since communism fell in 1989. Then that led to the largest voter turnout since 1989 and now they have progressives in power. Those are things that are much harder to do here, but that’s why when the Harris Walz campaign started talking about joy and love, I was like, “This is good, this is what we need.”

Anderson: Honestly, I do take a more moderate stance between the two, specifically when it comes to being on radio, but I do really enjoy the positivity that’s been coming from the Democratic Party since they’ve switched to having Vice President Harris be the primary candidate as opposed to Joe Biden. There is a massive tonal switch that I don’t think really anyone can deny. If you watched the DNC, it just seemed like there was a lot more positivity in the room than there has been in the last eight years that we’ve seen from the Democratic Party.

Ben-Ghiat: On that positive, moderate note, it’s really important to engage people on a positive basis and not just attack. It’s not by demonizing each other, it’s by actually reaching out to those you know. Bridge building is important, and a lot of people have family members or friends they don’t talk to anymore because of politics. You have to have those conversations. All the research says you should not shame them, you should not condescend them. You have to meet them where they are and keep the connection going, because otherwise we don’t have a civic fabric anymore, and that’s what can lead to political violence, and nobody wants that except a very small minority of extremists. Most Americans don’t want that.

In fact, on some of the major issues, Americans are much more moderate than MAGA. They are for reproductive rights. They are for same-sex marriage. Those things have been accepted. There’s a lot of repair we can do. That’s why I’m also on this tour talking about these things. It’s just we can all do things our own way and have our own contribution, because what is the alternative?

The post Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Fascism and the Modern MAGA Movement appeared first on KRUI Radio.

As I was scrolling through Netflix, I spotted a new original called “Dirty Money.” Instantly intrigued, I pressed play. No, I didn’t read the description-I’m too impulsive for that, but I don’t regret it. Netflix originals can be a hit or a miss, and this was definitely a hard hit.

The show covers infamous economic scandals ranging from the cartel to Big Pharma. The first episode had a ton of impact and shed a lot of light on how corrupt large companies can be. In an initiative to compete with American companies, Volkswagen created its own “clean diesel” vehicle.

The German company advertised the car to have lower carbon emissions than previous models. It turned out that Volkswagen was just engineering the car to circumvent American carbon emission tests-it wasn’t environmentally friendly at all. And worse? When caught, they recalled the model, redesigned it to go around the test again, and continued selling the car. Those sly Germans.

I might be out of the loop here, but I had never heard of this scandal and I will never buy a Volkswagen (I probably wouldn’t have to begin with.) It’s incredible how such a large company can get away with being so deceitful, especially to an entire country.

The last episode of the series about Trump University reminds us of President Trump’s ability to create his image in the media, going so far as to call a magazine pretending to be his own PR man to spread stories about himself. “Trump has this reptilian, knowing, street-smart awareness of the powers of media,” says journalist Tim O’Brien in the show. As he tweets from the Oval Office, we are reminded every day of Trump’s ability to steal headlines simply through his rhetoric.

It is revealed that Trump’s show “The Apprentice” created an image of him that was misleading.  The famous boardroom where Trump interrogated the contestants was constructed solely for the show, along with the ornate nature of the reception area. In reality, his office and building were cluttered and outdated.

In an interview with Walter Shaub, former Director of U.S. Department of Ethics, he explains that the Trump Administration wanted nothing to do with working with the Department, unlike the past two administrations. Shaub resigned due to the lack of communication he had with the President. The decision to include this segment in the episode only added a political undertone that elicited anxiety and frustration.

Although this series is impressive, I am disappointed that the Trump episode is so obviously biased. The second episode deals with Scott Tucker, a former race car driver who created payday loans and is serving a 16-year prison sentence for racketeering. This is the only other episode that deals with an individual instead of a company and it includes testimonies from people who admire Tucker’s business skills in addition to those who believe he is a criminal with wicked intentions.

In “Confidence Man,” I came across no interviews that praised Trump for anything except for his ability to manipulate and con innocent people. As difficult as it is, it would have been nice for this series to stay out of the political arena and stick to the money.  Maybe next season?

