Episode 48: Keith Kahn-Harris on Denialism––and Post-Denialism

Brendan and Andrew welcome London-based sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris, author of Denial: The Unspeakable Truth. They discuss what the various kinds of denialism––regarding the Holocaust, climate change, Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat, Stalin’s crimes against humanity, and so on––have in common. They also explore Kahn-Harris’s thesis that denialism is a bad-faith strategy that people resort to when their true desires and aims have become unspeakable, and what this implies: that conflict between denialists and their opponents is not, ultimately, about the facts, but about the profound moral chasm that divides them. Kahn-Harris and the co-hosts also discuss how denialism can be combatted, the limited success of anti-denial strategies, and how to confront the alarming “post-denialist” environment he thinks we’re moving into, where erstwhile denialists’ formerly unspeakable desires are becoming speakable once again.

Plus current-events segment on the sweeping pandemic of opposition to Covid vaccination––how Trumpism, social media, and anti-vaxx profiteers have made “vaccine hesitancy” highly transmissible.

Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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