Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

For the uninitiated, CTH is a very popular (to the tune of $30k+ per month coming in via Pateron) podcast by a group of foul-mouthed socialists with a tendency to tear into liberals with just as much (if not more) zeal than conservatives. They were recently profiled/critiqued in the New Yorker. The episode in which they respond to the article (mostly by viciously mocking the author and the New Yorker in general) is a decent introduction. There's also a critique of the critique, of course.

I'm interested in this growing notion of the "dirtbag left" and the increasing ranks of the DSA, which I recognize are partly separate phenomena. (There is an amusing schism in their demo between the very young and the very old.)

This was probably the best intro I ever read:

http://splitsider.com/2016/09/explaining-the-chapo-trap-house-podcast-to-the-uninitiated/

Which gets into the reference-heavy jag the show occasionally launches off on.

these dudes sound pretty unpleasant tbh

I follow some dem socialists on Twitter and it took me like three goddamn months that it was a podcast and not just some sort of weird meme

Can someone explain to me how this podcast and its Patreon patrons are connected to progressive causes by something stronger than the tether between Hot Shots: Part Deux and the US Navy?

I have only heard a few recent episodes, but the divide in airtime between vulgar comic riffs and actual discussion/intvws is pretty much 50/50

to answer yr question more directly Tombot I have seen a *lot* of tweets w/ CTH fans flaunting their newly received Socialist Organizer mailers/cards, anecdotal certainly but not nothing

They're still spending way too much time complaining about Hillary, the election and their critics. I find it amusing enough as a light podcast for driving but they're going to have to move on to keep listeners.

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ChapoTrapHouse_final_wp-1200x715-1479503366.jpg

a vigorous and funny response to the alt-right is probably a good thing, but this just sounds like a load of jerks being jerks

iatee otm

This sounds pretty 'edgy'. I'll be interested to see what these guys do once they're out of high school.

I find it amusing enough as a light podcast for driving but they're going to have to move on to keep listeners.

Agreed, I think this will be a necessity after the inauguration anyway

tbh I mostly enjoy their eviscerations of liberal commentators/thinkers - fish in a barrel, sure, but undeniably satisfying

Have never listened to the show, read the article, I think i follow a couple of them on twitter. I hadn't realized they responded to the article with vicious mockery on their show, that's kind of a bummer since I saw them responding to outraged CTH devotees on twitter with essentially "chill the fuck out, it was a pretty good profile."

in the following episode they emphasized that they were embarrassed by people defending them

I think the 'jerks being jerks' stuff is overstated. I've listened to 10-12 eps now and there's nothing really offensive? They pick on dweeby Twitter people and pundits.

The episodes where they read from Ross Douthat and Megan McCardle's books are the best I've heard, followed by the interview with Adam Curtis.

Can someone explain to me how this podcast and its Patreon patrons are connected to progressive causes by something stronger than the tether between Hot Shots: Part Deux and the US Navy?

It's an Air America show that can survive on its listener base, I don't think anyone's expecting them to start a revolution with a podcast. It's amusing to listen to a talk show with an actual left-wing viewpoint.

At least some of them are active with DSA and similar groups but they're also just relatively privileged liberal arts college NYC alt-media people.

I'm realizing I could have asked the same question about Das Racist (RIP) and gotten kind of the same answer and it would have been fine. Why I felt the need to ask it of a podcast as if that requires a different kind of "authentic" pedigree is weird, and my thinking needs unpacking on that

Can someone explain to me how this podcast and its Patreon patrons are connected to dirtbag causes?

I think I need it explained to me how they are not directly related

I've listened to most episodes, it's a great podcast. Their coverage of the primaries was often very funny. An early ep had a great guest who detailed the situation w teacher strikes in Mexico. Occasionally they do succumb to the more deluded and counter productive tendencies of hardcore Berners though.

i'll out myself. matt's a thoughtful guy. felix is lol in most moods and he reminds me eerily of turkey-obsessed college friends i miss; also i found his les mis reading compelling. will clearly guides the whole thing and holds episodes together but imo is the blankest when he goes on the attack. some episodes really are just them giggling at their own press clips. thought it was completely hilarious that their william f buckley impression was actually a capt. peter peachfuzz impression.

obviously the keep it negative dickhole zing crew should run podcasting

I don't think "keep it negative" is a fair summation of their worldview

a vigorous and funny response to the alt-right is probably a good thing, but this just sounds like a load of jerks being jerks

maybe if we brainstormed some more descriptions of trump's hair

afaict they're in the same gen x/millenial straddler segment as a bunch of my peers, sneer at the gen x detachment and corporate institutions equally, and are well-versed in the web communities that predate the 4chan weird bullshit, parallel to or members of somethingawful and other shit of the time

idk it's a thing where every political opinion coming from them seems like a deep-seated reaction from living through the late 90s and early 00s and that's the lens

douthat rip is savage

I'm trying to catch up to the Trap House but these things are like 90 minutes long. I'm on episode 4. By the time they're talking about current events, Trump's first term will be over

I thoroughly enjoy the Chapo Trap House. When I first discovered it it felt like a real catharsis to hear other people roughly my age or a little younger shredding New Democratism and bad centrist punditry of both liberal and conservative varieties but not in a lefty crank, counterpunch sort of way.

