Aug 10, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 10 segments
We all love making fun of fascists. But Dr. Bret Devereaux makes an art of it. Bret is a historian of antiquity and a Tolkien scholar, and he doesn’t suffer fools. He’s been going at it with the world…
Bret DevereauxGuest
Aaron RegunbergHostMatt DaSilvaHostAs you're talking about, like, not even reluctance, the refusal to engage with any of this, you know, classic stuff in a complicated manner, right? And just sort of propping up like the great man of history, like, oh, Alexander the Great, Caesar, these were like great conquering, you know, powerful men and they were great and we should just want to be like them.
It kind of makes me think of like the way people defend the Constitution and defend like the founding fathers as like...
They did everything correct and there's nothing wrong with any of this and if you question it, you hate America.
They assumed we would want to change it and I know we're not here to talk contemporary politics as much but like – I don't know.
I tend to think that one of the problems of our republic right now is it's been too long since we've amended the thing.
I think there are quite a few amendments where that should obviously happen that we just haven't done because we've gotten out of the habit of amending the Constitution and we should get back in the habit of amending the Constitution on a regular basis.
And the framers themselves, it's funny because they're conscious sometimes of how flawed they are.
It is, of course, I think, pretty common knowledge now that Thomas Jefferson had slaves and was kind of terrible to them.
But also, you know, not while I'm doing it, that there was an awareness of their their moral failings.
As you're talking about, like, not even reluctance, the refusal to engage with any of this, you know, classic stuff in a complicated manner, right? And just sort of propping up like the great man of history, like, oh, Alexander the Great, Caesar, these were like great conquering, you know, powerful men and they were great and we should just want to be like them.
It kind of makes me think of like the way people defend the Constitution and defend like the founding fathers as like...
They did everything correct and there's nothing wrong with any of this and if you question it, you hate America.
They assumed we would want to change it and I know we're not here to talk contemporary politics as much but like – I don't know.
I tend to think that one of the problems of our republic right now is it's been too long since we've amended the thing.
I think there are quite a few amendments where that should obviously happen that we just haven't done because we've gotten out of the habit of amending the Constitution and we should get back in the habit of amending the Constitution on a regular basis.
And the framers themselves, it's funny because they're conscious sometimes of how flawed they are.
It is, of course, I think, pretty common knowledge now that Thomas Jefferson had slaves and was kind of terrible to them.
But also, you know, not while I'm doing it, that there was an awareness of their their moral failings.
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