Skip to content Skip to footer

Distract, Distort, Isolate: Trump and the Authoritarian Style in US Politics: Interview With Henry A. Giroux

Cultural critic Henry Giroux examines the rise of authoritarianism in the US.

Donald Trump speaks with reporters outside the White House prior to his departure aboard Marine One on October 7, 2017. (Photo: ALEX EDELMAN / AFP / Getty Images)

“Ideas matter — but they don’t matter enough, if you don’t have the institutions to propagate them. If you don’t have schools, if you don’t have public spheres, if you don’t have places where dialogue can take place, and people can come together and question and analyze — those ideas begin to evaporate. In the US, most of the pedagogical institutions, from schools to the media, are dominated by a corporate elite — these are not public spheres anymore, these are toxic spheres that align themselves with market-driven values that cultivate an ideology in which people don’t know how to deal with democracy and what its demands and responsibilities might look like.”

To read more articles by Henry A. Giroux and other authors in the Public Intellectual Project, click here.

Cultural critic Henry Giroux examines the rise of authoritarianism in US culture and politics, and the collapse of democratic institutions and language that set the stage for the Trump Administration’s toxic blend of cruelty and capitalist supremacy that will rule until the left can reclaim the power of democratic ideas and action.

Henry is the author of the new book The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism from Routledge.

We’re not going to stand for it. Are you?

You don’t bury your head in the sand. You know as well as we do what we’re facing as a country, as a people, and as a global community. Here at Truthout, we’re gearing up to meet these threats head on, but we need your support to do it: We must raise $21,000 before midnight to ensure we can keep publishing independent journalism that doesn’t shy away from difficult — and often dangerous — topics.

We can do this vital work because unlike most media, our journalism is free from government or corporate influence and censorship. But this is only sustainable if we have your support. If you like what you’re reading or just value what we do, will you take a few seconds to contribute to our work?