Deleuze Modeste.

Introduction: Microfascism in the Age of Obama

In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari diagnose fascism not merely as a macropolitical event—an authoritarian seizure of the state—but as an immanent, molecular process within subjectivities, institutions, and everyday social arrangements. Microfascism, the insidious desire for order, hierarchy, and security at the level of desire itself, operates beneath and beyond official political structures. This first episode examines how, under the Obama presidency—a period often mythologized as a triumph of liberal democracy—microfascist tendencies intensified rather than dissipated. Far from a mere reactionary backlash, these tendencies emerged within the very mechanisms of governance, media, and neoliberal discourse, forming what Deleuze and Guattari might call an "abstract machine" of control that modulated political affect. Through a rigorous analysis of the post-2008 terrain, we trace the molecular flows that conditioned new forms of subjectivation, complicity, and repression, laying the groundwork for the escalation of authoritarian tendencies in the years that followed.

Welcome to Deleuze Modeste, a podcast dedicated to rediscovering the true genius of Gilles Deleuze. Since his passing in 1995, Deleuze’s philosophy has been subject to misinterpretation, oversimplification, and even commercial exploitation. His radical ideas—once so original and profound—are too often reduced to buzzwords, drained of their true power.

This podcast seeks to cut through the noise. Deleuze Modeste is an instrument for learning, an invitation to approach his work with humility and curiosity. Rather than adding to the marketing machine that distorts his legacy, we aim to engage with his ideas simply, directly, and thoughtfully. Let’s return to Deleuze as he was—challenging, brilliant, and deeply transformative.