Richard Rorty, as I'm sure many people here are already aware, is something of a Godfather to this board: he was an 'anti woke' progressive who predicted in 1998 the rise of a Trump like figure in American politics.
This is a new Australian Broadcasting Company episode on him from their program "The Philosopher's Zone." It's 35 minutes long.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/richard-rorty-and-america/102206854The episode is based around a collection of essays Rorty wrote that was compiled into a book that came out late last year, as can be seen on the Philosopher's Zone website.
For those who have access to Jstor, the essay collection can be read here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv22pzz1jA couple points.
1.For some reason the narrator says that Rorty made this prediction '35 years ago.' Of course, it was 25 years ago. Don't be put off by their bad math though it's well worth a listen.
2.Had Rorty made this prediction 35 years ago, it would have been even more prescient than it was, as that would have largely predated the 'angry white male' of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The faux populism of the likes of Rush Limbaugh coincides with the emergence of the angry white male which certainly may have led to a number of people predicting that a populist would-be dictator would ultimately get elected president.