I can't say I love the new format with more regulars and preferred the dynamic of just Felix-Matt-Will. I like Amber and Virgil Texas individually I just don't feel like the show works as well with them regularly participating.

ALSO as I think we talked about a little on the podcast thread, it seems harder for them to find their footing in a Trump world, now that the irrelevant centrist punditry has actually been rendered irrelevant.

I'm trying to catch up to the Trap House but these things are like 90 minutes long. I'm on episode 4.

I've found that playback at 1.25x speed can be your friend.

i couldn't get through an episode of this, even though i generally agree with them

it just... isn't funny at all, or insightful. probably because the things that are funny and insightful in sad leftist twitter aren't funny outside of sad leftist twitter

Whiney, just listen to the Freeway Ross Douthat episode then skip to current events. Discussing the conventions doesn't really work as entertainment six months after the fact.

being a completionist about a politics podcast is the most onion a/v club thing i've ever heard

I tried to listen to an episode but I just found it unbearable, but I realize I should have listened before I read that interview they did with Paste, which is hands down the most embarrassing thing I read last year: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/chapo-trap-house-are-the-vulgar-brilliant-demigods.html

i've encountered enough asshole know-it-all leftists on twitter (including at least one of the chapo guys, i think) that i haven't exactly been eager to give this a try.

"I haven't listened to this but I don't like it based on reading an article about it" is the most boring and non-contributing thing you can possibly say.

Except I did listen to it?

Like, "I tried to listen to an episode" is the first goddamn thing I say in my post

They do definitely reflect the worst of leftist Twitter at times. Like it's clear from recent episodes their way of continuing in Trump World will be to still hammer Clinton relentlessly land act like centrist democrats are worse than actual fascists. They are really mad at Hillary for losing to Trump when all I heard from them for months was that she was just as bad.

The show works better for me when Matt or Amber bring up something that show they've done a but more homework on this stuff.

My particular fave episodes are stuff like having on Adam Curtis, Matt Karp on his book on Antebellum American politics setting up race science and eugenics shit trickling down to Breitbart, or even the pilot ep of sorts where they excoriate the weird mentality behind Michael Bay's "13 Hours."

xp p sure they're mad at hillary for beating bernie with the weight of the DNC behind her, propping up trump as an easy win and then running an embarrassing general election campaign built on "of course i'll win"

and given that this toolbag seems to be the presumptive 2020 favorite of the DNC, which has not shown any indication of shifting platform aside from a few pockets of support for keith ellison, keeping the fire under the democrats might be the only thing that saves us from 4 additional years of actual fascism

Nerderik P.

The "weight of the DNC" that Bernie's ramshackle campaign couldn't overcome but Obama could somehow. We can blame this vague "rigging" for Bernie's loss (and not acknowledge that maybe he should campaigned in the south) but can't admit the Comey letter had an effect on Hillary's?

After the primary was pretty much over they called the differences between Trump and Clinton "a wash". Matt Christman perpetuated the deluded idea that the Bernie delegates at the Nevada caucus were "disenfranchised", just as one example. Granted it wasn't the job of the left to get Hillary elected (I'd have personally preferred Bernie for a number of reasons) but you don't get to act mad at her campaign for losing when you perpetuated the equivalency narrative throughout the campaign. Many Dems have been able to acknowledge that she was a vulnerable candidate that we were stuck with because not enough people ran but it seems like it would literally kill many on the left to just say "we got carried away".

Also, encouraging people to spread "Bernie Would've Won" memes is pretty asshole-ish and counter productive but I don't know maybe stopping actual fascism will require purging People who don't hate Hillary but I could be wrong.

but you don't get to act mad at her campaign for losing when you perpetuated the equivalency narrative throughout the campaign

You kind of do? I listened to the post-DNC podcasts and a lot of commentary revolved around things that seemed iffy even at the time when it seemed like a lock - trotting out Mike Bloomberg, the lineup of neocon security/military people lining up for Hillary, etc.. It goes back to 2000/2002 - if you're going to present Republican-lite as the face of the party why wouldn't the voters who are into that just vote for real Republicans? They were also right back then on focusing on decency being poor judgement.

