Lefty podcast thread

[Urinal Cake]

Useful Idiots has lost it's allure. I keep on expecting Taibbi to go on one his 'free speech warrior' rant.

[evilcommiedictator]

Noam Chomsky: Vote for Bernie in the Primary.

Liberals: Fuck Noam Chomsky.

Noam Chomsky: Vote for Biden in the general.

Liberals: Listen to Noam Chomsky, ffs!!!!

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Noam Chomsky: Vote for Bernie in the Primary.

Liberals: Fuck Noam Chomsky.

Noam Chomsky: Vote for Biden in the general.

Liberals: Listen to Noam Chomsky, ffs!!!!

???

[chveik]

never found Chomsky very interesting but I understand why he's so important for americans, when you look at the sorry state of their political philosophy.

[Old Nehamkin]

Noam Chomsky, as brilliant and insightful as much of his work is, is not the immutable god of the left and it's perfectly healthy for younger socialists like Briahna Joy Grey to challenge the well-worn premises of the "lesser evil" electoralism to which he subscribes. I would guess that Chomsky himself welcomes and values this kind of debate far more than he does the hollow condescension of the liberal pundit class who, as evilcommiedictator points out, are only interested in venerating the man so long as doing so helps them to cudgel and shame the left into submission.

The idea that any single academic should be held up as the lifelong gatekeeper of an entire political philosophy and that it should be taboo for his judgment to ever be questioned is of course completely idiotic and grotesque.

[Old Nehamkin]

I've really been enjoying Matt Christman's Cushvlog streams lately and I've actually started keeping up with them more regularly than the actual Chapo shows. The guy is just an absolute fucking treasure and I don't think there's anyone else in the lefty podcast sphere as consistently insightful and original as he is.

I'd also like to give another big shout out to Michael and Us, which has recently increased its output to one free episode a week and is always very enjoyable.

[Dog Botherer]

the interesting  thing about Bad Faith is that Virgil is very clearly supposed to be the contrarian heel but 95% of the heat they get online is people being foaming mad at one of BJG's fairly innocuous takes.

that said, it's a bit boring, will check in every so often but it's not an every weeker for me.

I've really been enjoying Matt Christman's Cushvlog streams lately and I've actually started keeping up with them more regularly than the actual Chapo shows. The guy is just an absolute fucking treasure and I don't think there's anyone else in the lefty podcast sphere as consistently insightful and original as he is.

+2

have converted Mrs Botherer to the Church of Cushbomb now. she's not really a fan of Chapo, or most podcasts really (Street Fight and Trillbilly's aside) but Matt's little meanderings have been a real hit. always interesting and thought provoking, and just really fucking funny. 10/10

[peanutbutter]

the interesting  thing about Bad Faith is that Virgil is very clearly supposed to be the contrarian heel but 95% of the heat they get online is people being foaming mad at one of BJG's fairly innocuous takes.

Establishment lib types are probably able to dismiss the chapo guys a lot more easily than a Harvard educated blank woman who's occasionally able to get spots on mainstream tv. Can imagine a strong sense of "you're supposed to be helping us against these people!"

[Sebastian Cobb]

The anti-Chomsky discourse on the timeline today really has me despairing about how dumb and incapable of engaging with arguments the e-left Twittersphere is.

Even when I disagree with them I think the Street Fight guys are the only remaining people in this milieu I actually like.

I saw something but have no idea what's caused it? Care to explain?

[Old Nehamkin]

I saw something but have no idea what's caused it? Care to explain?

Chomsky was interviewed on a recent episode of Bad Faith, a podcast hosted by Bernie's former press secretary Briahna Joy Grey and Chapo Trap House's Virgil Texas. The hosts disagreed with him over the efficacy of the American left giving its support to Joe Biden and the Democratic party establishment, and the expectation that working class and minority voters should maintain a "lesser evil" loyalty to the party despite its continued rightward trajectory. This has sparked lots of outraged pearl clutching from the usual Twitter libs.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Are you incapable of listening to what Chomsky was saying? His position is that its preferable for Joe Biden to win than for Donald Trump to win reelection, and that people should spend a few minutes on the mundane task of voting for the lesser of two evils and then put it out of their minds to focus on more important organizing. The Bad Faith hosts seemed incapable of grasping the concept of acknowledging that we currently live in an undemocratic political system and of voting for a candidate without it being an endorsement of that candidate or his policies (which is ironic, given that Bernie Sanders himself is a compromise candidate who is not particularly left-wing on most issues). The asinine political viewpoint of personal expression over actual activism.

