Next Comes What

Andrea Pitzer
  • 5.0 (460)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Author Andrea Pitzer reveals what we can learn from the rise of strongmen around the world to thwart Trump and his allies.

  1. 2d ago

    In Trump's America, TV Watches You

    Companies and agencies are spying on everyone they can. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/when-your-tv-watches-you WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/YK380ux7pTk  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews/video/7686874023271206158   Our episode this week gathers a series of recent surveillance scandals, in which everything from public cameras to your AI agent and even your television may be monitoring you. To put the current snooping in context, Andrea Pitzer looks at the history of mass political surveillance. In the Nazi era, Heinrich Himmler dreamed of having five men to track every individual suspect. East Germany hired or co-opted more than one in seven citizens to spy. And the U.S. has its own history on this front, with a massive surveillance operation put into place during the civil rights era, with the goal of targeting Black Activists, Native Americans, and feminists.  In the modern era, Andrea notes that governments often have willing partners in tech companies, using tools that far surpass twentieth-century capabilities. Corporations are typically more interested in collecting data to increase their bottom line, while governments want surveillance to secure power and target public opposition. But in the end, companies are prone to collaborating with governments, especially if they can profit from it—even if doing so lets law enforcement take unethical or illegal actions. The problem of tech and AI isn't that they're aware or human (they're not). From China to the US, the real threat is the oligarchs and aspiring dictators who would happily eliminate our freedom for another dollar or an ounce of power. 00:00 Introduction and Recent Tech Surveillance 02:55 The Fallibility of AI and Stolen Discoveries 05:10 Human Contractors and Data Privacy 07:20 Historical Precedents of Authoritarian Surveillance 09:10 The Panopticon and East Germany's Stasi 12:00 COINTELPRO and the Erosion of Privacy Guardrails 14:30 China's High-Tech Xinjiang Surveillance Model 17:30 Historical Parallels of Surveillance 20:00 The Role of Tech Monopolies and AI in Modern Surveillance 22:30 Policy, Resistance, and Actionable Steps Forward

    In Trump's America, TV Watches You

  2. Sep 10

    21st Century Fascism Is for Losers

    Here's how to take on the global right-wing nostalgia for the glory days of fascism. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-global-fascist-reboot-trap WATCH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DegenerateArtNewsletter  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  This week's Next Comes What looks at the victory of the authoritarian, reactionary party AfD in last weekend's election in eastern Germany. Andrea Pitzer considers a few of the regional specifics of that election, and considers other universal aspects of the global rise of neo-Nazi and Nazi-adjacent movements. What the twenty-first century models have in common is the open demonization of immigrants. There is no way out of the current political crisis, Andrea suggests, without addressing that demonization head-on.   Summarizing a recent Syracuse University study, she explores the ways that various kinds of media function, not only providing misinformation and disinformation, but also setting moral frameworks that make an argument about whether immigrants are seen as fully human. The Syracuse researchers found that fact-checking statements does not automatically adjust the underlying moral narrative the original misinformation was supporting. Andrea argues that defeating the authoritarian threat cannot happen through attempts to moderate a few of the right's most extreme tactics. A long-term solution requires friends of democracy to directly address perverse frameworks and messaging by offering not only substantially different policies but also a narrative that directly counters the one that fascists have been selling. 00:00 Introduction: The Arc of Right-Wing Sabotage and Fascist Ideology 03:15 The Role of Anti-Immigrant Paranoia in Modern Right-Wing Politics 06:40 Case Study: The Rise of the AfD in Germany and MAGA Parallels 10:15 Deliberate Propaganda: How Disinformation is Created and Spread 14:35 Incidental Propaganda: The Media's Role in Amplifying Far-Right Narratives 19:10 Moral Disadvantage and Partisan Media Exposure (The Syracuse Study) 23:55 Economic Anxiety, Tariffs, and Industrial Decline in the US and Europe 28:20 Historical Parallels: Nostalgia for Fascism and the Concentration Camp Tendency 33:10 The Global Wave of Apocalyptic Fever and Tech Oligarchs 37:45 A Long-Term Framework and Strategy to Defend Democracy

