Since unsurprisingly the Redscare people are going fash, it would be good to know who's a grifter and who's not. What's your predictions?
My predictions:
Grifters:
- Zizek
- AOC
- 1-2 from Cumtown (it's anyone's guess)
Not Grifters
- The Deprogram Boys (ok I'm still in honeymoon)
- Jezza (obviously)
- Richard Wolfe & Harriet Fraad
- Viki1999
They're grifters if it turns out that Cumtown is not even really about being gay with your dad.
What the fuck is 'Cumtown'? Are you talking about the new primetime late-night program The Adam Friedland Show?
You are not a real worker if you are not slavin' away in the coal mines...
Young podcasters who did absolutely nothing in their 20s and early 30s but podcast. There's no real jump to mainstream media for most of them. They can't podcast the same show forever and probably don't have any more fresh ideas in them. Once their livelihood starts to go under, they'll become more reactionary. A systemic change that results in them not podcasting will be a threat to them. They'll be resentful of new voices because that means the old voices aren't marketable anymore. The idea of going back to a "real job" is frightful.
I don't think tote bags with a logo is grifting. I'm thinking that it's more dishonesty for profit. Like if they were promoting a natural covid cure, or they were going over incel talking points for views.
I think she might already be there but Briahna Joy Gray (probably spelled that wrong). i stopped listening pretty close to the start but it kinda seemed like maybe Virgil was keeping their awful podcast leftish and as soon as he dipped out she started veering more to the right. I used to check the patreon comments because I'm a sick freak, and I'd see people begging her to have "gender critical" people and other reactionary shitheads on. idk if she's still even doing that dog shit podcast now that she's on that rising show but it's kinda wild to see her go from working on Bernie's campaign to doing her whole Greenwald-esque shit now and allying with Jimmy Dore and those weirdos
Post-Bernie it seems like things are split between the "left edge of the Democratic party" types like Sam Seder and the "contrarian left" like BJG and Krystal Ball, who can veer too close to Jimmy Dore territory. It takes many levels of irony and detachment to avoid falling into these categories, which is a problem in its own right. Very little principled leftism out there
Principled leftists don't have podcasts, they're working to grow labor unions and running mutual aid orgs.
Spreading left wing propaganda is still important. There's a reason right wing assholes are given a megaphone to drown everyone else out in the media.
I'd put :flattened-bernie: in the Not Grifters column because he spent like 40 years being a back-bencher, until 8 years ago when everyone came around to his point of view. But I could be convinced otherwise.
He's grifting on the technicality that he claims to be a democratic socialist but is actually a social Democrat, but if he's graded on the curve of American politics he comes out looking very good
I agree that this was a colossal L, but he's still done more for America's left than literally any other living human in the last fifty years so I think we can put him in the "critical support" bin in good faith
I don't care about America's "Left" if all it means is free college and healthcare for the Imperial core. Yeah some on the lower rung of Murican society has it tough, but nothing compared to the absolute death and devastation that the US Empire brings. If the American "Left" does nothing about trying to dismantle its Empire to not put off potential lib voters, they are just as dangerous to the global south as anyone on the Right. American succdems hate Russia and China, but the Global South sees Russia and China as a counter balance to US imperialism, US succdems are on the wrong side of history.
I agree. I don't think Bernie is a leftist. I'm claiming he's responsible for the introduction of more actual leftists to politics than any other American. He has been against more wars than most politicians, but his real value is as part of the pipeline.
he’s responsible for the introduction of more actual leftists to politics than any other American.
only because the feds killed all the black ones.
"A better world is possible" is an unfortunately necessary step before anti-imperialism for most. We got a bunch of commies from Bernie's SocDem nonsense and we'll get even more if we become effective at capitalizing on those same sentiments. We should be anti-imperialist and hardliners on it, but Bernie et al provide us with people to radicalize.
Trashfuture will start a company that does rent-to-own for office jackoff pods or something, while insisting it's all ironic
it's true that they're the most bribable podcasters around. Give me a briefcase of East German paraphenalia and rare wine and I'll have em endorsing anything by the end of the week
They will do British Jan 6th after prime minister Matt Hancock is forced to step down.