Were the Hillary fainting jokes in bad taste? Sure. That's still the most tiresome part of the podcast, but it's also a fairly small part of it.

Funny thing about Bloomberg is we was one of the few convention speakers who got kind of a positive reaction from the Bernie or busters there when he mentioned that he described himself as an "independent" what or John Lewis got anti-tpp chants. There was definitely messaging problems w HRC's campaign but given the consequences of the election (potential loss of social programs for one) people with visibility on the left seemed reluctant to encourage voting for the obviously better choice of the corny old lady and pickedvthr campsign apart for things all high level campaigns do becuae they were probably confident she was going to win anyway.

Also, encouraging people to spread "Bernie Would've Won" memes is pretty asshole-ish and counter productive but I don't know maybe stopping actual fascism will require purging People who don't hate Hillary but I could be wrong.

― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Wednesday, January 4, 2017 3:23 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't think spreading memes has ever been productive in any direction

seriously didn't realize there were still people aside from high ranking democrat pols and frederik who think the answer to defeating trumpism over the next 4 years is to double down on the 2016 strategy

this is some gluing humpty dumpty together again shit

that Bernie's ramshackle campaign couldn't overcome but Obama could somehow

yeah it's almost like these are two different candidates running on entirely different platforms with entirely different relationships to the DNC

how close are you to running out the "of course the DNC sank bernie, he wasn't a member of their party!" argument that was briefly popular 8 months ago in an entirely different america

Yes, Mike Bloomberg is a well-known figure on the socialist lecture circuit. Hugely popular on the left. Yuge.

It is a reminder that the one thing worse than jokes about Hillary's medical problems is the narrative around BernieBros and "Bernie or Busters" where whatever ills that pop into your head can be ascribed to them.

The fundamental disconnect here appears to be your belief that the left's issue with Clinton is that she was "corny."

xxp obvs

I never said "everything was perfect w HRC's messaging except that leftist twitter and this podcast didn't like it". I'd have preferred a different candidate but Hillary won the primary, she was obviously the better candidate compared to Trump. When you vote for a candidate you are voting a coalition into office. Making equivrlrncies beyeeen her and Trump was ridiculous then (kind of offensive actually when you put in perspective ) and looks even more ridiculous now. Maybe you can post the photo of them at a party together I've seen a million times and I'll withdraw that.

We have social media, we know the left got "carried away" I don''t see the point in denying that base level reality. I mean people were literally crying st the convention because they thought Bernie would get the nomination somehow.

Positive news

welcomed little baby christman into the world this morning, and she is perfect. today is a great day!

— amber rollo (@ambercrollo) September 24, 2023

TED TALK: “I had a stroke, I experienced ego death and collective consciousness. I realized we are one with the universe.”

ME: “I experienced that Dracula was cool.”

— crisp mattman (@cushbomb) November 25, 2023

Get well soon, Matt. Posting on Twitter probably won’t help this process, but…

S4 of Blowback is really good

TBH I'm kind of shocked that something this well-researched and professionally done was co-created by a member of the Chapo extended universe.

Christman has been recovering in public on Twitter, which I would posit as not being the best idea, but one wonders if they’d be able to stop him

idk these are some good tweets

CINESTE CORNER: it the characters was feeling good. He was clearly “I Feel Good”thus the theme I feel good.

— crisp mattman (@cushbomb) December 10, 2023

over/under on number of copies Amber's memoir will sell - 25

The latest episode of Trueanon was pretty great and had ILX alumni Max as the guest

Yeah, and they got into internet overexposure but also problems that educators are seeing with schoolchildren w/r/t screens and literacy

Kingfish, where can I find your podcasts? I lurk enough here (for 20+ years omg) but don’t keep up with the meta stuff like DN changes but you must have mentioned it at some time

My own show is kinda defunct but was called “Giving the Mic to the Wrong Person”

You can find it on iTunes and SoundCloud:

http://soundcloud.com/givingthemic

i have noticed the red scare girls starting VERY carefully to move away from the right. I predict something more broadly noticeable will happen with this within 1.5 years

they’re not even on my radar! what are the tells?

feel like the whole dirtbag leftist thing has kind of faded cause Trump 2 isn’t so funny this time

the brace belden cinematic universe is going strong

i have noticed the red scare girls starting VERY carefully to move away from the right

really?

Every time I see them recently they’re posting pro Zionist stuff.