    21st Century Fascism Is for Losers

  3. Sep 3

    A Movement Bigger Than Hating Data Centers

    The data center revolt and the pushback against detention camps have something in common. The public is realizing it has power. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/complete-control WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/o5Hf7Q9TGfw  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews/video/7681458790838914318  This week, "Next Comes What" considers how the oligarchs driving the AI boom and the president of the United States are all driven by a desire not just for wealth but for unlimited power that gives them control over humanity itself. Andrea Pitzer looks at Donald Trump's attempt to use the entire apparatus of the federal government to make reality whatever he says it is, with disastrous consequences for the country and the world. The CEOs pushing the AI boom portray themselves as the saviors of humanity, but in reality are inflicting tremendous damage by steamrolling communities and workers with new tools of technology that cannot deliver on the disingenuous promises being made by the tech titans. Meanwhile, both the president and the CEOs are warping the global economy.   Yet what they demand is not inevitable. Just as with the local--and occasionally even bipartisan--pushback on ICE's attempt to convert existing warehouses into concentration camps nationwide, the data center revolution is now facing resistance from unhappy Americans across the political spectrum. Andrea looks at what it means when people wake up to the power that they have, considers the risks of any big social reaction, and explains why it's important for the anti-data center movement to become bigger than simple backlash. Before the current momentum can get diverted to benefit those who seek only more exclusion and control, supporters of self-governance need to harness this revolt and build a coalition that embraces democratic values, linking the health and stability of local communities to a bigger concept of what kind of country we ought to be. 00:00 - The Illusion of Power and Real-World Harm 03:45 - Manufactured Reality: Renaming Lake Ontario to Erasing Public Health Data 07:12 - Billionaire Philanthropy, Tech Oligarchs, and the Drive for Absolute Control 11:05 - The Reactionary Playbook: How CEOs and Politicians Conflated Cultural Grievances 14:50 - Gil Duran on The Nerd Reich, The Sovereign Individual, and Tech Governance 18:30 - The Grassroots Anti-Data Center Movement: A Cross-Partisan Populist Revolt 22:15 - Risks of Unchecked Resistance: Avoiding Scapegoating and Isolationism 26:00 - Corporate Encroachment, Public Resistance, and the Fight for Democratic Accountability

    A Movement Bigger Than Hating Data Centers

  4. Aug 28

    Why You Can't Compromise with Fascists

    As elections loom, resist the calls to throw away your moral compass. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/don-t-lose-the-plot WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/3Ymu6tZAm0s  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   With so many pundits calling for meeting Republicans and independent voters where they're at before the midterms, this week's "Next Comes What" considers what that means. Andrea Pitzer discusses how the days in which fringe candidates could be dismissed as irrelevant are long gone. The fringe extremists are running the country now. Andrea looks at the ways that Trump and his advisers are vile actors committing heinous acts, and notes that it's impossible to compromise on the very issue of every person's right to exist without being terrorized by the government and their neighbors. There's no way to compromise on these issues without doing harm to vulnerable people and our political system itself.   Walking listeners through a different approach, she suggests finding a political stance based on values, and then trying to bring other people toward that by addressing needs that they themselves can understand—and emphasizing the policies they, too, will benefit from. The good news, Andrea suggests, is that Trump's agenda is deeply unpopular, and becoming more so. The challenge before us is to offer a better vision of what government, and we ourselves, can be.   00:00 - Midterm Elections and the Threats to Democracy 02:15 - Natalie Harp and Donald Trump's Inner Circle 05:40 - The Rise of Extremist Rhetoric in US Politics 08:20 - Misinformation, Bad Advisors, and Political Control 12:10 - Anti-DEI Backlash and Structural Discrimination 15:35 - Global Impacts: USAID Cuts and Foreign Military Actions 19:50 - The Evolution of the War on Terror and Extrajudicial Power 24:15 - Historical Compromises and the Erosion of Democratic Values 27:30 - The Risks of Unchecked AI and Corporate Influence 30:10 - Why Moral Politics Matter: Staying Grounded Against Extremism

