Éric Zemmour’s “The Suicide of France” with Dr. Nathan Pinkoski | Progressivism, EU, and Western Decline #109

In France, the progressive Left has invented a new history, identity, and legal framework. French people no longer feel at home. The France they knew has disappeared. Sound familiar? We need to pay attention to other countries, especially those in Europe. A similar process is happening in North America. There's no reason, yet, to see why we don't end up in the same place. Dr. Nathan Pinkoski has spent years studying French and Anglo-American political thought. This is his third book translated from French into English, and he offers insights you won't get from other sources.   Check out Zemmour's The Suicide of France: The Quiet Revolution That Destroyed a Nation And let me know what you think -- thanks again! Shawn Chapters and AI summary: Host Shawn Whatley interviews Dr. Nathan Pinkoski about his English translation of Éric Zemmour’s 2014 bestseller The Suicide of France, a 140,000-word political nonfiction “literary event” that sold 500,000 copies in months and helped set the stage for Zemmour’s 2022 presidential run. Pinkoski explains Zemmour’s method of “deconstructing the deconstructors” through 42 episodic vignettes that flip post–May 1968 progressive “moments of progress” into accounts of national decline, rooted in an elite revolt against de Gaulle’s legacy. They discuss why this style fits France’s more unified literary/TV culture, contrast it with North America’s fragmented narratives, and compare it to works like Allan Bloom and Christopher Caldwell. The conversation covers shifts in capitalism, class, feminism, judicial activism, laïcité, the EU as a neoliberal borderless project, loss of political control, and Zemmour’s call for the West to recover Greco-Roman and Christian roots. 00:00 Zemmour Book Phenomenon 01:35 Meet the Guest 03:54 Breaking French Progressivism 07:46 Why It Became a Bestseller 10:33 Could It Work in America 16:54 Events Ideas Method 21:46 EU Neoliberal Dream 33:29 America and French Mimicry 40:19 Laicite vs Religious Freedom 45:52 Universalism and Western Roots 55:48 Closing Thanks