All in all, “Dirty Money” is seriously enlightening. The show successfully breaks down the stock market, real-estate developing, monopolies, and banking for those of us who didn’t get our MBA’s. I never felt like I was in over my head, and I actually learned a ton of new things. I’d love to see this series continue, and who knows, maybe I’ll land a side job on Wall Street.

The post Netflix and Trill: “Dirty Money” Will Hook You appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The National’s 7th album, Sleep Well Beast contains many of the band’s first’s; a guitar solo by Aaron Dessner on “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” or the song “Turtleneck,” which Berninger explains to NPR is basically gibberish but with dark political connotation about President Donald Trump.

Electronic influences aren’t new to Sleep Well Beast, although it seems so to an audience. A bright citrus opening to the album playfully awakens this to the audience, with horse hove sounding synths while in the background, a melodramatic piano pattern carries the classic sounds we’ve been craving since their last release in 2013; Trouble Will Find Me.

“There’s some of it [electronic influence] on every record, really. You can hear beds of electronic stuff kind of rolling away in the background on the last album, on “Demons” and “Don’t Swallow the Cap” says Bryce Dessner, National guitarist and composer tells Joe Goggins.

Bursting choruses, bloody and brooding lyrics all bring together the perfect pace that Sleep Well Beast is. While still moody and dark, no doubt with help from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, friend of Aaron Desser, there’s a new take on relationships, romantic and social, for this album.

“I’m not lost I’m not lost I’m losing grip the fabrics ripped” Berlinger grumbles in Sleep Well Beast, “let me figure it out, how to get us back to the place where we were when we first went out.”

“The [lyrics] are flexible, My marriage is in tact, but this is clearly a record about a relationship that’s over or maybe about to be over”  Berlinger tells NPR’s All Songs Considered with a chuckle. The album is centered on Berninger and his wife, Carin Besser, who co-wrote part of the album.

“We write about the things that are really really scare us the most, looking over the edge, and if you really look far enough over and address it and then come back and talk about what you saw and saying ‘I don’t want to take that step, I’m not going to do that’ that’s a healthy thing,” he tells NPR.

Sleep Well Beast isn’t an album that was put together with just chords and lyrics, it’s a socially aware active piece of art. The title of the album was born from the idea of Resignation Syndrome where, after being told they’re being deported from Sweden, hundreds of Syrian refugee children are falling into a comatose state for weeks at a time.

Berninger explains what part the election took in the album to Joe Goggins, “We had a bunch of songs that were actually quite political, but they just felt fundamentally lame and insignificant afterwards, so we dumped them. The political stuff that remains is just of a different tone.”

Aaron Dessner continues, “You can’t really separate your art from your personal experience, and everything that’s happening right now – you know, these are things that are going to affect our children.”

You can hear empathy, and the tug on Berninger’s patience in his voice through the entire album. It’s nothing that we don’t expect from the band, but it’s everything we needed to hear.

“The end of it’s a bunch of imagery from news footage that I saw, people like on forklifts..and you know native americans stopping the pipeline…and different stuff, its just fragments of imagery coming in and out at the end” Berninger tells NPR’s All Songs Considered.  

“Also the sound of the record gets a little bit deconstructed and the pieces of the architecture of the song get kind of revealed at the end…it was a big…yeah we were smoking weed, man.”

Sleep Well Beast was released September 8th, 2017.

The post Everything you need to know while you’re listening to The National’s new LP “Sleep Well Beast” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

***Warning*** Explicit/vulgar language used in this article. Reader discretion is advised. It’s Margaret Cho, what else would you expect?

To put it simply: one of the most well-known headliners on this year’s Mission Creek Festival lineup did not disappoint. Yup, we’re talking about the one and only Margaret Cho. Where do I even begin?

Perhaps we should start with the opening comedian, yeah? Selene Luna strutted on stage with all smiles and waves. Selene, who is a 3’10” woman living in the heart of Hollywood, is described by her website as a “small package with a big presence”–there is no denying that. Her vulgarity mixed with her intersectionality of being a disabled Mexican female, and her stance on satirical issues had the entire Englert theatre in laughing fits.