It's all part a plan to personally redistribute Masayoshi Son's wealth by wasting it
I'm lathing that Contrapoints will do the meme of becoming a trans strasserist
I mean maybe, but once you get a dose of materialism it’s hard to go back. Maybe if someone offered a lot of money
I swear half the site hates Brace the other half loves him, but he def wouldn’t do this. He literally went to war for his beliefs and helped organize a union at his workplace. Pretty good track record of being about what he talks about.
This is such a boring argument. Leftism needs funny and enjoyable media. Doing those three things is more than most leftists on this site will do in their life. Creating media by itself does not “melt your brain.”
And also isn’t he still heavily involved in a local DSA chapter?
I’m saying it would be easy to get comfortable in a contrarian ultra-left conspiracy theorist position and then just drift right with time.
At no time has he shown an inclination to do that.
Why does every leftist need to be the leftist savior, Super hero? This is such a fucked way to look at other humans. Yeah you’ve done a shit ton to help spread leftist ideas, but are you doing everything? Nope, well guess you’re not the one true leftist and give it a few years and you’ll be a grifter.
I still don't know what Red Scare is and I listen to a lot of podcasts.
Anyhow, we all know deep in our hearts who the next grifter to out themselves will be.
(Hint: :amber: )
I thought she left chapo after being inspired by the cultural revolution to go to the countryside.
How in the world could it be her over Will or even Felix? She and Matt are clearly the most sincere leftists of the group, even if they get some things wrong.
The other three already wrote a book years ago tho. And it’s pretty good ngl
Nah, Amber has dipped from the podcast to actually organize and write articles about union organization. Effectiveness aside, she is the least likely to become a grifter.
I love TrashFuture, but probably them. A large number of leftist podcasts fall into either Chapo-adjacent (TrueAnon, Trillbillies, Antifada, etc.) or TrashFuture-adjacent (Bottlemen, WTYP, Kill James Bond, Lions Led by Donkeys) and while I listen to a lot of the TF ones they’ve always felt much more grifty to me
Liam is definitely a grifter, Alice and :rocz-yes: are on the maybe list.
Yeah it's also like, he didn't set out to make leftist content. He basically started WTYP because he was Roz's roommate and didn't have much else to do.
Does “grifter” just mean “guy with takes I don’t like who also makes money”?
:astronaut-2: :astronaut-1:
There are a couple of eps where Felix is playing CS:GO.
If he was watching a Stanley cup game it’s ok
He’s one of the hosts of the dirtbag left podcast, Chapo Trap House
Pretty much just looks like you dont like the WTYP hosts.... WTYP, TF, Kill James Bond, Lions led by donkeys. You can kinda see a trend here.
Oh no to be clear I listen to all of those except lions led by donkeys, and I’ve listened to a lot of that too. If I had a new episode of every podcast I listen to, West Wing Thing is probably the only one that I’d listen to before TF, and WTYP would be next. Alice in particular I really like, I honestly can’t get enough of stuff she makes. Liam isn’t my favorite, and I love that his dad always dunks on him for being a lib.
I've frequently thought about how easy it is to market bullshit health products because the people that buy into it have mush for brains and will believe anyone that's sounds even marginally respectable.
I have the means and technical skills to push hype-astroturfed NFTs to fools and cash out huge but I'm a good person so I won't actually do that.
Do it. I have lax enough morals to take the cash off of your hands
Most people getting into NFTs are intolerable douchebags but they also wouldn't be doing it if they weren't desperate and abused by capitalism. I'm not going to try and take advantage of them because I'm not :porky-happy:
Since unsurprisingly the Redscare people are going fash
Are you posting from a year ago? They've been full weirdo trad people for about that long. They started going fash maybe in like 2020. Hell, a lot of people did around the same time (failure of the Bernie campaign) or some weird red-brown hybrid. I think it's a safe bet that whoever is more or less aligned with their pre-2020 views at this point is just showing their true politics. Not saying they're definitely not grifters, but sort of the key point where every clout chaser on earth decided to pivot and triangulate happened like 2 years ago.
Ya I haven't been paying close attention to them. I can't stand listening to their podcast.
I've been keeping up through Twitter drama. As you can imagine left-twitter hates them, lol.
