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Why Every Day Is January 6 Now | OnlySubs with James Lindsay, Ep. 77

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New Discourses   Jan 12th, 2022

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This episode of the OnlySubs Podcast with James Lindsay is available for FREE! To get access to all past and future episodes, consider becoming a contributor. Learn more.


On January 1 of this year, the New York Times told us that "Every Day is January 6 Now." That's obviously absurd, hyperreal, pseudo-real, but it's also an echo from the past. While many have rightly made the comparison between that farce and the Reichstag Fire perpetrated by the National Socialists in order to grab power, I was immediately put in mind of a paragraph from Herbert Marcuse's 1965 essay "Repressive Tolerance" when I saw that headline. "The whole post-fascist period is one of clear and present danger. Consequently, true pacification requires the withdrawal of tolerance before the deed, at the stage of communication in word, print, and picture. Such extreme suspension of the right of free speech and free assembly is indeed justified only if the whole of society is in extreme danger. I maintain that our society is in such an emergency situation, and that it has become the normal state of affairs," Marcuse wrote. Every day is January 6 now, and our entire society is in such an emergency situation, one of clear and present danger. In this episode of my subscribers-only podcast, James Lindsay OnlySubs, which I'm taking out from behind the paywall and making available to everyone, I walk you through the crucial paragraphs of Marcuse's essay in light of this ridiculous and ridiculously dangerous pronouncement. Join me to learn even more about how we find ourselves living in Marcuse's nightmarish neo-Marxist philosophy.

-James Lindsay