She touched on issues in today’s society, starting out with Donald Trump. “This is a college town, right? So I won’t get in trouble for saying ‘Fuck Trump’?” was followed by whistles from the audience. She continued to talk about Trump and how ridiculous she thinks it is to build a wall. “I’m not the first one to say this, but… they’re just going to dig tunnels!” Her sense of humor and stage presence is what really made it feel like a comedy show, as opposed to feeling like a political rally.

Of course another key subject she talked about was little people. She told a story of when a director asked her if she knew any other little people that he could cast in a new show. “It’s ridiculous! I don’t go up to people and say ‘Hey, do you know anybody with acne?’ People have no filter around little people!” This progressive style of comedy was hilarious, yet also shined a light on how ridiculous people sound when they ask intrusive questions.

Selene ended the night on a good note, talking about a memory foam mattress that her and her fiancee had just bought. I’m not gonna say anything — just watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh8MrK0fFwA

The crowd whistled and hollered when Margaret Cho took the stage. Immediately, Margaret talked about how crazy it is that Donald Trump is the president, and how she was rooting for Bernie at the beginning. She mentioned how the election came down to misogyny, because Hillary Clinton was the most qualified person to be running for office.

Of course, because she’s Margaret Cho, talk of Donald Trump transitioned into sex. She expressed sadness for Melania, “just knowing that she has to fuck him everyday…” which then turned into Cho saying that “his jizz is probably as orange as his body”.

“He doesn’t know how to blend his under-eye concealer! Like go to Sephora, they’ll help you out!” (@Trump seriously, go to Sephora.).

Cho joked some more about sex, STDs, and hooking up with rockstars (“I won’t name names, so lets just call him… Ozzy”). Cho talked in detail, with hand motions and everything, about the importance of the girth of the penis (hey, I warned you that there was explicit content!).

Moving forward, Cho spoke candidly about “whitewashing” in Hollywood, which basically means that white actors are being cast as different races. Specifically, Cho talked about some beef that she had with Tilda Swinton, who was cast as the Ancient One in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange”.

Cho has been very vocal about whitewashing in Hollywood — a simple Google search pulls up dozens of articles and videos of her talking about the subject.

The show took a more serious turn towards the end where she talked about Bill Cosby and the fact that 52 women have come forward. She spoke very candidly about her own rape, which was perpetrated by her uncle from the ages of 5 to 12 years.

“Predators thrive in the shadows. I’m here to shine that light on them,” Cho stated. That was the loudest applause from the audience all night.

Selene Luna joined Margaret on stage where they bowed and the audience gave them a standing ovation. It was a night full of laughter and enlightenment, aka the best of both worlds. If you missed this show, I’m sure it’ll be on Netflix soon enough — and not to worry, Cho mentioned she has been doing comedy for 34 years and is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

The post Mission Creek: Margaret Cho and Selene Luna @ The Englert 4/6/17 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – It isn’t the popular opinion, but all of the Patriots should make the White House visit. If it isn’t for something else planned, there are only reasons for the players to go meet President Trump.

The twist is that by attending they could still convey a message, and possibly a significantly more powerful one.

Earlier this week the University of Iowa Athletic Department held a town hall meeting for its student-athletes. The focus on the meeting, discussing diversity and inclusion. As thoughts were shared, the New England Patriots players who have decided to skip the White House visit were mentioned.

The topic brought about a critical response, from both perspectives. Some felt it hurt the team for the players not to attend, others said they have every right not to go. The media around the much anticipated visit was even brought into question.

Overall, the reaction to the players pledging their absence was that they need to make a statement against what they feel is wrong and that by not attending they will do so. Notable Patriots players Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty, and LeGarrette Blount all have expressed that they will not attend, citing President Trump or the government as their reasoning.

Others have joined the list of players choosing to stay away. Dont’a Hightower’s reason was he had already attended in college; he also did not attend when the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX. Alan Branch decided to be with family and Chris Long didn’t give any more reason than he didn’t want to go.

The players holding out because of their disgust or anger with the new President came as no surprise. Many athletes have expressed their displeasure with the President and his actions over the campaign and into office.

