On Spectacles of Cruelty

On the last Angry Planet of 2025, novelist and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay returns to reflect on a year of spectacle and cruelty.Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay wrote about all this in a piece at The New York Times and he’s here with us today to talk through it.“It’s too easy to condemn.”The project is spectacles of cruelty“You’re not supposed to be joining a gang of thugs.”What is this doing to us as a nation?The lust for cruelty and dominationKlay’s review of Hegseth’s first yearWar vs. Defense“Read long things.”Living in the Hell of opinionsEnding on a high noteWhat Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat StrikesTrump Admin’s Racist Halo Memes Are ‘A New Level of Dehumanization of Immigrants’Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuancedSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.