Vijay Prashad joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to discuss the emergence of a multipolar world and how the Trump administration, although domestically threatening, appears to be shifting from the traditional adversary world force seen in previous administrations. The two discuss China’s rise in technological advancement and how the world, especially the Global South, has responded by shifting away from US domination. Trump’s recent foreign policy actions and staff picks, Prashad points out, also signal a potential embrace of a multipolar world order that strays from conflict.
You may not know this, but in the world of the right-wing blogs and internet, a glass of milk symbolizes white supremacy. This is the kind of world that Mr. Trump trucks with. These tech billionaires, it’s not just Musk, it’s Peter Thiel, very dangerous character. These are people who believe that the rich don’t actually have an obligation to the people. They can buy islands in the Caribbean, they will live there fine, they’ll have their helicopters, they’ll have their own armed guards, they’ll create their own paradise. That’s the worldview of Mr. Peter Thiel. So they are actually not concerned about solving the everyday problems of people. Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, they are not scientists, but they know about science. They mobilize science to make their fortunes. They know that the United States is deteriorating in terms of the upper end of the productive forces. They know that. As you said earlier, they have outsourced their own companies to places away from the United States. They don’t even pay tax in the United States. They refuse to. That’s why the tax base is so shrunk in the US. These are dangerous people. If there’s anybody to take the country back from, it’s not the Trump’s. He’s just standing in for them. It’s these billionaires.
It’s the billionaire class who have basically been on a tax strike, a class strike against their country. They don’t pay tax. And it turns out that both Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are white South Africans, by the way, who naturalized into the United States. They are both white South Africans. They are both raised in the [inaudible] years of apartheid, the last few years of apartheid. They grew up in apartheid South Africa. That’s their sensibility. And they are, at least Peter Thiel, is an out and out racist, you know, and he wants to create a kind of racist paradise. These are the people who are actually calling the shots. What you need in the United States is not a rebellion merely against this Trump administration or that Pete Hegseth administration or whatever comes next, whatever nightmare comes next. The United States needs to have a rebellion against the billionaires. It’s been decades coming, you know, it’s been a long time since these guys have entrenched themselves and suffocated the political system.
That’s where the problem is.