Results from many of those who spoke out was what ultimately lacked. High profile statements have a cause and effect. One side will feel empowered while the other will lash back at whatever the statement was, just as it happened when players announced they wouldn’t visit the White House or when Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem.

The difference for these players, and the reason why they should still attend, is that they are public figures. They have abilities and opportunities that the average American citizen doesn’t have.

Whether someone is for or against President Trump they have an opinion. And the players have made theirs’ clear, but these players are also being given a chance that everyone else isn’t. A chance to speak to the President himself, in person.

Blount, who has been outspoken about feeling unwelcome in the White House, has the opportunity to meet face to face with the person so many Americans are frustrated with. He has a chance to express his concerns to the source of what many see as the problem. By not attending, he doesn’t have that.

These players can use the White House visit to spread their message to the ultimate target. They have the ability to be ambassadors to the President for the American people. They can be a more direct route than many of the politicians that are also causing frustration.

Being able to stand up for what you believe says more about ones character than letting the opponent win. Not attending sends a message but it brings no tangible results along with it. Speaking to the President does.

The old fashion way of solving problems is to talk it out. Today it is easier to avoid a problem or to speak out with no result than it is to go to the source. Discussion can solve problems; an idea the country was built on.

By these players attending, they would be able to tell the story of how the President acted with them. Was he rude, as many think would happen, or was he willing to talk? Did the President listen to the concerns of the players or did he allow it to go in one ear and out the other?

There would be no more powerful a message to the American people than a professional athlete, someone who to many is a role model, telling them how the President acted and what he said. Being able to say that he listened, or didn’t.

If the Super Bowl Champions, New England Patriots players could return and tell the American people they expressed their thoughts directly to the President it would leave a lasting impact. A message to stand up for themselves but also that discussion to work things through is much stronger a weapon.

The town hall for the student-athletes ended with similar words from the panel. Finding the people who can help tell the message and confronting it head on. Issues today need to be solved by working them out, face to face.

The post All of the Patriots Should Go to the White House appeared first on KRUI Radio.

*This article contains language that may not be appropriate for minors*

In this actually insane, ridiculously controversial ride of an election season, a few candidates have made themselves known more than others. On one side of the table we have the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, who was a household name before she made her second presidential bid. Perhaps the former FL has become even more spoken of in recent months because of the unprecedented challenger to her campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has made his own name widely known.

On the other side, the notorious Donald Trump is all most people see (much to the fault of the TV news media). Trump sucks up the majority of the spotlight with the uncouth statements that he makes every few moments. Turning on the morning news often yields the same results– an update on Trump’s ravings from the last 24 hours.

Trump was up against Texas Senator Ted Cruz and the Governor of Ohio, John Kasich. His two contenders often fell into obscurity in his wake, though Cruz appeared to be a real contender for the Republican nomination. Despite his decision to drop out of the 2016 presidential race, it is important that we think about what might have been– many considered Cruz the “next best option.”

Multiple well-known figures have come out with statements recently telling America not to vote for Cruz. This includes former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, a member of Cruz’s own party. To be specific, Boehner reportedly called Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh.” Boehner went on to say the following:

“I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

On a more humorous note, Ted Cruz’s college roommate, Craig Mazin, has also made a number of statements about Cruz via Twitter. These comments sometimes discuss Mazin’s college experience with Cruz, but also speak of Cruz’s character.

While none of these statements are explicitly about Cruz’s policies, this is where the Senator becomes more problematic. Just for clarification, here are some of Ted Cruz’s most staunch proposed policies:

In recent months, Cruz has made it very clear that he opposes all abortion– including abortions in the case of rape or incest.

Cruz has also said that if he were to become the President of the United States, he would attempt to abolish the Department of Education, along with four other major federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the IRS.

On the topic of American Muslims, Cruz has said that he supports increased policing of neighborhoods with large populations of Muslim citizens. “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” Cruz has explicitly claimed. Apparently Cruz is under the misconception that the only population that can become radicalized is a Muslim population.

Ted Cruz is also a large proponent of ending the era of “political correctness,” or in other words, being a decent human being. Cruz claims that political correctness is “killing people.”