At least on my timeline I saw zero reaction from "Twitter libs" and instead an overwhelming avalanche of faux-left Twitter socialites jumping up and down about how Chomsky is a senile neoliberal shill. The main take I saw repeated most was "Wow, Chomsky thinks it only takes ten minutes to vote? What a fucking moron." Which, of course, is idiotic and misses his point and is unfortunately illustrative of the superficial non-politics of much of the Twitter e-left.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

I've really been enjoying Matt Christman's Cushvlog streams lately

Yes, agree that some of this have been quite good.

[Dog Botherer]

i think the only responsible thing to do is for Virgil to write in Noam Chomsky for president, as a symbol

[kngen]

https://damagemag.com/2020/05/14/im-not-wearing-a-mask/

Pages of meandering dribble, including:
I hate when the mask steals my identity and sells it to a Ukrainian crime syndicate

When an article uses 'here are the contents of my inbox' as its peg, you know you're in for a long, self-involved and utterly unedifying read. I'll say this for Amber though (and I rarely listen to Chapo when she's on, as she has become more and more insufferable), she at least doesn't fall into the curiously normative gender role of 'tutting matriarch' being used as a foil for the 'ourtraaaageousss' stuff the menfolk are saying that a lot of these other podcast seem to have fallen into (Robert Evans and his producer, Useful Idiots on occasion, and - most disappointing of all - it seems to be the baked-in dynamic on Bad Faith).

Chomsky was interviewed on a recent episode of Bad Faith, a podcast hosted by Bernie's former press secretary Briahna Joy Grey and Chapo Trap House's Virgil Texas. The hosts disagreed with him over the efficacy of the American left giving its support to Joe Biden and the Democratic party establishment, and the expectation that working class and minority voters should maintain a "lesser evil" loyalty to the party despite its continued rightward trajectory. This has sparked lots of outraged pearl clutching from the usual Twitter libs.

I stopped listening after 20 mins when it became obvious that there was going to be no reconciliation between one person arguing in terms of pure ideology, while the other was arguing in terms of pragmatism, and that ideology should be applied when the immediate stakes aren't so high.

It was a little bit like listening to someone arguing that the power of positive thinking should replace chemotherapy, and their opposite number saying, 'Yeah, well, how about both?'. It was fatiguing to listen to.

[Famous Mortimer]

It was a little bit like listening to someone arguing that the power of positive thinking should replace chemotherapy, and their opposite number saying, 'Yeah, well, how about both?'. It was fatiguing to listen to.

Not sure the analogy quite works - chemotherapy is very useful whereas the modern Democratic party is a sack of shit; and positive thinking compared to the power of a coherent left-wing political ideology isn't terribly fair either. Pragmatism, compromise, call it what you will, is not an unqualified good.

I don't think seeing voting as entirely separate from "politics" is a good thing. There are clearly an enormous number of people to the left of mainstream Dem politics (it might reasonably be said Sanders was the compromise candidate, not Biden) so why shouldn't they vote for the person who represents their interests the best? Why is it their responsibility to vote for the slightly lesser of two evils, and not for the Dems to make an effort to win their vote? I think the constant suppression of left-wing votes has (deliberately) stunted the formation of a proper left-wing party, honestly. It's very difficult to call a party of 2.8 million people (the number of votes that Ralph Nader got in 2000) a tiny crank fringe. 

Sorry, this isn't really related to the topic of the thread. I just think Chomsky's wrong, and I'm surprised as a lifelong anarchist that he has any interest in voting for a pretty bad Dem candidate either.

[Dog Botherer]

nom chonky

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Not sure the analogy quite works - chemotherapy is very useful whereas the modern Democratic party is a sack of shit; and positive thinking compared to the power of a coherent left-wing political ideology isn't terribly fair either. Pragmatism, compromise, call it what you will, is not an unqualified good.

I don't think seeing voting as entirely separate from "politics" is a good thing. There are clearly an enormous number of people to the left of mainstream Dem politics (it might reasonably be said Sanders was the compromise candidate, not Biden) so why shouldn't they vote for the person who represents their interests the best? Why is it their responsibility to vote for the slightly lesser of two evils, and not for the Dems to make an effort to win their vote? I think the constant suppression of left-wing votes has (deliberately) stunted the formation of a proper left-wing party, honestly. It's very difficult to call a party of 2.8 million people (the number of votes that Ralph Nader got in 2000) a tiny crank fringe. 

Sorry, this isn't really related to the topic of the thread. I just think Chomsky's wrong, and I'm surprised as a lifelong anarchist that he has any interest in voting for a pretty bad Dem candidate either.

Chomsky is clearly correct if you are willing to accept two basic premises and not turn away from them in sorrow because they reflect the terrible state of the country.

1. At the level of the presidential election, the Green Party in this country and any other conceivable third party have zero (literally zero) impact on policy. It is a terrible system that needs to be demolished but that is not going to happen in the next three weeks.