    Why You Can't Compromise with Fascists

  5. Aug 20

    The Torturers' Club & The Business of Barbed Wire

    To help keep concentration camps from becoming a permanent feature, figure out who's in the torturers' club and who sells the barbed wire. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-business-of-barbed-wire  WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/9jk7gX1RMxY    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   This week's episode looks at what it means to be in the middle stages of a concentration camp regime—which is where the United States is at now. Andrea Pitzer discusses how the shift from performative incidents of violence and terror at the beginning gives way to a more institutionalized and methodical approach, one in which the bureaucracy of the police state becomes more entrenched and self-sustaining. This explains the transition from theatrical street actions, like those of Gregory Bovino, former face of the Border Patrol, to the lower-profile, more methodical approach of (relatively) new DHS head Markwayne Mullin.   To consider how this quieter entrenchment and creation of a self-sustaining concentration camp machine unfolds, Andrea looks at who makes the physical means of detention and harm, and how the ideas on how to harm are spread. She focuses on two historical examples--that of Oliver Brothers of Pittsburgh, the company that made barbed wire for the first concentration camps in Cuba, and the evolution of the tactic of la parrilla—"the grill"—a form of electrical torture used under dictatorship in Chile a half-century ago. She then turns to modern appliances that aid in atrocities: electroshock gloves, ankle monitors, and omnipresent surveillance cameras. She notes a new airline contract supporting ICE deportations—possibly involving running detention facilities as well. The episode ends with a look at ways to stall, block, and shut down the torturers' club and the businesses that profit from the deliberate infliction of human misery.   00:00 - How Concentration Camp Regimes Actually Form 02:18 - The 1890s U.S. Tech Supply Line Behind Reconcentración 05:14 - The Evolution of Extrajudicial Torture Tactics 07:15 - How Police State Systems Move from Malice to Institutionalization 10:13 - Inside the Modern Private Detention & ICE Expansion 12:12 - High-Tech Surveillance: Flock Cameras & Electric Shock Gear 14:55 - How Local Resistance is Shutting Down Detention Sites 17:42 - Grassroots Tactics: Organizing, Protests, & Documenting Abuse 21:30 - Ending Human Rights Violations at the Local Level

    The Torturers' Club & The Business of Barbed Wire

  6. Aug 6

    Breaking ICE

    A panoramic review of immigrant persecution under Trump 2.0 so far and a look at where we are now. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe  Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/breaking-ice WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/cJ-puSPNlHs  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews  LISTEN   Everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475    This week, Andrea Pitzer reviews what has happened with the Trump administration's strategic violence against immigrants in the U.S. during the year and a half since his return to office. Andrea mentions three crises that the government hopes people will simply ignore, but which are causing tremendous suffering: cuts to USAID, climate change, and the systemic persecution of immigrants. All three are critical to attend to, but for this episode, she focuses on what has happened since January 2025 on the immigration front. Running through the Trump administration's attempts to use wartime laws to deport detainees to a gulag in El Salvador, and Stephen Miller's longstanding dream of building tent cities, she shows how those dreams played out in reality. Those deported to El Salvador faced horrific abuse, and two tent-style concentration camp projects led to Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in Texas, and the Everglades camp in Florida that the administration named "Alligator Alcatraz." Both camps have inflicted tremendous suffering on detainees. The Florida camp has been shut down, but Camp East Montana still holds thousands of detainees. The tent-city project went badly enough that the government has pivoted repeatedly to other approaches, including a short-lived attempt to use Navy overseas contracting architecture to build concentration camps domestically. This also hit roadblocks. Next, Trump and his allies turned to trying to acquire existing warehouses and retrofit them for Amazon-style mass detention in a nationwide network of concentration camps. Local resistance to these sites was fierce and fast. Now the government is pivoting to building new facilities at sites it already owns or controls, which will make pushing back against them a more complicated and challenging effort. Andrea closes the episode with a few thoughts on how people have resisted thus far, and the innovating spirit that has inspired everyday people to find novel and effective means to put sand in the gears of the deportation machine. 00:00 - Introduction & The Three Growing Crises 03:15 - Day One: Early Moves & Expanding ICE Power 06:42 - Tent Cities & The Everglades Detention Infrastructure 10:15 - Federalizing Police & Los Angeles Deployments 13:50 - Border Operations & Community Resistance Tactics 17:30 - Minneapolis Crackdown & Gregory Bovino's Removal 21:10 - Warehouse Expansion: ICE's Strategic Shift 25:05 - Local Movements Stopping Detention Centers 28:40 - The History of Camp Resistance & Lessons Ahead