These are just a few of Cruz’s stunning policies. The list of ideological thought processes and fundamental principles gone awry goes on and on. While we now have Trump as the de facto Republican nominee and this seems entirely horrible, America just might have a dodged a Ted Cruz bullet.

And while it may seem as though Ted Cruz is effectively waging a war against himself with his undesirable social thought, the internet is waging a war that is much more fierce.

If you’re looking for a laugh, just Google “Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer.” Let the Internet tell you itself. But here is a final piece of beauty provided for you to feast your eyes on:

Shut Up and Listen is a politically-based opinion column in which you, the reader, shut up and listen to what I have to say and then formulate opinions and come to your own conclusions. 

The post Shut Up and Listen: Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Dear Donald Trump (or Drumpf, or whatever your name is),

As the campaign goes on, and more of my Facebook friends publicize their support for you, I find myself wanting to thank you.

As more and more people reveal their prejudices that you have publicly condoned, and my white friends express shock at the bigotry they hear, I am so, so grateful for your campaign.

As you isolate yourself from various demographics (Mexicans, Muslims, women, disabled people, POWs, Asians, black people, and many more), you affirm the words of oppressed people everywhere.

Finally, no one can deny that racism, ethnocentrism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination fester in this country, and affect millions of people every day. When you go on TV and propose a ban on Muslim people from entering this country, no one with a satellite or wi-fi connection can deny that people have prejudices against the religion of Islam and its participants. This extends to all other groups your words attack.

People keep repeating this phrase about how you say what others feel too afraid to say, and further, what other politicians won’t say. And they’re right. White people have thought the things that you’re saying out loud for years! You didn’t invent racism, Donald! You aren’t the sole cause of oppression in this country! You’ve just facilitated its growth and encouraged others to engage in hateful speech! Now that you’ve got a huge platform and lots of support, white people can be openly fucked up. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU for concretizing the issues I discuss in my column and show. THANK YOU for making people everywhere realize how bigotry thrives and is encouraged in AmeriKKKa. THANK YOU for affirming my experiences and making me feel like I’m not crazy when I discuss discrimination. Thanks to you, I know I’m right!

Furthermore, there are certain assumptions I can make about someone who supports your campaign. Either they agree with your bigoted remarks, or they’re willing to ignore them which means they don’t understand the gravity behind your statements. Either way, you’ve made it simple to decide whether or not I will get along with a stranger. Like hair gel.

Politicians used to hide behind words like “heritage” and “history” and “freedom of speech” and “states rights.” Now that you’ve spouted off all the awful comments about almost every demographic, they can’t hide behind such bullshit anymore. They have to face their own prejudices they’ve worked so hard to mask.

Blatant discrimination has reared its ugly, orange, toupee-wearing head. Your ugly words have stripped the veneer of so-called “political correctness” so people can be openly prejudiced. As white people everywhere gasped, oppressed people angrily pointed their fingers at the TV and yelled “SEE?!”

So thank you, Donald. You’ve confirmed that we’ve got a lot of work to do in this country.

The idea of “decolonizing our minds” is highlighted in the writings of the author, feminist and social activist Bell Hooks. She encourages us to critically examine every thought and action, free ourselves from the coercive ideologies, and overcome the impacts of structural oppression. This bimonthly column will analyze spaces and times where and when we can pause and make strides in this arduous process, and also highlight figures who are helping us to decolonize ourselves. 

The post Decolonize Your Mind: Thank you, Donald Trump appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the writer, not KRUI.

“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.” These words were used to describe an entire ethnicity. They weren’t spoken by some random person on the street, they were spoken by someone who wants to be the President of the United States: Donald Trump, a reality TV Show host and a real estate tycoon.

In 15 words, he devalued every single hardworking Mexican. He spoke these words in the speech he used to announce his candidacy. In that same speech, Trump talked about how immigrants have no place here.

Since his birth, Trump has been surrounded by immigrants. Trump was born to the son of a German immigrant, and to a Scottish immigrant. Two of his wives are immigrants from the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Trump was born in the U.S., so upon his birth, he was automatically a citizen.

However, apparently that’s not important, because his mother’s skin was white. If immigration had shown up on her doorstep, the minute they saw her white face they would apologize and walk away. The lady with a brown face sitting on a bench? They would instantly walk up to her and assume she was illegal.