I can’t imagine who their audience is in 2026

I think they’re actively softening / backpedaling on Israel because it goes down so badly with their right-wing base these days. Anna is still very anti-liberal, anti-feminist and right-wing (though with some critical distance from MAGA). Dasha is still on the weird trad-Cath convert thing and probably lining up more with Tucker Carlson, etc, on foreign policy, these days. Both seem to be losing a lot of online relevance but idk whether that’s reflected in their listenership. Anna is also very aligned with Michael Tracy and others on the ‘no Epstein conspiracy’ bit, which probably annoys a lot of their target audience.

I was impressed that Michael Tracy was able to become even more of a creep in the last year or so. I thought he'd maxxed out.

First (and last) time I listened to a Red Scare episode, ages ago, the ep started with a deranged rant about how criticising Israel is Western ethnocentrism, so the topic has been on their mind for a long time.

Heard the one from Succession interviewed on Josh Citarella’s pod. I knew I’d hate it but I was kind of shocked how dim she was.

You say she's problematic and the way you say it, so fanatic

I was surprised (at the time) to find out the other red scare host is or was in a relationship with a musician who is decent and I decided for my own sanity to not look into it further

It's going to take a l;ot of backpedaling to come back from stuff like this:

In May 2025, Khachiyan supported a fundraiser for a woman who used the n-word against an eight-year-old child, saying: "I will support her on principle because of the importance of not letting the left dictate speech codes and torment everyone with gay race communism.

They are irony poisoned to the extent that I'd say their true adherence is to nihilism, but they're also craven so when they think a ship is sinking they assume their audience will be as unbothered and opportunistic as they are about switching allegiances. They're probably right!

defending terrible things just because the people you dislike think they're terrible is a default stance for some of the most annoying people in our society

or, as I keep mumbling, we're a country where everyone has oppositional defiance disorder in lieu of a personality

i always thought they toed the ideological line of whoever is subsidizing them

defending terrible things just because the people you dislike think they're terrible is a default stance for some of the most annoying people in our society

Boy, ain't that the truth! As popular in aesthetics as it is in politics, tho obv the latter is worse.

these arseholes seemingly started off gleefully spraying the r-word about and declaring it as perfectly acceptable behaviour (is it 9 years ago now? blimey), so it doesn't surprise me at all that a lot of their politics and personalities have been revealed as vile and unpalatable. I have never given them a second, people using speak like that are never worth shit.

Speaking of Chapo--when Hasan was on the 10th anniversary show he said something like his and Chapo's take on Jan. 6 was that it was hilarious and it should happen again, which is sort of the featherweight version of what Red Scare does.

imo they’re fairly earnest conservatives and not just contrarian nihilists. but i’m curious what roxy was alluding to re: them tacking back to the left

I can't believe the socialists generally hostile to the American government don't have the same attitude toward its institution as liberal Democrats.

Yeah, I know, right. They should probably be disappeared.

its’s funny when people get killed, it’s awesome

Think of the cops!

never listened to them but it seems clear to me the only thing they believe in is getting money/notoriety.

the dirtbag left and the shitbag right are pretty similar in that they spend most of their time issuing unenforceable death sentences to their enemies on the internet.

Think of the cops!

― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Wednesday, April 15, 2026 6:58 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow so edgy

Didn’t you bring up the dead cops and fascists?

Brace’s ability to do this Where’s Waldo thing in every notable gathering of freaks is genuinely impressive. Also the recent episodes about their visit to Cuba were really good and moving (and pretty depressing).

for anyone not listening, JoeStork's talking about the TrueAnon Cuba episodes, where they visited Cuba and talked to a local journalist and visited a hospital

I've been making my way through the Wallace Shawn interview a bit at a time

the CPAC trip that followed the Cuba one possibly had the most relatable ending. I, too, would want to just go to my hotel room and lay down after that conversation

Yeah that seemed like one hell of a week. I also found the ending to the most recent episode (kind of a holistic overview of how utterly depraved everything is right now) very cathartic.

It's going to take a l;ot of backpedaling to come back from stuff like this:

In May 2025, Khachiyan supported a fundraiser for a woman who used the n-word against an eight-year-old child, saying: "I will support her on principle because of the importance of not letting the left dictate speech codes and torment everyone with gay race communism.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Wednesday, April 15, 2026 12:15 PM bookmarkflaglink

oh yeah, they can't redeem themselves at this point, but i've noticed a few tries to dip their toe into it. like anna posting recently that lena dunham is beautiful or w/e. theyre still far right idiots

surprised no one's talking about adam from cumtown itt tho, dude recently got friggin zohran for an interview. he and his show are doing amazing

Adam and Stavvy's full integration into polite society has been a thing to behold.

that interview magazine bit w/Friedland and Maury Povich was kind of funny

adam interviews Ilhan Omar

i’m way behind on friedland interviews but the richard kind one was great. two different types of maniacs chopping it up