2. Refusing to vote for the Democratic Party does not influence the party in any way. It is not some symbolic act of protest that is registered by the people in charge. Voter turnout in this country is already comically low and does not cause either party's leadership to reassess their policy positions. Instead it causes them to write off the people who do not vote as being outside the electoral system, and pushes the parties further to the right in order to capture the mythological "centrist undecided voter". That dynamic would be greatly enhanced in the present context because if Biden loses the establishment will immediately blame angry Sanders voters, causing the establishment to further marginalize the left wing of the party and to move even further to the right (as would the bare fact of fascist Donald Trump winning reelection).

(And in defense of kngen's analogy, the cancer in this context is Donald Trump being president and the Republicans having complete control over all branches of government. In that respect, voting for the Democrat presidential candidate is just as effective as chemotherapy)

You are confusing the type of realism Chomsky is talking about (that is, acknowledging the facts as they are) with the bullshit "pragmatism" and "compromise" used by liberals to prop up centrism. That is clearly not his point at all. He's not saying "we need to move toward the center to beat Donald Trump," he's saying "one of these two people is going to win the election, and it is much better for the radical left if Trump is not reelected"

[evilcommiedictator]

and that people should spend a few minutes on the mundane task of voting for the lesser of two evils and then put it out of their minds to focus on more important organizing.

5 hours in Georgia, 7 hours in other places :)

EDIT: I'm not taking a side, I understand both positions and would agree with one over another depending on what side of the bed I wake up on

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

The greatest consequence of Trump possibly losing next week is that we hopefully will no longer have to hear Matt Christman's horrific Trump impression.

[Dog Botherer]

horrifically accurate you mean

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

horrifically accurate you mean

One of the least accurate impressions I've ever heard, which I suppose is an accomplishment in itself.

[Dog Botherer]

our ears must work radically differently i suppose

[Old Nehamkin]

I love Matt Christman's Trump impression. Sounds almost nothing like the man but still perfectly captures his essence. Impressionistic with a capital I.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm enjoying Media Roots Radio, but unfortunately co-host Robbie Martin tends to see too much through a conspiracist lens - dragging conversations to QAnon and the Proud Boys. He's not a bad person, and other co-host Abby Martin is excellent, so minor criticism I suppose.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Whilst this isn't leftie in the sense it's a political commentary, I've just listened to a couple of these Well There's Your Problem podcasts about engineering failures, hosted by a couple of Americans and AliceAvizandum (she was the one who created that big twitter thread I posted on GB about the racist police marksman). They do seem quite left-leaning, of course being about engineering, there's a fair bit of support for public infrastructure. They also tend to have a bit of current event chat too.

Here's one on Musk's Hyperloop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWvagC5ccyY&t=5s

[Retinend]

I'm enjoying Media Roots Radio, but unfortunately co-host Robbie Martin tends to see too much through a conspiracist lens - dragging conversations to QAnon and the Proud Boys. He's not a bad person, and other co-host Abby Martin is excellent, so minor criticism I suppose.

I thought he was an anti-QAnon person?

[Famous Mortimer]

I thought he was an anti-QAnon person?

He is, but my complaint (poorly stated, perhaps) was that he drags quite a lot of conversations into that area when it's not all that necessary. I enjoyed his full on expose of QAnon, because I knew what I was getting, but there are times when I don't think there's anything new to say about it.

[dandoystevski]

Haven't seen any of you lefty bastards mention We don't talk about the weather which is a decent UK left pod. I listened to one following last December's hell and it was soothing in its righteous antisemitism anger.

[Replies From View]

Elsewhere, I quite like Behind the Bastards with Robert Evans. When he has a good guest on, and they click, it's a good (and edifying) listen - but pretty ropey when they don't. The Behind the Police specials were particularly good, although I've still got a couple to listen to, as there is only so much depressing and infuriating shit I can deal with in any one sitting.

Bugger, for a moment I thought you meant Richard Evans from redlettermedia.

[Retinend]

He is, but my complaint (poorly stated, perhaps) was that he drags quite a lot of conversations into that area when it's not all that necessary. I enjoyed his full on expose of QAnon, because I knew what I was getting, but there are times when I don't think there's anything new to say about it.

Oh! Sorry that was duh. Yeah I understand because I was subscribed to "QAnon Anonymous" for a little while - I mean literally subscribed with money, via Patreon - but it became apparent that, as interesting as QAnon was, it was not enough to make a whole podcast around, and the hosts seemed to compensate for this dwindling inherent interest in the subject matter by elevating their little podcast into a life or death struggle against fascism. I thought, "I would hate to have their job" - turning into a QAnon bore as bad as the believers themselves.