People say Trump is full anti-immigration, but I think he’s pro-immigration; ONLY if the immigrants look white. The reason being that he has a whole plan set up for immigration, but only for immigrants that come from Mexico.

His main points include building a wall and having Mexico pay for it and ending birthright citizenship. His flaw with ending birthright citizenship? Not only would I pack my bags and head to Mexico but Trump would have to buy a plane ticket and head to either Scotland or Germany. (Oh, and birthright citizenship is written into a little piece of paper called the Constitution.)

He says he wants to deport all illegal immigrants from the country. However, not all immigrants: just Mexicans. According to Trump,

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.”

Trump only said Mexico, so it’s okay people from Central and South America. You can stay in the United States! You’re not from Mexico!

Right now, Mexico is still trying to get over the national embarrassment of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the drug lord who escaped from maximum security prison. Again. After his escape, Trump decided to give his opinion.

Trump is threatening a man who is feared by an entire country. Very smart. That’s what I want in a president. For him to provoke a drug lord and mass murderer. Trump is right in one thing: Mexico has drugs and drug cartels. It is precisely because of these drug cartels that people flee to the United States. They control Mexico’s government at the local and federal level.

On September 26th 2014, 43 college students were attacked by local police ordered by the local drug cartel. What has Mexico done? They covered it up and are still covering it up. (Geez, I wonder why people are fleeing.)

Ever since his speech in the summer, Trump has gone on to say even more ridiculous stuff. However, his supporters are just like him. Ignorant and aggressive. In fact, a Honduran man went with fellow Latinos to a Trump rally. His experience was captured.

His feelings at the Trump rally are what many immigrants feel in their own home country. Fear. Not only did Trump’s supporters get his home country wrong, one man spit on him because of the color of his skin. Ronald is from Honduras, which is separated from Mexico by an entire country. This man is not Mexican, he is Honduran. But to Trump’s supporters and to Trump this doesn’t matter. He is brown, therefore he is Mexican.

Our parents and our peers come to America not to steal jobs, not to make the economy worse, they come to escape. They are scared of stepping out into their street. They come so they don’t have to feel that emotion anymore.

I put out a study on Facebook and asked my peers to answer three simple questions: What their ethnicity was, the chances of them voting for Trump, and why they would or wouldn’t vote for him. I got 35 responses. Out of the 35 only 9 said they were either Hispanic or Latino. That didn’t surprise me. I was raised with the phrase, “Don’t say or do anything that will get you in trouble. Stay out of it.” The parents of Hispanic/Latino children are raised to avoid trouble, to not stick their neck out. This comes from their own fears of their childhood.

In the survey, 23 people said they were white. When I looked at the stats of their chances of voting for Trump I was definitely surprised.

Eighteen said there was no chance of them voting for Trump. Some of my favorite responses included:

“Garbage shouldn’t run for president.”

“This country would be a complete joke if Donald Trump became president.”

“Because he is insane and doesn’t actually have a solid plan for the nation and he’s racist and impulsive. He’d jump us into a nuclear holocaust 5 mins after being swore in.”

“Several reasons: 1. He’s racist af. 2. He’s sexist af. 3. He will single handedly burn this country to the ground. 4. Those creepy comments he made about his daughter. 5. I don’t trust his face. He looks like Peter Pettigrew, if Peter Pettigrew had become a billionaire running a rat mafia. 6. I made a vow that if Trump were to become president I was legitimately going to move out of the country and I’m currently a broke college student and I guarantee I will not have my life together enough to move out of Iowa let alone the US by 2016. 7. #Bernie2k16.”

“He’s a racist motherfucker that would ruin literally fucking everything.”

The rest of the reasons that people wrote went along these same lines. Not only do they think that Trump is racist, but they also consider him a joke. Some didn’t even mention his racist comments, they just don’t want him as president.

The Hispanics and Latinos that filled out the response all had similar thoughts. They wouldn’t vote for him because of what he said about us. “Us,” as in the entire ethnicity of both Hispanics and Latinos.