    Breaking ICE

  7. Jul 30

    Strongmen, Cockroaches, and Flamingos

    India and Albania reveal how small protests can transform into big movements, creating possibilities for massive change.    Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe    Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/roots-for-real-change    WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/CRVe4pVKoIM   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews    Listen everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475    This week's Next Comes What considers what can be learned from overseas movements for political change. Andrea Pitzer reviews a few big examples she's discussed before, from Brazil and South Korea to Hungary. But she points out that these countries, which were able to prosecute and or expel corrupt authoritarians from power, are examples of the end stages of political movements. For today's episode, she looks instead at countries that are earlier in the same process. In Albania, she traces political protests and dissatisfaction that rose in the wake of parliamentary elections last year. This generalized anger found a flash point and a symbol with the attempts of Jared Kushner and Invanka Trump this year to develop an environmentally fragile part of the country as a high-end resort. Anger over what appears to be government corruption in opening the region to development has galvanized the people and led to what is being called the Flamingo Revolution: massive protests of a kind not seen in the country in decades.   In India, student anger of a lack of jobs and opportunities for the country's young adults exploded after a chief justice described them as cockroaches. Seizing on the nickname, the students formed a Cockroach People's Party. The online movement expanded into physical protests in New Delhi. After police violence against protesters, demonstrations multiplied across India, eventually securing the resignation of the education minister and other promised concessions.   Both movements are still in the early stages, but Andrea highlights the examples they offer for everyday people on ways to make a stand against authoritarian government. The episode closes by outlining how a focus on local issues can be a potent force for fighting Trumpism here in the U.S.   00:00 – Everyday Resistance & The Limits of Authoritarian Power 03:30 – Defeating ICE: How Local Communities Blocked PA Detention Facilities 06:45 – Dismantling Authoritarian Infrastructure: The Closure of Alligator Alcatraz 10:00 – Albania's Flamingo Revolution: Resisting Jared Kushner's Island Development 15:30 – India's Cockroach Janata Party: Youth Uprising Against Exam Scandals & Modi 20:45 – Student Activism Under Fire: ICE Arrests, Columbia Expulsions & UMich Indictments 25:00 – Symbols of Resistance: Lessons from Serbia's Otpor! Movement 28:30 – Organizing for Long-Term Political Change

  8. Jul 23

    Booed, Sued, and Blocked

    Every day, people are showing how we can stop Trump's dismantling of our laws and norms by using both to fight back. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe   Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/what-gets-booed-and-who-gets-sued   WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/FEptYLVSnSU  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews   Our episode this week looks at how the current administration has violated both laws and customs on every front to try to profit from government positions and maximize Trump's power across the board. Andrea Pitzer shows how, from business corruption to ICE detention and the war in Iran, it's nearly impossible to keep track of the ways in which the president is destroying the rule of law and any willingness to respect precedent, in and out of courts. Exploring the use of the rule of law as a weapon against vulnerable and targeted groups since the country's founding, Andrea outlines why the law itself has often been a force for wrong. She nevertheless argues that the history of authoritarianism shows that when existing law is ignored or dismantled through dictatorial power grabs, it consistently exacerbates the crisis faced by vulnerable groups, and others as well.   Andrea then goes through recent broad reviews of everything from ICE detention practices to court cases brought by the DOJ. While precedent is being ground down, and the legal system remains under tremendous strain, Andrea points out how the law is still being used successfully to deny Trump and his allies the unlimited power they want. She looks at how communities are establishing and upholding norms as well. From a refusal of a New Jersey town council to do business with a bank partnering with major ICE contractors to a Baltimore rugby team that is standing by its trans players, there are examples everywhere of everyday people finding effective ways to push back against hatred and corruption.  00:00 — Executive Corruption & The Kazakhstan Mineral Deal   02:30 — Alien Terrorist Removal Court & Iran War Casualties   06:15 — Human Rights Violations in ICE Youth Detention   09:40 — ACLU Report: Law Enforcement Liability & Abuse   12:20 — Supreme Court Forces E. Jean Carroll $5.6M Payout   14:50 — Federal Judges Block DOJ Voter Roll Seizure   17:15 — Failed DOJ Prosecutions: Marimar Martinez & David Hern   20:00 — Holding ICE & Stephen Miller Accountable in Court   22:10 — Grassroots Victories: Montclair $91M Bank Divestment   24:30 — Local Resistance: Communities Protecting Trans Athletes

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5
out of 5
460 Ratings

About

Author Andrea Pitzer reveals what we can learn from the rise of strongmen around the world to thwart Trump and his allies.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrea Pitzer
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    92
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    Next Comes What

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