“The Past of Trumpism is the Past of America”: With Tom Nomad

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In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we talked with long time anarchis writter and strategist Tom Nomad, who is the author of The Master’s Tool and Towards and Army of Ghosts. For almost a decade, Tom has written about insurgency, the police, and anarchist strategy, and in this episode we touch on those subjects as well as discuss how they have changed in the Trump area, and what new challenges autonomous and anarchist movements face.

Starting off, Tom argues that one of the successes of Bannon and Trump, is that they have locked many on the Left into a constant cycle of shock and awe, often that keeps us in a constant social media feed back loop, at times venturing out to march in circles or take photos of our witty sign, but never developing a strategy, and often burning out very quickly. We then spend some time talking about what it would mean to develop a non-activist approach to confronting the major tensions we find today, and building a material force.

On our latest podcast, we talked with long-time anarchist author and strategist Tom Nomad, about building a material resistance under Trumpism and beyond that doesn't just run around in circles chasing outrage, but instead develops a strategy to win. https://t.co/EQlBj5xiWL pic.twitter.com/nWv60RLyw7

— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) October 18, 2018

Another key theme we discuss is over coming the generational divide between the newly radicalized post-Trump, and those that came, sometimes, long before him. Tom discusses the baggage brought by both generations, and discusses possibly solutions in both regards.

We end by looking at the approaching political terrain, both in terms of the midterms, but also the future of Trumpism and the coming onslaught of global warming. Far from a fluke, Nomad argues that Trumpism in many ways is America, and to confront Trumpism we’re going to have to confront a past based on genocide and slavery in order to move behind it.

More Info: Tom Nomad’s books, on The Final Straw, and an interview on It’s Going Down.