5 chapters across the catalog
A clip from a 1983 interview with a former CIA agent describes how the agency feeds false information to the State Department for media distribution. The agent discusses Noam Chomsky's concept of the "Fifth Freedom"—the imperial right of the United States to rob, exploit, and kill. The hosts react to the agent's "cold laughter" when discussing the reality of American global operations and the suppression of the original four freedoms.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated the "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The hosts contrast these with the current "four fears" of COVID, climate, nationalism, and economic want. They identify the modern political landscape as a divide between the "Freedom Party" and the "Fear Party."
A discussion on the historical roots of American wealth reveals that families like the Roosevelts and institutions like Yale and Harvard were funded by the 19th-century opium trade. Mo Fax argues that while previous groups sold drugs to those "below" them, black Americans are at the "bottom of the bottom," selling drugs like fentanyl to their own community. He references *The Godfather* to illustrate this systemic hierarchy.
The historical migration of black voters from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party is attributed to FDR’s New Deal and Harry Truman’s integration of the armed forces. The hosts discuss the complexities of forced integration, with Mo sharing a personal story about his father’s negative experience being moved from an all-black school to an integrated one.
The historical parallel of the 1938 boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling is used to illustrate how athletes are used for national propaganda. While Louis was framed as a symbol of freedom against Nazi Germany, he was later financially ruined by the IRS over taxes on purses he had donated to the U.S. military.
