In this episode, I will read the final chapter of Franz Neumann's Behemoth, which I see as a touchstone for understanding Trumpism. Writing in exile, Neumann described Germany as a nullity, a place with no underlying political theory, no theory of society, and ultimately not even properly a state. He describes it as a nation where a coalition of elites rule through careful application of propaganda, which is used to control the people directly, without the mediation of the state. https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.10130/page/9/mode/2up https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691134130/secret-reports-on-nazi-germany https://web.archive.org/web/20020809080635/http://www.wbenjamin.org/Behemoth.html