In the maiden episode of Babylon's Burning, we talk with Jan Blommaert on Globalism, Globalization and Cultural Marxism.

Trump, Bolsonaro and several other leading politicians recently spoke out denouncing "globalism". Prior to its use by such political heavyweights, the term "globalism" had been around for several years in online meme wars, often alongside its cognate "cultural marxism". Investigating the actual use of "globalism" leads to some surprising insights, and in this episode our host Mariek Van den Abeele reviews some of these insights with her guest, Jan Blommaert.

Jan Blommaert is professor of Language, Culture and Globalization at Tilburg University and has a distinguished record as a discourse analyst and sociolinguist analyzing online and offline materials. Mariek invites Jan to describe what "globalism" actually means, how it is related to globalization, how it features in memes, and how it is attached to that other remarkable term, "cultural marxism". Their battle of wits yields some statements, hilarious as well as deadly serious ones, that viewers will remember for some time.

Babylon's Burning is a YouTube Talkshow on Digital Culture. It is a co-production between Babylon, Center for the study of Superdiversity (Tilburg University) and Diggit Magazine.

Jan Blommaert on Globalism, Globalization and Cultural Marxism