PBS Labels Borders, EPA Deregulation 'End Times Fascism'

Alex Christy
September 16th, 2026 12:53 PM

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Tuesday’s edition of Amanpour and Company on PBS should have been called “Everything I Don't Like Is Fascism" because co-host Bianna Golodryga welcomed authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor to promote their new book, End Times Fascism, where they argued that simple things such as borders and EPA deregulation were part of a plot orchestrated by fascists to bring about an end of the world.

Golodryga began to introduce her guests by mourning, "The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back key regulations in the Clean Air Act, erasing limits on emissions from coal and gas power plants. It's an astounding move after the U.S. recorded its hottest summer ever.”

 

 

She also claimed, “From a disregard for the climate crisis to the existential threat of AI, it's easy to despair over our future. But rather than finding solutions, our next guests say a new far-right movement is emerging in response and embracing end-times fascism.”

After Golodryga asked the duo what they consider to be fascistic, Klein began by focusing on borders, “There is a hard-right government in the United States. Your previous guests were just talking about a willingness to overthrow long-held democratic norms. So, what makes this specific and why we call it end-times fascism is that it seems to be taking collapse for granted and finding ways to both profit from collapse and also to protect the in-group. So, there's a focus on fortressing, whether borders or homes.”

Klein added, “There's sort of several tiers of the bunkering, a kind of a mass market version at the border, but then an elite version for the very rich, who, as we know, are building luxury bunkers around the world.”

Golodryga then turned to Taylor and wondered, “So, you identify tech billionaires, religious fundamentalists, and ethno-nationalists. What is the strongest evidence that you were able to find that they share an acceptance of catastrophe rather than trying to take advantage for their own wealth and their own power?”

Taylor declared that “fascism is always an alliance. And so, you just named the three main groups that we see as core to this ideology, which is not a monolith. And it's not dominant across the entire right, but it does describe some of the most powerful people in the world, both in politics and at the helm of corporations.”

In a wildly uncharitable interpretation of something Vice President JD Vance said recently, Taylor continued, “I mean, I think just this week, leading up to the publication of our book, we've seen a kind of attention or mention of apocalypse in the mainstream media. We had Vice President JD Vance talking about possibly ushering in the end times. And we've had leading figures from Silicon Valley warning that their technology might cause mass human extinction.”

Vance expressed the opposite position. He claimed that he thinks it is possible we are living in the end times—something Christians have contemplated for 2,000 years—but that focusing on the question too much is probably bad for his spiritual health.

 

 

As it was, Taylor kept rolling, “So, we're seeing a sense that, you know, we're entering a very perilous period in human history and a sense among these elites that they're welcoming this chaos, right? As Naomi said, they're building bunkers. Their solutions are to build borders, build walls rather than addressing the roots of the crisis.”

Taylor finished her comments by claiming, “This fascism is a response to very real material crises, climate change, incredibly concentrated wealth, wars, and rogue, potentially dangerous artificial intelligence, which is compounding these crises. Nuclear weapons. And so, those material conditions are creating a more dangerous world and a unique manifestation of fascist threats.

Klein then returned to add, “What we're arguing is that once you can no longer deny the reality of climate change, for instance, all that is really left to deny is the humanity of your fellow humans. It requires — if you're not going to get at the root causes of what's driving the crises, if you're not going to try to solve them, and indeed if you are going to actively make it worse, like doing things like deregulating carbon at the EPA, then what are you going to do about the people who are getting hit first and worst?”

She also alleged, “It's not a surprise, nor is it news, that the people who are most vulnerable to disasters, to shocks, are the people who have the least money. And in our very unequal world, that overwhelmingly means black and brown people. So, we are seeing supremacist and fascist ideas surge as a way to rationalize allowing people to die, to drown, to die on their lands, to starve. Of course, we've also seen attacks on the aid programs that help the most vulnerable people in the world, like USAID, led by the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, when he was head of DOGE.”

