Julian Assange's Talk Show Discusses Obama, Europe, Left and Right

LONDON - The second episode of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's talk show on Tuesday featured a discussion on "left and right" in politics in the 21st century with two guests whose political convictions changed over the course of their careers.

our editor recommends

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Launches Talk Show With Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah as First Guest

Anthony LaPaglia, Rachel Griffiths Cast in Julian Assange TV Movie 'Underground'

On the new episode of The World Tomorrow, David Horowitz, a conservative U.S. thinker had a spirited discussion with former Slovenian anti-communist dissident Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher who later became known as a Marxist, with Assange serving as referee. Horowitz used to be a left-wing activist in the vein of the New Left and was friendly with leaders of the Black Panther Party when he was younger.

The show, which aired online and on English-language Russian news network RT on Tuesday, included a debate about the U.S. presidential election, foreign policy and the future of Europe, as well as discussions of the Israel-Palestine question and even the Black Panthers and WikiLeaks itself.

"The leftist utopians have no idea of what human nature," Horowitz said at one point in a discussion about Stalin. And therefore, when they get to power, they face a big problem, which is that people don't go along with their program, and so they kill them or put them in gulags."

Zizek at one point brought up how, as U.S. President, George W. Bush once said he looked into Russian President Vladimir Putin's eyes and knew he could trust him. "That was one of the stupidest things that Bush said," Horowitz replied.

On the U.S. presidential campaign, Zizek said "we are both critical of [Barack] Obama." He added: "You are critical towards Obama, because you think he is a Communist, leftist. I am critical of Obama quite to the contrary. I think he is not a closet leftist...he pretends to be a leftist, that's the problem."

Last week, Assange had kicked off his 12 episodes of the talk show with an interview with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It was his first English-language TV interview since 2006 and quickly became a top 10 Twitter trend when it first aired on April 17.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai