Sep 8, 2026 · 36 min · 10 segments
Picture a newsroom in Rome under dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in the 1930s. A censor's red pencil moves down a page before it ever reaches a printing press. Now picture a cell phone…
picture this a newsroom in Rome under dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in the 1930s a sensor's red pencil moves down a page before it ever reaches a printing press Now picture a cell phone, like right now, tonight, someone typing out a post, reading it back to themselves and deleting it before they hit send, right? These are two different moments using two different technologies, nearly a hundred years apart, but it's that same instinct.
It's the instinct towards silence.
And it isn't just what's left when words are cut or people are quiet.
It's something that regimes and sometimes just fear or a habit or a culture intentionally manufacture.
Right.
And I think that's why we think talking about silence is so important, especially given where we are currently in today's United States.
So in this episode, we're tracing the history of silence across three pivotal moments.
First, the silence embedded in the American nativist movement in the 1800s.
than the fascist engineering of silence, like Sarah, you started our episode with in the 1900s.
And you guessed it, right? Observers today argue silence is being imposed again, with also, as we like to end, some tips as to how we best fight back.
And how do we fight back? We question a lot.
For those of us who are asking, well, great, this is history, but why are we revisiting it together? And our answer to that is simple, because those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Welcome to What Do You Mean By That? We're your hosts, Sarah and Misasha.
So we want to dive into this idea of fascism and silence.
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picture this a newsroom in Rome under dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in the 1930s a sensor's red pencil moves down a page before it ever reaches a printing press Now picture a cell phone, like right now, tonight, someone typing out a post, reading it back to themselves and deleting it before they hit send, right? These are two different moments using two different technologies, nearly a hundred years apart, but it's that same instinct.
It's the instinct towards silence.
And it isn't just what's left when words are cut or people are quiet.
It's something that regimes and sometimes just fear or a habit or a culture intentionally manufacture.
Right.
And I think that's why we think talking about silence is so important, especially given where we are currently in today's United States.
So in this episode, we're tracing the history of silence across three pivotal moments.
First, the silence embedded in the American nativist movement in the 1800s.
than the fascist engineering of silence, like Sarah, you started our episode with in the 1900s.
And you guessed it, right? Observers today argue silence is being imposed again, with also, as we like to end, some tips as to how we best fight back.
And how do we fight back? We question a lot.
For those of us who are asking, well, great, this is history, but why are we revisiting it together? And our answer to that is simple, because those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Welcome to What Do You Mean By That? We're your hosts, Sarah and Misasha.
So we want to dive into this idea of fascism and silence.