This interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and ordained minister Chris Hedges offers a powerful critique of the current American socio-political collapse, tracing the roots of fascism in the U.S. not to Trump himself, but to the systemic rot of liberal institutions, corporate and oligarchic domination, and the moral and spiritual vacuum left in their wake. Hedges connects his war reporting experiences, trauma, and theological insights to broader cultural dynamics, including the commodification of despair, the militarization of the state, and the rise of Christian nationalism. He argues that Trump is the predictable product of a decaying empire and that figures like Elon Musk are not visionaries, but oligarchs dismantling public infrastructure to extract profit from human vulnerability. The interview warns that America is entering a late-imperial, pre-fascist phase characterized by sadism, privatization, surveillance, and dehumanization.
