When the weight of watching democracy erode gets to be too much, where do you go? In this episode, Nick and Dr. Craig Johnson explore the surprisingly serious topic of retreating into childhood comforts as a coping mechanism for Autocratic Despair — and why that instinct might be healthier than it sounds.

Then things get strange in the best possible way. Nick makes the case that WWE superstar Seth Rollins has become an unlikely avatar of the "Fashwave" aesthetic — the eerie intersection of authoritarian visual language and ironic pop culture — and Dr. Craig is forced to reckon with what that means.

Plus: Dr. Craig comes clean about his hobby. Turns out the man who wrote the book on fascism spends his free time painting miniature Warhammer figurines — and honestly, it makes complete sense.

***Dr. Craig and Nick wish to assure you that we do not mention professional wrestling in every episode.***

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In this preview episode of the Autocratic Despair podcast, host Nick Mortensen introduces Dr. Craig to Danhausen — a magical fun character from the WWE who is about to sweep the nation. Danhausen paints his face black and white, looks like a cartoon vampire, adds the suffix "-hausen" to everything he touches, and delivers his catchphrase "very nice, very evil" with the energy of a goth Mister Rogers. Nick's kids are obsessed. Dr. Craig is hearing all of this for the first time.

Nick explains that he took his kids to the recent No Kings rally with their faces painted like Danhausen — partly because the last rally was near Halloween and they expected to wear costumes, and partly because it made protesting feel like a festival. Then Nick admits the thought he wasn't expecting to have: the face paint would also make it harder for facial recognition technology to identify his children in a crowd. That realization cracks the episode open. Nick and Dr. Craig follow it into the chilling effect of mass surveillance at protests, Rep. Clay Higgins's boast about collecting "millions of digital images, billions of identifying data points" on No Kings attendees, and the landmark Prairieland case out of Fort Worth, Texas — in which a federal jury convicted 7 people on terrorism charges for their presence at a July 4, 2025 noise demonstration outside an ICE detention center in Alvarado. Seven of the eight were acquitted of attempted murder. The same jury convicted the 7 acquitted of providing material support to terrorists — based on the prosecution's theory that wearing black clothing to the protest made it harder for police to identify the one person who fired a weapon. Their names are Cameron Arnold, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto. They are the first Americans in history convicted of providing material support to "antifa" — an organization that does not legally exist. Nick and Craig unpack what this verdict means for every American who has ever worn a hoodie to a demonstration, and why the Attorney General's promise that "this will not be the last" should be taken literally.

Very nice. Very evil. Same country

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