One Latino wrote, “He’s disrespectful. A leader doesn’t need to offend anyone, more importantly make anyone else seem like less to be a president. A president cares about every human. Doesn’t think of the innocent kids that he also puts down or most importantly, probably even scares. We’re all human. We all deserve respect.” The rest also wrote how they had no respect for him.

One thing that I found more surprising than anything else was that not one single Hispanic or Latino wrote a cuss word when writing their response. Their responses talked about being disrespected and how Trump was rude and condescending.

Going back to what I said before, Hispanics and Latinos are raised to stay out of it, avoid conflict, mind their own business. It is our greatest flaw. We don’t get involved. We don’t push. We keep our heads down, and do what we need to do. And yet we still get discriminated against. The vast majority of us are workers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, actors, singers, and students with no criminal record, but when just one Hispanic or Latino breaks the law, our entire race feels the repercussions. Suddenly, we are all criminals and need to go back from where we came from.

On November 7th, Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live. The live comedy show is known for making fun of things that normally wouldn’t be made fun of. While most of their shows laugh at politicians and celebrities and how they act, this one made fun of something else. It made fun of an ethnicity.

Leading up to the show, protesters began popping up. These protesters were Latinos. They weren’t happy that offensive comments made about them were about to be taken as a joke. They were about to be made of fun of on national television. They held up signs that read “Stop the Hate”, “#RacismIsntFunny”, and “#DumpTrump”.  They protested because the show wouldn’t be one rich white man hurling insults. . . It would be an entire cast of rich white people.

Trump’s monologue was the first thing that started off the show after the cold open. In it, he states that he can take a joke, makes fun of Rosie O’Donnell, and says hes rich, full of talent, and handsome.

The Latino protesters had said before the show that they would give $5,000 to anybody that called Trump a racist on the show. They weren’t joking and will give Larry David the money. While everybody considered it a joke, the Latino protesters did not. Trump called Mexicans criminals, but when the Latinos protested against him, they did nothing violent or criminal. They didn’t burn things, destroy things, or vandalize anything. It was a just a group of Latinos asking for respect. Latinos and Hispanics stay out of political issues and other things but when they do decide to stand up for themselves and ask for respect, they are taken as a joke.

This is important because Latinos and Hispanics are never taken seriously and in the words of John Leguizamo, a Colombian-born actor and producer, “This is celebrating somebody who, if he’d said those things about any other ethnic group, he would not be on SNL.” Sure, SNL is a comedy show and they can make fun of things that many wouldn’t, but I didn’t realize that that meant supporting racism.

This hurts because being Mexican isn’t just the color of your skin, or the place where you or your parents were born. Being Mexican is our identity. It is who we are. The reason the insults affect us so much is because we know we aren’t those things. We know that we are not rapists, drug dealers, or criminals. We are human beings.

I was born in America to Mexican parents. My entire life I have told people I am a Mexican-American. Mexican because of the blood that flows through my veins and American because this country is the only one I call home.

If Trump devaluing an entire ethnicity isn’t enough to convince you not to vote for him, then think of all the other communities he’s insulted. Women, other ethnic groups, and people with disabilities have also been insulted by a man who wants to be president and currently leading in the polls.

Donald Trump is a bully. He is not the type of man who we should have or want as president. All he has done so far is insult practically everyone expect for white supremacists. The only good thing that has come out of this is that Latinos and Hispanics have realized that they don’t want to be insulted anymore. They have decided it’s time they were given respect.

President Trump wouldn’t make America great. America isn’t perfect and she probably will never be, but it is our duty to get her as close to perfect as we can. Getting rid of racism would be a step in the right direction, and we can’t do that if our president is a racist. So please, DUMP TRUMP.

To read the first article of Living in White America click here.

This is the second article of the column titled “Living in White America.” Every month there will be a new article discussing how one immigrant group, Hispanics/Latinos, live in America. This column will have articles dealing with anything and everything that concerns Hispanics/Latinos, this could include political and social talks. Some articles may discuss a culture of a different Hispanic or Latino group and interviews with a variety of Hispanics/Latinos will be added as well as interviews with non-Hispanics/non-Latinos asking for their opinion. Discrimination against Hispanics and Latinos has gone on long enough and now it’s time people get a look into a world they dislike so much.

