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Burning down the house : how libertarian philosophy was corrupted by delusion and greed / by Koppelman, Andrew,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A lively history of American libertarianism and its decay into dangerous fantasy. In 2010 in South Fulton, Tennessee, each household paid the local fire department a yearly fee of $75.00. That year, Gene Cranick's house accidentally caught fire. But thefire department refused to come because Cranick had forgotten to pay his yearly fee, leaving his home in ashes. Observers across the political spectrum agreed-some with horror and some with enthusiasm-that this revealed the true face of libertarianism. But libertarianism did not always require callous indifference to the misfortunes of others. Modern libertarianism began with Friedrich Hayek's admirable corrective to the Depression-era vogue for central economic planning. It resisted oppressive state power. It showed how capitalism could improve life for everyone. Yet today, it's a toxic blend of anarchism, disdain for the weak, and rationalization for environmental catastrophe. Libertarians today accept new, radical arguments-which crumble under scrutiny-that justify dishonest business practices and Covid deniers who refuse to wear masks in the name of "freedom." Andrew Koppelman's book traces libertarianism's evolution from Hayek's moderate pro-market ideas to the romantic fabulism of Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, and Ayn Rand, and Charles Koch's promotion of climate change denial. Burning Down the House is the definitive history of an ideological movement that has reshaped American politics"--
Subjects: Capitalism; Individualism; Libertarian literature; Libertarianism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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They want to kill Americans : the militias, terrorists, and deranged ideology of the Trump insurgency / by Nance, Malcolm W.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor's or family member's open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic. The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS. The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of "normalcy"-to forget-is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump's most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege-being white. They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship"--
Subjects: Capitol Riot, Washington, D.C., 2021.; Domestic terrorism; Insurgency; Political violence; Radicalism; Right-wing extremists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The imposters : how Republicans quit governing and seized American politics / by Benen, Steve,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Most American voters innocently assume the two major political parties are equally mature and responsible governing entities, ideological differences aside. That belief is due for an overhaul: over the past decade, the Republican Party has undergone an astonishing metamorphosis, one so baffling and complete that few have fully reckoned with the reality and its consequences. Republicans, simply put, have quit governing. As MSNBC's Steve Benen charts in his groundbreaking new book, the contemporary GOP has become a "post-policy party." Republicans are effectively impostors, presenting themselves as officials who are ready to take seriously the substance of problem solving, but whose sole focus is the pursuit and maintenance of power. Astonishingly, they are winning - at the cost of pushing the political system to the breaking point. Despite having billed itself as the "party of ideas," the Republican Party has walked away from the hard but necessary work of policymaking. It is disdainful of expertise and hostile toward evidence and arithmetic. It is tethered to few, if any, meaningful policy preferences. It does not know, and does not care, about how competing proposals should be crafted, scrutinized, or implemented. This policy nihilism dominated the party's posture throughout Barack Obama's presidency, which in turn opened the door to Donald Trump -- who would cement the GOP's post-policy status in ways that were difficult to even imagine a few years earlier. The implications of this approach to governance are all-encompassing. Voters routinely elect Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence to powerful offices, expecting GOP policymakers to have the technocratic wherewithal to identify problems, weigh alternative solutions, forge coalitions, accept compromises, and apply some level of governmental competence, if not expertise. The party has consistently proven those hopes misguided. The result is an untenable political model that's undermining the American policymaking process and failing to serve the public's interests." -- Publisher.
Subjects: Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Power (Social sciences); Political culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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War for eternity : inside Bannon's far-right circle of global power brokers / by Teitelbaum, Benjamin R.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An explosive and unprecedented inside look at Steve Bannon's entourage of global powerbrokers and the hidden alliances shaping today's geopolitical upheaval. In 2015, Bloomberg News named Steve Bannon "the most dangerous political operative in America." Since then, he has grown exponentially more powerful-and not only in the United States. In this groundbreaking and urgent account, award-winning scholar of the radical right Benjamin Teitelbaum takes readers behind-the-scenes of Bannon's global campaign against modernity. Inspired by a radical twentieth-century ideology called Traditionalism, Bannon and a small group of right-wing powerbrokers are planning new political mobilizations on a global scale-discussed and debated in secret meetings organized by Bannon in hotel suites and private apartments in DC, Europe and South America. Their goal? To upend the world order and reorganize geopolitics on the basis of archaic values rather than modern ideals of democracy, freedom, social progress, and human rights. Their strenuous efforts are already producing results, from the fortification of borders throughout the world and the targeting of immigrants, to the undermining of the European Union and United States governments, and the expansion of Russian influence. Drawing from exclusive interviews with Bannon's hidden network of far-right thinkers, years of academic research into the radical right, and with unprecedented access to the esoteric salons where they meet, Teitelbaum exposes their considerable impact on the world and their radical vision for the future"--
Subjects: Bannon, Stephen K.; World politics; Right-wing extremists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Question authority : a polemic about trust in five meditations / by Kingwell, Mark,1963-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Philosopher Mark Kingwell thinks about thinking for yourself in an era of radical know-it-all-ism. "Question authority," the popular 1960s slogan commanded. "Think for yourself." But what started as a counter-cultural catchphrase, playful in logic but serious in intent, has become a practical paradox. Yesterday's social critics are the tone-policing tyrants of today, and critical theory that once augured emancipation has hardened into ideological enforcement. The resulting crisis of authority, made worse by rival political factions and chaotic public discourse, has exposed cracks in every facet of shared social life. Politics, academia, journalism, medicine, religion, science -- every kind of institutional claim is now routinely subject to objection, investigation, and outright disbelief. A recurring feature of this comprehensive distrust of authority is the firm, indeed unshakeable, belief in personal righteousness and superiority: what Mark Kingwell calls "addiction to conviction." In this critical survey of the predicament of contemporary authority, Kingwell draws on philosophical argument, personal reflection, and details from the headlines in an attempt to reclaim the democratic spirit of questioning authority and thinking for oneself. Defending a program of compassionate skepticism, Kingwell illuminates the connection between humility about human limits, including the limits of certainty, and the infinite project of justice."--
