Summary: Peter Berard is a doctoral candidate in history at Boston College. He is also a writer for publications such as Jacobin and the LA Review of books. Berard and I discuss the Black Bloc and Antifa tactics in an effort to take a more sympathetic look at these anarchist tacticians, although the conversation here is not entirely uncritical. Topics covered in this podcast include how we should go beyond the rigid definition of Fascism that comes from Trotsky and that was repeated by Brendan O’Neill on the punching Nazis podcast, the Kurt Vonnegut novel Mother Night, an now mostly defunct assessment of Milo Yiannopoulos’ career, and many other pertinent questions. This is the 100th episode of the Zero Books podcast and my thanks goes out to Kevin Dole who sent me a congratulatory email. Kevin Dole is the inventor of Bizarro fiction, the author of Tangerinephant, and at this point, a long time friend. Thanks goes out to members of the Zero Books Club. Zero Books Club members receive access to the Inside Zero Books which sometimes consists of unedited or full length interviews from the Zero Squared podcast, sometimes features conversations with Zero Books readers about the state of the left, and sometimes features public lectures from Zero Books authors or staff. The music you’re listening to is a vaporwave version of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence, but in just a moment you’ll be listening to Peter Berard and I discuss the ins and outs of Antifa.
