Defund, Co-opt, Replace: How Authoritarians Reshape Culture (Frontlines) #3

🎙️ Season 2 of This Authoritarian Life continues at another frontline: culture — where authoritarian power doesn’t just silence dissent, but reshapes the institutions that decide what gets staged, funded, and celebrated.In this episode, we speak with Piotr Rudzki (dramaturg; formerly of the Polski Theater in Wrocław) and Kristóf Nagy (anthropologist; author of an ethnography of the Hungarian Academy of Arts) about how cultural worlds are reorganized under illiberal rule.Why is defunding today’s most effective form of censorship?How does co-optation work through grants and patronage?What do terms like “culture war,” “cultural takeover,” and “hegemony” clarify—and what do they obscure?And where can autonomy still be built: underground, inside institutions, or through collective organization?🎧 To find out, tune into This Authoritarian Life, Season 2, Episode 3 — Defund, Co-opt, Replace: How Authoritarians Reshape Culture, with Kristóf Szombati and Erdem Evren.Send us a text messageFollow us on Instagram: @this_authoritarian_lifeFollow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisauthoritarianlife