The January 6 Hearings

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the public hearings of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. They analyze the philosophic significance of the attack, the investigation into it, and the cultural reactions.

Among the topics covered:

The significance of the January 6 terrorist attack;
How to evaluate the objectivity of the hearings, given their highly produced character and the partisan makeup of the committee;
Evidence that January 6 was a serious attack and should not be downplayed;
The significance of the fact that many in the White House knew there was no evidence of election fraud;
Whether tribalism will prevent people’s minds from being changed about the attack;
Evaluating Donald Trump’s inaction and Mike Pence’s leadership during the attack;
The role of arbitrary claims in the lead-up to and aftermath of January 6;
Conservative attempts to downplay the attack and characterize the hearings as a “show trial;”
What Trump’s continued influence over the Republican Party says about our culture
Why Trump and his supporters believe they can get away with lying;
Why the January 6 attack was not an attempted coup-d’état;
The role of military coups in the creation of banana republic dictatorships.

Mentioned in this podcast are Trump’s statement delivered on January 6, the recording of Trump’s phone call with Georgia election officials, Rep. Nancy Mace’s video in front of Trump Tower, the New Ideal Live episode “The Storming of the Capitol,” and Ghate’s articles “Why Ayn Rand Would Have Despised a President Trump” and “One Small Step for Dictatorship.”

The podcast was recorded on June 15, 2022. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.