Actual fascism is about an overbearing state that demands subservience from the people in every aspect of life. Deregulation is the opposite of fascism, and if mainstream politicians won’t acknowledge borders, then voters will eventually turn to politicians from outside the mainstream to do the job.

Here is a transcript for the September 15 show:

PBS Amanpour and Company

9/15/2026

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Well, now, the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back key regulations in the Clean Air Act, erasing limits on emissions from coal and gas power plants. It's an astounding move after the U.S. recorded its hottest summer ever.

From a disregard for the climate crisis to the existential threat of AI, it's easy to despair over our future. But rather than finding solutions, our next guests say a new far-right movement is emerging in response and embracing end-times fascism.

In their new book, co-authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor argue that America's rich and powerful are preparing for the end of the world, and they themselves are frenetically accelerating. And they're joining me now from New York to discuss their book. Welcome both of you.

Naomi, let's start with you. As I noted, your book is titled End Times Fascism. Briefly, what does that mean, and what makes the politics you describe in this book specifically fascist?

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, thank you for having us, Bianna. We are describing a phenomenon of a turn to the hard-right, which we are seeing around the world. We just saw it in recent elections in Germany. We're seeing hard-right parties soaring in the polls in France.

And there is a hard-right government in the United States. Your previous guests were just talking about a willingness to overthrow long-held democratic norms. So, what makes this specific and why we call it end-times fascism is that it seems to be taking collapse for granted and finding ways to both profit from collapse and also to protect the in-group. So, there's a focus on fortressing, whether borders or homes.

There's sort of several tiers of the bunkering, a kind of a mass market version at the border, but then an elite version for the very rich, who, as we know, are building luxury bunkers around the world.

GOLODRYGA: Well, to that point, Astra, you write, quote, "The most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, and in they themselves are frenetically accelerating." That was the introduction quote that we had as well.

So, you identify tech billionaires, religious fundamentalists, and ethno-nationalists. What is the strongest evidence that you were able to find that they share an acceptance of catastrophe rather than trying to take advantage for their own wealth and their own power?

ASTRA TAYLOR: Yes, fascism is always an alliance. And so, you just named the three main groups that we see as core to this ideology, which is not a monolith.

And it's not dominant across the entire right, but it does describe some of the most powerful people in the world, both in politics and at the helm of corporations.

I mean, I think just this week, leading up to the publication of our book, we've seen a kind of attention or mention of apocalypse in the mainstream media. We had Vice President JD Vance talking about possibly ushering in the end times. And we've had leading figures from Silicon Valley warning that their technology might cause mass human extinction.

So, we're seeing a sense that, you know, we're entering a very perilous period in human history and a sense among these elites that they're welcoming this chaos, right? As Naomi said, they're building bunkers. Their solutions are to build borders, build walls rather than addressing the roots of the crisis.

So, this fascism is a response to very real material crises, climate change, incredibly concentrated wealth, wars, and rogue, potentially dangerous artificial intelligence, which is compounding these crises. Nuclear weapons. And so, those material conditions are creating a more dangerous world and a unique manifestation of fascist threats.

KLEIN: And you asked why — what is it about it that deserves to be called a fascist? And what we're arguing is that once you can no longer deny the reality of climate change, for instance, all that is really left to deny is the humanity of your fellow humans. It requires — if you're not going to get at the root causes of what's driving the crises, if you're not going to try to solve them, and indeed if you are going to actively make it worse, like doing things like deregulating carbon at the EPA, then what are you going to do about the people who are getting hit first and worst?

And it's not a surprise, nor is it news, that the people who are most vulnerable to disasters, to shocks, are the people who have the least money. And in our very unequal world, that overwhelmingly means black and brown people. So, we are seeing supremacist and fascist ideas surge as a way to rationalize allowing people to die, to drown, to die on their lands, to starve. Of course, we've also seen attacks on the aid programs that help the most vulnerable people in the world, like USAID, led by the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, when he was head of DOGE.

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