American Thought Leaders

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There are few people who understand the machinery behind modern disinformation and censorship better than Jacob Siegel. He’s a special features editor at Tablet Magazine and author of the new book “The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control.”
In this episode, we trace the origins of modern information control, from President Woodrow Wilson’s propaganda office during World War I and President Barack Obama’s “whole-of-society” framework, to the policing of information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He breaks down how government agencies, major tech platforms, and large nonprofits can work together behind the scenes to control who gets to speak and who does not, and what ideas are expressed and which are obscured.
“If you can control the information, you can control the society,” Siegel said. And the digital age makes this possible to a degree never reached before, he added.
So, how has this transformed our society and our liberties?
“The principles of the constitutional order, the principles of the liberal nation state have begun to be profoundly eroded by this new kind of information-based political regime,” Siegel said.
“Those rights are relocated into the digital code, so the question of who can speak, who can express their ideas, is no longer clearly defined and delimited by these print-era documents. Now it becomes a question of who controls the digital code.”
According to Siegel, the transition to the digital era has resulted in a vast “sweeping away of previously existing local organizations [and] civic organizations.” And more recently, we have been witnessing, whether we are aware of it or not, what he calls the “vast acceleration of the erasure of core remnants of civil society.”
So how do we navigate this new digital arena, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Hungary is undergoing a major transformation with the election of a new prime minister.

After 16 years in power, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party was swept from office in a historic landslide election in April and with an equally historic turnout of almost 80 percent.
The new Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar, won the largest super-majority in Hungary’s post-communist history with a platform focused on anti-corruption and national renewal. They’ve promised major changes to Hungary’s constitution, known as the Fundamental Law.
So what does this election mean for Hungary and how might the new leadership reorient its relationship with America, the European Union, Russia, and China?
Orban was known for his pro-family and pro-tradition domestic policies, while at the same time cultivating close ties with Russia and communist China and distancing himself from the EU.
Joining us today to break all this down is Hungarian constitutional law scholar Marton Sulyok, a visiting researcher at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.
Sulyok is, notably, also the son of Hungary’s current President, Tamas Sulyok.
Magyar has demanded the resignation of Sulyok and other Orban allies. It remains to be seen whether they will be forced out by constitutional amendment or other means.
Despite his family ties, the younger Sulyok has remained strikingly detached.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Ahead of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, New York Times bestselling author and talk show host Eric Metaxas is publishing his latest book, a 600-page volume titled “Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World.”

In the book, he argues that the American Revolution is the “only genuine revolution in the history of so-called revolutions.”
So what separated the American Revolution from other revolutions? What made it succeed? And what critical aspects of the American Revolution are no longer being taught in schools today?
Metaxas argues that America is currently facing its third existential crisis, after the American Revolution and the Civil War, and understanding the core principles behind America’s founding story is critical to preserving the liberties of this nation.
In the interview, we confront some key questions: How is the erosion of spiritual faith transforming American society? How does self-government work without the “moral and religious people” that John Adams described as a prerequisite for self-government? What is the proper role of a good citizen?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Could communist Chinese infiltration of Canada become an existential threat to American security—or is it already one?

Scott McGregor has spent decades in the Canadian military and Canadian intelligence studying the threat that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to Canada and North America more broadly. He has known about the CCP’s infiltration of Canada for many years and briefed major intelligence agencies in both Canada and the United States about it.
According to McGregor, the strategic partnership between Canada and China is extremely detrimental to Canada’s interests—and also poses a major security threat to America.
McGregor, who is the co-author of the book “The Mosaic Effect,” told me the partnership “came as quite a shock. ... This strategic alliance ... cuts the legs out of the people that have been trying to bring awareness to the threat of China to Canada and North America.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments last year about Canada becoming America’s 51st state alienated many Canadians to such a degree that they are eager to distance themselves from America. But McGregor says the reality is that Canada very much depends on the United States. It’s by far Canada’s most important trading partner and an indispensable military partner.
“Canada relies on the United States as a partner in logistics support, especially militarily. When I deployed, we had Canadians that were saved because Americans had helicopters that could operate in regions that we just couldn’t. We didn’t have the capability. The same goes for weaponry,” he says.
Without American military support, McGregor warns, “We are left on our own. ... Canada needs the United States.”
But do Canadians want to hear such warnings? Do Canadians perhaps tend to overestimate their country’s military strength? Do they understand the depth of the threat from a China under CCP rule? Are they aware of the extent to which Canadian society has already been undermined over the last half century?
And are Canadians perhaps too trusting to realize that the CCP has a plan for Canada and is executing it?
He tells me: “China has a goal, an objective. It’s not destruction at this point. It’s disruption, and the disruption is working. They’ve outflanked us. We’re fighting amongst ourselves—exactly what they want.”
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

In this episode, I sit down with China analyst Gordon Chang to understand his view of the recent Trump–Xi talks in Beijing.

Who had the upper hand? Why did President Donald Trump take 17 CEOs of America’s largest corporations with him? And what was accomplished?
While Xi Jinping tries to present America as a declining power and China as an ascending one, the reality is that China faces several grave problems, Chang says: a collapsing demography, an ailing economy, and a military in disarray after a series of purges.
But China also holds two strong cards: a near-monopoly on rare-earth processing and on critical pharmaceutical precursors.
At the same time, China is winning the information war, Chang argues.
“Xi Jinping has been beating the crap out of us in the information warfare space, and that’s our fault,” he said.
Where is the future of U.S.–China relations headed? Will Trump call Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te—something no U.S. president has done in 47 years? How are shifting alliances in the region reshaping the geopolitical chessboard? And how close are we to a major confrontation? Is the “Thucydides Trap” narrative real?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.