Saturday, October 21, 2017

A Conversation with Lars Maischak about Free Speech, the Perils of Criticizing Donald Trump, and Threats to Intellectual Freedom

Dr. Lars Maischak is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is a lecturer of history at Fresno State University. Several months ago, Maischak exercised his rights of free speech and said via the social media platform Twitter that "to save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better.." After making those comments Maischak was targeted by a coordinated and systematic campaign of harassment--which included death threats--by right-wing activists and their trolls. Lars was then put on leave from Fresno State University and has now been removed from the classroom.  

During this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Lars and Chauncey discuss fascism and Donald Trump's election as well as the explosive relationship between race, class, and white identity politics. Lars also shares his thoughts on free speech, academic freedom, and how the right-wing hate machine is working to silent dissent in the academy and other areas of American life. Lars also explains why he took to Twitter to express his disgust about Donald Trump's administration and what it was like to be harassed by the right-wing smear machine.

In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega explains the real threat posed by former general and now Chief of Staff John Kelly's defense of Donald Trump's mean and cruel comments to war widow Myeshia Johnson. Chauncey also states clearly and plainly how Kelly's and Trump's lies and comments about Myeshia Johnson, her family, and Representive Frederica Wilson are just one more example of casual racism and sexism against black women in today's America. During this week's podcast Chauncey also offers his thoughts on the great new films "The Florida Project" and "Mudbound".


This episode with Lars Maischak can be downloaded from Libysn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.

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