The Radicalist

David Volodzko speaks with terrorism expert Jonathan Schanzer about terrorism funding, the efficacy of sanctions, the Iranian regime and Hamas funding, the Israel-Hamas War, the Russo-Ukraine War, China’s potential invasion of Taiwan, and more.

Jonathan Schanzer (website, X) is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and host of the FDD Morning Brief, where he covers the latest news from the Middle East.

Schanzer is also a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he froze the funding of Hamas and Al-Qaeda, and has worked as a researcher at think tanks including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Forum.

Schanzer has written hundreds of articles on the Middle East and U.S. national security and several books including State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State, Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine, and Al-Qaeda’s Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror.

His most recent book is Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War.

David Volodzko talks with Alexander von Sternberg about Amin al-Husseini, the Nazi godfather of Palestinian nationalism, his early life, his embrace of Nazism, his efforts to send Jewish children to death camps, his legacy since then, and his place in the Palestinian movement today.

Von Sternberg is the host of the historical podcast History Impossible. He’s also a writer whose essays and reviews have been published in a number of publications including Queer Majority, Quillette, Merion West, and Areo Magazine.

For more on this subject, see von Sternberg’s six-hour podcast episode on al-Husseini, The Muslim Nazis: The German Voice of Islam.

You can also listen to Volodzko as a guest on History Impossible here. Finally, here is a list of some of the books mentioned in this week’s episode: Palestine 1936, The Arabs and the Holocaust, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years, and Through the Eyes of the Mufti.

David Volodzko speaks with Adam Coleman about fatherlessness in the black community, the insecurity of trans activists, white supremacist logic, the harm of victim mentality, what makes a good marriage, the psychology of happiness, the meaning of life, finding God, the search for purpose, what true empowerment looks like, the hidden value of suffering, and connecting with others.

Coleman (X) is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor,” the founder of Wrong Speak Publishing, author of the Substack Speaking Wrong at the Right Time, and the host of Breaking Bread.

David Volodzko speaks with Jeff Booth about the nature of inflation, the inevitability of Bitcoin, why other cryptocurrencies are inferior, Bitcoin’s volatility, common criticisms of Bitcoin, global adoption, the possibility of a Bitcoin standard, the social benefits of Bitcoin, and more.

Jeff Booth is a tech entrepreneur, founding partner of the Bitcoin venture fund ego death capital, co-founder of addy, giving the public exposure in Canadian real estate, and author of The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future. In 2016, Goldman Sachs named him among its 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and he currently sits on the boards of Core Scientific, Scoop Solar, Fedi and Breez.

In this episode, David Volodzko discusses some of the medical questions surrounding the controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whether Khelif is trans, and what’s ultimately missing from the debate. Near the end, David references his recent essay on the subject, Raging Bullshit, in which he argues that Khelif’s recent victory against Italian boxer Angela Carini was unjust.

David Volodzko speaks with Barrington Martin II about Covid, the U.S. presidential election, President Biden’s mental state, the attempted assassination of former President Trump, the danger of political drama, racism in America, cancel culture, calming our political monkey mind, inconvenient truths about slavery, the marketplace of ideas, freedom of speech, the transition to the right of many young black American men, and more.

Barrington (X) is a philosopher, writer, host of The Barrington Report, and former congressional candidate for Georgia’s 5th District.

David Volodzko speaks with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her new Substack project Restoration, the September 11 attacks, her father’s influence on her views, whether Islam can be reformed, the importance of Saudi Arabia’s political shift, what it would take for the West to win its conflict with subversive powers such as Islamism and Marxism, her conversion to Christianity, how to balance compassion with practical concerns in the immigration debate, the subversion of our universities and news outlets, the moral awakening of October 7, the importance of freedom of speech and civility, the breakdown of the marketplace of ideas, the heroism of figures such as Elon Musk and Bari Weiss, how Ukraine affects us all, the meaning of bravery, the principles of being a dissident, and more.

Both speakers recently wrote essays about the Soviet dissident Yuri Bezmenov and the subversion of American society by Marxist influences, we they reference in the conversation—“We Have Been Subverted” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and “How Marxism Subverted America” by David Volodzko.

A shorter version of this essay was originally published as a Substack Note.

If Trump wins, it will be because he has an immovable base. There’s nothing he can say to repulse them. At a campaign rally in January 2016, he claimed, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

If Trump wins, it will be because he’s actually funny sometimes. Elizabeth Warren is a Methodist white woman from Massachusetts who tried to prove she is Cherokee with a DNA test that said 0.09% to 1.5%, all because Trump kept calling her “Pocahontas.”

But mostly, if Trump wins, it will be because of the left. Because Ruth Bader Biden’s “senior moments” are serious, yet he refuses to step aside. Because we’ve been gaslit for years with Drag Queen Story Hour and trans literalists who scream at lesbians for not wanting to go home with men in dresses or who threaten to rape TERFs.

Because of the sickening antisemitism we have witnessed around October 7. Because of the Stalinist nature of cancel culture. Because of increasingly brazen anti-white racism. Because of CRT and BLM and DEI. Because we are done with everything and everyone being called racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and imperialist.

Because we see the impact on young men and boys from being told they are inherently scum and guilty of toxic masculinity. Because we are sick of hearing the lie that we live in a white supremacist, rape culture. Because of the endless disparaging of our great nation, its history, its practices, the Christian faith of many, and every dead white man of great stature.

Because of the anti-Western, anti-science, anti-Enlightenment values that the left has adopted. Because none of this stuff has made the country any better and yet the belief that it would was the only reason anyone went along with any of it.

If Trump wins, it will be because the woke left simply won’t wake up.

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David Volodzko speaks with Rio Veradonir about an Enlightenment-based liberal approach to gay rights as opposed to the extremism that characterizes so much activism today, neo-Marxist social justice warriors, the liberal solution to trans athletes and sexual displays at Pride festivals, the strategic mistake Democrats are making in highlighting certain concerns, the misconception that Pride is just for gay people, the importance of the gay community in having a positive relationship with police, declining support for same-sex marriage among Republicans, and much more.

Rio Veradonir is the editor-in-chief of Queer Majority, a news outlet that covers issues related to the gay community with a classically liberal perspective. He is also assistant director at The Bi Foundation and lead organizer of amBi, the world’s largest bisexual social group. For more information, you can subscribe to QM’s newsletter, follow Veradonir on X, and check out the good work being done at Project Liberal.

The socialist magazine Jacobin embarrassed itself this week by claiming the new miniseries Shōgun “shows something rarely seen on screen: the shocking hubris of the colonizer and dehumanization of the colonized.”

Social media had a field day with this because, as we all know, Japan was not only never colonized but was one of history biggest colonizers. A friend asked me, why was Japan never colonized? Here’s my answer.