Jeff Sharlet has spent two decades covering the intersection of extreme Christian nationalism and the far-right. In his new book, Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, he gives snapshots of a country rapidly devolving into a Christian fascism state. He captures the rage, the despair, the dislocation, the alienation, the aesthetic of violence, and the magical thinking that are the foundations of all fascist movements—forces that are now coalescing around the Trump-led Republican Party. The bizarre conspiracy theories and buffoonish quality of many who lead and embrace this movement, such as Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, make the use American fascists easy to ridicule and dismiss. But Sharlet implores us to take them seriously as an existential threat to what is left of our anemic democracy. Jeff Sharlet joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss his new book and the rising tide of Christofascism threatening our democracy.
Jeff Sharlet is a fucking milquetoast loser who, after doing all this research and coming to the conclusion that radical fascists are using velocity to crush freedom, INSISTS that liberals should continue to use slow, carefully considered quiet incrementalism and respect the free speech rights of Nazis. I heard an hour long interview with him about this work and he’s a fucking idiot. Pay no attention to that doormat clown