Walter Rhein joined me and Dana DuBois on The Daily Whatever Show to talk about the Overton Window, and what followed was one of the sharpest, most unsettling conversations we’ve had in a while. His essay and illustrations set the stage: the Overton Window is the narrow band of what society deems “acceptable” to discuss. Everything outside of it? Branded extreme, fringe, or unthinkable.
Walter laid out how this frame has been dragged to the right for decades. Militarized crackdowns in Portland, tariffs on foreign films, bots flooding social media with disinformation—all of it feeds into a strategy of controlling the narrative. What would have been shocking six months ago is now background noise. And what should be basic—like universal healthcare or acknowledging systemic racism—is written off as radical.
He didn’t sugarcoat it: there is no true left in American politics anymore. Policies that would be centrist in other countries—free healthcare, climate action, reparations—are treated here as fringe. Walter pointed out that AOC’s platform basically matches Eisenhower’s, which tells you just how far the window has shifted.
At the root of this drift is white supremacy, embedded in the nation’s DNA and constantly normalized through culture, history, and politics. From mass shootings explained away as “mental health” issues to the very lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner, Walter made clear that American exceptionalism and violence are linked. Naming that truth, he argued, is the first step in shifting the window back toward humanity.
The conversation wasn’t just a diagnosis, though—it was also a call to action. Walter reminded us that the window moves because people push it. The right has invested decades in discipline and message control. We have to match that—naming what’s happening, refusing to cede the frame, and insisting that policies rooted in dignity and fairness aren’t radical at all.
In the end, Walter left us with urgency and hope. The Overton Window isn’t fixed. It’s a fight over what’s possible. And if we don’t want a society defined by violence and denial, we have to push it back—together.
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~Lawrence & Dana
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Join us tomorrow as we finally get to meet MUTHR, FCKD and talk about Saturn returns and GenX culture and life on The Daily Whatever Show.
This Week on The Daily Whatever Show
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