#john-ganz — Public Fediverse posts

John Ganz skewers Trumpist intellectuals:

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/grand-delusion?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

#USPolitics #DonaldTrump #SohrabAhmari #ChristopherCaldwell #JohnGanz #Intellectuals

Pluralistic: Market participation is exhausting (30 Mar 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/30/players-of-games/

Your link to the Harper’s essay by John Ganz from 2024, The Dead Admonish. Absorbing, thoughtful and honest writing, a fascinating approach to history. I’m a subscriber to Ganz’s substack, Unpopular Front, and hope you can access it. #JohnGanz https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/the-dead-admonish-us?r=ct3l&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

Pluralistic: Metabolizing the theory of "political capitalism" (06 Dec 2025)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/06/big-nascent-important/

finally getting to Pankaj Mishra’s The World After Gaza
https://pdbowman.studio/briefs/4-oct-2025-pankaj-mishra-john-ganz-genocides-nationhood-resistance-evolution/

#PankajMishra #TheWorldAfterGaza #JohnGanz #UnpopularFront #Shoah #Holocaust #Israel #Zionism #Palestine #Gaza #India #Hindutva #nationalism #liberation #genocide

So many good ideas in this conversation between John Ganz and Max Read about libertarian ideas, Italian futurism, cosmopolitanism, urbanism and politics. Genial, witty, recommended commentary on Peter Thiel, who was interviewed by Ross Douthat, and Zohran Mamdani who won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York.
#JohnGanz #MaxRead #Thiel #steelmaning #ZohranMamdani #urbanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/talking-thiel-and-zohran-with-max?r=ct3l&utm_medium=ios

Steelmanning Peter Thiel

“My friend John Ganz and I reformed our intermittent podcast this week to talk about New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s interview with PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Among the topics covered…”

https://overcast.fm/+ABCdjP-5WDE
#PeterThiel #JohnGanz #MaxReed #RossDouthat

On fascism and its fascinations. This notion of transcendence is interesting.
#JohnGanz #fascism
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/does-trumpism-have-a-future?r=ct3l&utm_medium=ios

>>... the most typical character of the age is “the non-conformist conformist:” someone who says what everyone else says while flattering themselves that they are telling a bold truth that no else one has the courage to say. Well, it’s easy to be courageous in a crowd.<<

John Ganz is always worth reading.

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/cynicism-and-authenticity

#JohnGanz #UnpopularFront #Cynicism #Authenticity #Arendt #Heidegger #Fascism

The ‘vibes shift’ as a preemptive declaration of hegemony

This from the consistently excellent John Ganz (highly recommend his book) captures something I’ve been struggling to articulate since Trump’s victory. Why has there been such a rush to frame this in hegemonic terms when there was a 1.5% difference in vote share between the two candidates? There’s clearly an elite recomposition underway, with tech capital taking the leadership role for the first time, which is starting to produce substantive outgrowths. Watching JD Vance’s speech I immediately found myself thinking about how Bush era leaders would have talked about issues relating to the oil industry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64E9O1Gv99o

The richest people in the world with unprecedented control over the media and communications realign politically and then—coincidentally—there is a “big cultural shift.” Why? “Can’t say for sure, but probably has something to do with how annoying liberals are.” Come the fuck on. They are already putting pressure on the media to soften coverage. It’s not that things are just happening, they are doing things. And the media is already bending or being taken over by regime-friendly oligarchs. It’s not a mystery what’s going on—we can still read about it in the newspaper—so let’s not mystify ourselves.

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/vibes-cartel

One last thought. What this insistence on a new order—the vibes—remind me of a lot was the hysterical run-up to the war against Iraq. The sense was created of an unstoppable momentum and there was relentless, insidious sidelining and castigation of critics and dissent. Even if people did not think they were warmongering, they helped the regime’s cause by attacking those who objected as fuddy-duddies, hopelessly out-of-date, and unfashionable. Obviously, we were in a New Era™ after 9/11. Obviously, the administration had the winds of history at its back. It wasn’t conservatives and right-wingers who did a lot of this work, but liberals who rationalized and justified what was a series of absurd lies and ultimately a catastrophe. This is what I was trying to get at when we were moving into a Vichy era: a lot of people are just going to go along to get along. But not all.

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/vibes-cartel

#capitalism #digitalElites #hegemony #JDVance #JohnGanz #trump

"While it appears that it has never been easier for anyone to freely share their opinions with the world, the apparatus that shapes the public’s thoughts and sentiments has never been in the hands of fewer men. (And yes, they are all men.)" #JohnGanz https://www.thenation.com/article/society/last-days-discourse-electronic-plebescite/

John Ganz examines the deep affinities of radical libertarians and fascists:

>> They both cannot recognize any universal interest, only the wars and temporary alliances of particular interests, be they individuals, nations, or races.<<

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/gold-and-brown

#Politics #Fascism #Libertarianism #JohnGanz #UnpopularFront

“The idea that ‘fascism = strength’ is just a piece of propaganda unwittingly reproduced by critics of the fascism thesis.” #JohnGanz https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/lets-get-real

“One must be careful not to reify the clichés: just because everyone says it’s real doesn’t make it real. Or rather, it does, and that’s the problem.” #JohnGanz https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/vibes-cartel

Should be read in the context of Trump v. United States.

From #JohnGanz, interviewed by #IsaacChotiner https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-american-election-that-set-the-stage-for-trump ht @ryanlcooper

What's In a Word https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/whats-in-a-word

It seems forgotten that David Duke enthusiastically endorsed Trump in both 2016 and 2020. Or how the movement once known as the alt-right rallied to his side, recognizing immediately that Trump represented a major “ice breaker” for their views, in the words of Richard Spencer. “If The Donald gets the nomination, he will almost certainly beat Hillary, as White men such as you and I go out and vote for the first time in our lives for the one man who actually represents our interests,” the Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wrote on his “Daily Stormer” website in 2016. Even if Trump was not the perfect vessel, America’s extreme right understood that Trump’s type of politics represented a breakthrough for their movement.

#nazis #fascism #trump #maga #uspol #uspolitics #farright #davidduke #richardspencer #andrewanglin #JohnGanz #dailystormer #kkk

“The eerie thing about this hyper-technologized world is that it’s very difficult to separate fantasies of persecution from its objectively shitty logic. The phones serve us ads that seem like we are being listened to. Are we? Maybe it’s just ‘the algorithm.’” #JohnGanz https://johnganz.substack.com/p/update-on-twitter-ban

Bravo to #JohnGanz for the evocative #ThomasCrowAffair label for the incidents concerning our most corrupt Supreme Court Justice. https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/the-thomas-crow-affair?r=aewhd&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post