Subjects: Authority; Authority; Critical thinking.; Skepticism.; Trust;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Canada after Harper : his ideology-fuelled attack on Canadian society and values, and how we can resist and create the country we want / by Finn, Ed,1926-editor.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This book is a collection of essays by 16 contributors, including David Suzuki, Ralph Nader, Kevin Page, Maude Barlow, and Linda McQuaig. These and other experts in their fields document key changes put in place by the Harper government in the areas of trade deals, the environment, youth activism, indigenous rights, economic growth, taxes, and wealth and poverty."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Harper, Stephen, 1959-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This country is no longer yours : a novel / by Jain Chatlani, Avik,author.;
"In Avik Jain Chatlani's This Country Is No Longer Yours, a chorus of disparate voices comes together to explore how idealists and opportunists betray ordinary people in war-torn Peru. One of our dead writers liked to say, "Peru is a beggar sleeping on a bench made of gold." It's a cute phrase, but it's not really true. There's hardly any gold left, and none of us get much sleep. Based on real events in 1970s-2000s Peru, This Country Is No Longer Yours tells the story of people living through the terrorist campaign of the Maoist Shining Path, while struggling to survive amid economic crisis and state collapse. A student of the revolution's leader is dispatched to Cambodia to learn from the Khmer Rouge, sending him spiralling into a world of unfathomable political violence that both inspires him and will be his undoing. Then, as the terror spreads across Peru, a ruthless security agent of the newly-elected neoconservative government works to squash the growing insurgency now threatening the halls of power, while applying his surveillance training to romantic pursuits--with chilling results. When the war is over, a journalist committed to exposing a brewing nationalist counter-revolution is too preoccupied to help a reader desperately pleading for help outing a sexual predator, who is seeking the presidency. And, in the country that remains, two former guerrillas meet again, one now a teacher stuck in the past, the other living on the margins and still fighting for her future. Depicting a place and time ravaged by terror but alive with new ambitions and enduring love, Jain Chatlani explores the intersection of political breakdown and human endurance, as well as the unbearable choices demanded of those living in a society at war with itself. With incisive and haunting prose, combined with deeply personal insight, Jain Chatlani offers a stinging indictment of the ideologies that brutalize the very people they claim to represent, and relays an urgent warning about the dangers of zealotry, political messianism and acts of violence justified in the name of a cause."--
Subjects: Political fiction.; Novels.; Sendero Luminoso (Guerrilla group); Journalists; Violence;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The new populism : democracy stares into the abyss / by Revelli, Marco,author.; Broder, David,translator.; translation of:Revelli, Marco.Populismo 2.0.English.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The word 'populism' has come to cover all manner of sins. Yet despite the prevalence of its use, it is often difficult to understand what connects its various supposed expressions. From Syriza to Trump and from Podemos to Brexit, the electoral earthquakes of recent years have often been grouped under this term. But what actually defines 'populism'? Is it an ideology, a form of organisation, or a mentality? Marco Revelli seeks to answer this question by getting to grips with the historical dynamics of so-called 'populist' movements. While in the early days of democracy, populism sought to represent classes and social layers who asserted their political role for the first time, in today's post-democratic climate, it instead expresses the grievances of those who had until recently felt that they were included. Having lost their power, the disinherited embrace not a political alternative to -isms like liberalism or socialism, but a populist mood of discontent. The new populism is the 'formless form' that protest and grievance assume in the era of financialisation, in the era where the atomised masses lack voice or organisation. For Revelli, this new populism the child of an age in which the Left has been hollowed out and lost its capacity to offer an alternative"--
Subjects: Populism.; Populism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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American psychosis : an investigation of how the Republican Party went crazy / by Corn, David,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A fast-paced, rollicking account of how paranoia and conspiracy theories have long been major elements within the GOP and how these forces came to triumph under Donald Trump, AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS offers readers a brisk, can-you-believe-this journey through this netherworld of far-right irrationality and explores its interactions with the GOP. It tells the tale of how the Republican Party has turned into a conspiracy cult, kicking ideology and policy principles to the curb in support of a president who embraced and exploited--and stirred--the most bizarre and craziest extremism of the right. The Trump-incited insurrectionist attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was no aberration. AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS reveals it was a continuation of a long and deep-rooted tradition within the party, the result of a derangement on the right that has been accepted and often nurtured by the GOP. AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS entertains and enlightens even as it horrifies, and will be a crucial part of the roiling conversation under way in the run-up to the first post-Trump election. The story told in AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS covers the last half-century; from McCarthyism to the Birchers to segregationists to the religious right to the militia movement to Rush Limbaugh to the tea party and to Donald Trump, the Republican Party has encouraged and exploited right-wing fear and loathing that has been dangerously fueled by conspiracy theories, and now holds the entire United States political process in its grip"--
Subjects: Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Conspiracy theories; Conspiracy theories; Right-wing extremists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We've got issues : how you can stand strong for America's soul and sanity / by McGraw, Phillip C.,1950-author.;
Do you think mainstream America needs to find its voice? If so, you're not alone. The country is under attack by extremists at the fringes who put ideology before sanity and stoke division for their own gain. They are robbing America of its common sense and denying empirical truths, and we're all suffering the consequences. From Dr. Phil, the #1 NYT bestselling author and beloved television host, comes a new book on how to come home to our core values, fortify our families, and re-embrace self-determination and self-governance.
Subjects: Political culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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