The Radicalist David Josef Volodzko

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.


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David Volodzko speaks with Doug Klain (website, X), a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where he focuses on Russia’s war on Ukraine. He is the former assistant director of the Eurasia Center and currently a policy analyst at the nonprofit Razom for Ukraine.
The conversation covers the recent German military leak and what was actually said, the kinds of weapons Ukraine needs, the general state of the war, the impact of U.S. politics, Ukrainian grain exports, a potential Trump presidency, whether Putin will stop at Ukraine if he wins the war, Russia’s genocidal actions in Ukraine, the evisceration of Russian media, the impact of sanctions, Zelenskyy’s recent change in generals, Russia and Ukraine’s respective methods of waging war, Ukrainian drone warfare, why it matters for Americans to support Ukraine, his work with Razom for Ukraine, the impact of Samizdat Online, and more.


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David Volodzko speaks with Stefan Tompson, the founder of Visegrád 24, which aggregates and curates news and current affairs on various social media platforms including X, where it currently has over 900,000 followers.
The conversation covers disinformation on social media, the Israel-Hamas War, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, TikTok as a Chinese psyop, the West’s enemies within, the origins of woke progressivism, the glories of Western civilization, the importance of civil discourse, immigration, the beauty of Muslim and black pride, slavery, white guilt, the Jewish community, drag shows, Roman Catholic faith, and more.


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Arash Azizi reacted to my recent essay, The Case for Colonizing Gaza, by responding to a troll who had called the essay “blatantly racist,” to which Arash Azizi replied, “It’s not just racist but outright fascist.”
There is nothing racist or fascist about it, any more than there was about the U.S. occupation of Germany since that is precisely what I am recommending. Moreover, when he was a guest on this show, he commiserated with me as I described my anguish over the suffering in the Israel-Hamas War, so he knows better than anyone not to accuse me of racism against Palestinians.
That said, here are some unprepared thoughts on this and the deplorable pattern of deliberate misunderstanding and accusations of racism on social media these days.
Update: Arash Azizi unfollowed me on X shortly after this post went live.


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David Volodzko speaks with David Brin about comet dust formation, anti-institutionalism in Hollywood, how science-fiction has saved humanity, the moral philosophy of Star Trek, how tolerance and diversity have metastasized into a cancer, the infantile nihilism of Star Wars, how AI may buttress authoritarianism, the sinister laws of Wall Street AI, the existence of alien life, his recent WIRED article on AI, his Newsweek article on “empathy bots,” and much more.
David Brin (website, X) is an astrophysicist and NASA consultant whose science-fiction novels have won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and other awards. His books include The Postman, which was adapted as a film by Kevin Costner, Earth, Existence, and Foundation’s Triumph, the last in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. His nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award. His new book is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.


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Jonathan Choe (profile, X) is a journalist and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center of Wealth and Poverty, where he focuses on the homelessness crisis in Seattle.
In our conversation, we talked about Korea, his family life, his firing from KOMO for covering a Proud Boys rally, the pattern of news outlets caving to radical leftists by firing their own journalists, crime in Seattle and the failure of “defund the police,” Seattle’s stalled revitalization efforts, the homeless-industrial complex, the fentanyl epidemic, the pro-Palestinian protests in Seattle and their link to the city’s communist protest network, the failures of corporate media, how platforms like X have democratized information, and the future of independent journalism.


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