The post Living in White America: Dump Trump appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Somehow Pumpkin Month is already nearly over and we are finally in the single digits in the countdown to Halloween. This means if you don’t have a costume yet, it is time to step it up.

We can all agree that witty Halloween costumes are the most entertaining to pick out in the seas of monsters and various “sexy” versions of literally anything. “Sexy Donald Trump,” anyone?

Those who show up to the party in costumes like “Fifty Shades of Grey” or “Heisenburger” immediately make the night even more hilariously strange than it already is.

However, if you are looking at your options this season for the spookiest day of the year and there’s a little voice in your head asking yourself “Is this offensive?” it probably is.

In the wake of instances like this Washington Redskins fan who wore full on red-face to a game in September, and that fact that you can actually buy a sombrero-serape combination costume for your baby (unfortunately, no I am not joking), blatantly racist and offensive costumes are unsurprisingly still an epidemic.

There are literally thousands of options for Halloween costumes to choose from, I mean there are over 20 different costume ideas from Harry Potter alone. There’s seriously so many options that the full two weekends Iowa City seems to utilize for Halloween isn’t even enough to exhaust all the possibilities. With that being said, offensive costumes have become such an integral part of the holiday that sometimes looking through our All Hallows Eve goggles we forget that just because someone calls something their “costume”, doesn’t absolve it from being awful.

Keeping your costume witty rather than offensive really isn’t that hard. Honestly, it really isn’t. However if you are having difficulties distinguishing hilarious from horrific, here are some handy guidelines.

DO NOT:
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to don any sort of blackface, redface, etc. Basically any other “face” than your own is off limits. I shouldn’t even have to include this, but as we saw earlier with the Washington fan and Julianne Hough’s costume two years ago, this sort of thing is apparently not a thing of the past. Sigh.

DO IT:
Grumpy Cat face! Sloth face! Put those paints to good use with any other “face” that does not mock another human’s skin color.

NOPE:
“Sexy” versions of a cultural stereotype, just don’t do it. “Sexy ____” costumes, while comical, are generally pretty unoriginal anyways, but fetishizing another culture through costume is arguably even more offensive than wearing a regular appropriative costume; which you definitely shouldn’t do either, by the way. This includes Geishas, Native American headdresses, sombreros, etc. Basically if it isn’t your culture, do not wear it as a costume. Repeat after me: “Cultures are not costumes, cultures ARE NOT costumes.”

OKAY?
I guess if you really want to go the “sexy” route you might as well do something that will get a few laughs while you’re at it. Just a few gems from around the internet are: sexy pumpkin, sexy crayon, sexy gumball machine, sexy pizza…the list goes on and on. The world is your sexy oyster.

DO NOT:
The previous guideline sort of lends itself to this one: don’t be misogynistic. As mentioned earlier, there are endless possibilities for Halloween costumes. Picking a costume such as a strategically placed genie lamp that says “rub me,” or a “mammogram” box that says “place boobs here,” may seem harmless if not a little crude, but subtly sexually aggressive costumes can contribute to rape culture, something that is unfortunately still an issue on college campuses.

DO IT:
Why be misogynistic when you could be a moose?  Or Tina Belcher and Jimmy Jr. Or a Bob Ross painting. A good guideline for staying away from crude costumes is to think WWGTOT—what would grandma think of this. (Disclaimer, some grandmas are a bit wilder than others. Use discretion when choosing your test grandma.)

The list of guidelines could go on forever, but this is a pretty good starting point. Overall, the number one thing to remember is that Halloween isn’t a free pass to be an insensitive idiot. Being witty is always better than being shitty.

Happy Octoberween!

ALSO:
If you need any other Halloween inspiration, check out special effects makeup YouTuber, Mykie. Her channel, called Glam&Gore, has tutorials for all levels of special effects makeup from beginners to experienced that can be used to create some wicked Halloween looks. She’s currently doing a special Halloween series to get ready for the holiday and her channel is definitely worth a look!

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The post The Walking Contradiction’s How-To Guide: Halloween Costumes appeared first on KRUI Radio.