“Is Islamism The New Communism？” - Rita Panahi Debates Which Ideology Is More Dangerous
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the rise of the far-left in the modern world, and the impact it has had on the way we think about the past and present. We also discuss the threat of Islamic extremism, and whether it is more dangerous than communism.
Transcript
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What do you think is a bigger thing that they fought against?
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Because back in the days, my mother, my mother's side,
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many of the members, they were part of the two-day party.
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I don't know if you remember the two-day party or not in Iran.
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That's where a lot of, if you ask your mother, she'll tell you about it.
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Two-day party was, these are guys that were the communists,
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you know, they loved what Stalin, Lenin, you know, Karl Marx,
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and there was a fear of communism getting bigger to spread around the world and possibly making it
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to the countries you know to the states to u.s to other places and in schools they got into
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universities they did such a great job going and brainwashing american kids in schools
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no it is the most noble thing professors all started giving the kids you should read communist
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Manifesto. You should read Communist Manifesto. And then fast forward today, Rob, how big is the,
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how many members of the Communist Party are there in America right now? If you,
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if you do Communist Party membership in U.S., 70,000 members, no, that's 1930s.
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They were peaking. If you go to charts, 20,000 right there, 20,000 membership 2024. Okay. Can
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you ask when was the peak 1941 so go back to that right there rob where you were at 1941
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fervently supporting the war effort the popular front era of cpusa lasted until 1945 where earl
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browder was ousted from the party and replaced by a new guy yeah at one point these guys were
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getting a lot of momentum the question i got for you is what do you think is you you think what's
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happening with islamists and it's spreading around the world you think that's more dangerous than
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communist party or equivalent less what do you think about because it seems like what president
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trump is doing and he's been saying since 2015 when he said i would bomb the shit out of iran
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those are his words on what he said rubio has been saying this since 2015 do you think this
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is a bigger threat than communism was back in the days islamism um that's a big call to make
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i think islamism's um spread through the west is more certain than communism ever was because it's
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a demographic thing ultimately and once it starts it's very hard to pull back um you see that
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example in France where they've got you know certain demographic issues and they've got so
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many people now on their terror watch list that they can't actually watch them so once you get
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over a certain percentage then you've got issues and just so but to me they're two sides of the
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same coin that what they share in common is a hatred of western values and a determination
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They think we are all illegitimate countries on stolen land.
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All that sort of rhetoric is designed to demoralise the population
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and I think the leftists, maybe not the communists,
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but it's all one movement to me, have been the most successful
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The march through the institutions, as they called it,
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it started with academia but it's everywhere now this leftist mindset it's it's in the corporate
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world i mean we saw that during the blm riots the summer of love where every corporate big
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corporate was coming out with some pro blm um stance and you know you saw the the influence
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the normalisation of what was a neo and is a neo-Marxist group vehemently anti-Western values
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so to me there's the two sides of the same coin they share a common goal and that's why they
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work together even though they really don't share too many other values but it's everywhere it's no
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longer just schools it's in the corporate world the HR departments have been taken over by this
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sort of ideology um and people are self-censoring in Australia there are so many people who
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come up to me and say you know I want to say what I think but I'm too scared they're even too scared
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to post it on their own Facebook page because you know their green-haired niece might you know
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abuse them or not show up to Christmas dinner so we had how nasty is it over there how is it
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walking on actuals it is it is a little bit because our caliber of our politicians is is
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different so we've had what you would call rhinos or in in the uk the tories who governed like they
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were in the labor party we've had that sort of conservative for a long time so just in the last
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few months in australia we've had the really the main streaming of a group called one nation who
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have been a political party for decades but always a very small vote sort of under 10 percent around
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five six seven percent now in some of our polls they're winning the polling they're coming in
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ahead of labor and the coalition which is the liberal and nationals who are supposed to be the
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right side of the political spectrum and that's because people are just so sick of these you know
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conservative in name only who don't actually stand for anything who make a few noises and then
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when they get into power they let the bureaucracy run rampant and the swamp as you call it and
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just implement leftist policies so that's why one nation has had this enormous surge it's a
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really fascinating time in australia for politics to see if that's just going to fracture the right
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vote and keep the left in power or whether those forces come together and actually
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win government we've got preferential voting in Australia which is also fairly unique it's not
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something so you don't just vote one for your choice you number them so if you've got eight
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candidates in your seat you'll number one from eight yeah I just put one or I have no you have
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to number them it's actually a fairly idiotic system when I think of it I used to think you
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had its benefits but it actually is is not a great system you'd much rather have a first
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pass the post system like the uk does so yeah so you have to number them so if i vote for an
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independent as my first vote and they don't get up then my second preference my vote goes into my
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to that into their bundle and and so on so it's it's a complicated system but who else uses that
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system i can't even tell you who else uses it could be a uniquely australian flavor i'm sure
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Not only do we have a preferential system, get this,
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whether they're at the federal level, state, or local government.
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So we've got three levels of government and you are obliged by law
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Oh, it's not crippling fines, but it'll be like around $100, I think.
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We've got state, federal, and local government.
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Each of the elections you don't vote for, you get fined.
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So the federal election, obviously, is the whole country,
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and then we will have state elections and local elections,
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And, again, there was a period where I thought,
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oh, that's not so bad because it gets people involved
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and perhaps the government is more reflective of the population
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because everyone's voting so you get a more representative.
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No, that's actually not the case because you've got people voting
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So they're not actually, you know, they have no knowledge.
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where people will just go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 on their ballot.
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So it's, you know, very advantageous to be the number one on the first name
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because you get the benefit of the donkey vote.
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You get the people who go one, two, three, four, five, yeah.
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Just to do it quickly, just so I'm going to be...
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Probably be five, ten percent, but that would be enough for some elections, I would imagine.
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So you have to vote for three elections per year?
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We have state elections every four years and then federal elections are normally around every three years and then you've got the local ones as well.
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The local ones I think are the worst to participate in because at least with your federal and state elections, you've got some knowledge of who you're voting for and the policies to advocate.
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The local government elections, even I'm pretty politically engaged.
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Half the time, I don't know the names on the ballot for the local government or who they are, what they stand for.
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So it's completely an absurd thing to require me to vote, but it is what it is.
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So, yeah, we have freedom in Australia, but not freedom to refuse to vote.
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You could commit voter fraud if you went to multiple polling booths and gave the same name because they cross off your name.
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But, you know, there should be checks and balances to see if the same name's been crossed off.
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But I do wonder how thorough those checks and balances is.
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So it could happen, but it's, I think, unlikely.
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Yeah, we don't have – it's a much simpler system.
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And the Australian Electoral Commission is pretty sound in policing it.
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There has been some accusations of them becoming politicized with a couple of different things over the years.
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But overall, they're pretty sound and there's high confidence that the elections are free and fair,
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that we're not having the sort of issues you have here.
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It says in federal elections in Australia, voters generally do not need to show photo.
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You need to give your name, and they've got to vote a role with the names of people who are in that electorate.
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And if you're voting in a – if you're an absentee voter, I guess it's called, when you're voting in a polling booth that's not your electorate, then you go to a different section and you – it's a little bit more involved.
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I think you need it here because you've got all sorts of issues here, particularly post-COVID, where you have the mass mail-in voting that isn't so much of an issue in many other countries.
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