Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

yeah honestly these guys are at their best when they’re going in on Protestantism American-style. I could listen to a podcast of just that and be good tbh

see also: the Danny McBride HBO trilogy ep

otm, we have really bizarre ideas about what people deserve and the entire protestant work ethic

Pirating Assassin tonight, I can't imagine it will live up the expectations they've set.

<quote>Is there a particular reason why professional media commentators or activist types seem to have the thinnest possible skins? Is this a class background thing? Chris Cuomo posted some shit the other day, didn’t he, that he didn’t want to be a public figure anymore because someone spotted him on the street in Manhattan and was rude to him?

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish) </quote>

Someone gave him shit for being in his own front yard. With family, while isolating.

Seems like a fair trade for however many millions of dollars he makes for this very public job he's willingly entered into.

Everyone who makes a million or more a year should be put in stocks for 24 hours to be pelted with rotten fruits and insulted.

Cuomo was at a house he was having built, just a steel frame, with 5 other people and no mask or gloves. Guy told him off and Cuomo blew a gasket.

Pirating Assassin tonight, I can't imagine it will live up the expectations they've set.

I watched this online with some friends of mine tonight and it absolutely killed.

Matt was on Liz & Brace's twitch chat for 2+ hours. Gets into aesthetics, art, YA book series, etc https://www.twitch.tv/videos/603739955

Matt’s backyard talks are pretty much just political philosophy lectures at this point:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_gPEG2Du5C/?igshid=1vjgwaqpnj0i

the beginning of the end for Nathan Robinson (who recently came out as saying socialists would be "better off if Marx had never been born")

If you are tempted to replace the insights of Karl Marx in your worldview with those of Nathan Robinson, I simply ask that you look at the picture of Nathan in the peacock costume first.

— grillpilled_cushbomb (@cushbomb) April 29, 2020

I wondered what that was about. Purge the fedoras IMO

it's disingenuous to pretend that marx has nothing to do with the way communist regimes turned out.

"We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror"

also, the communist manifesto lays out a plan for forcibly centralizing the economy in the hands of the state as the first step toward communism. only after this is argued to be a necessary phase, after which the state will "wither away" and society will become a free association of individuals. an interesting idea, sure, but it is clearly the phase that caused every communist country to become an abattoir.

i think a defense of marxism needs to come with an acknowledgment of the limitations of marx's thought. i think marx was a powerful and influential thinker and i turn to his thought to analyze the world around me all the time -- probably more than i realize as his ideas have become so ingrained in our way of thinking. but he wasn't a prophet and he laid the groundwork to some awful approaches to revolution. marx needs to be rethought, not protected.

so robinson otm.

a pretty useless quote without the rest

"But the royal terrorists, the terrorists by the grace of God and the law, are in practice brutal, disdainful, and mean, in theory cowardly, secretive, and deceitful, and in both respects disreputable.""

doesn't really change the meaning. obviously the regimes the communists stood against were terrible. but i don't want to be part of any revolution that uses "terror" as a tactic.

I prefer Twain on terror to Marx in any case

the marxism of small differences

doesn't really change the meaning.

it gives a great deal of context to the meaning - writing in the midst of a violent conflict, being on the receiving end of terror, you know? I wouldn't look for missives from the Spanish nationalists circa 1937 about how they wish they could just get along with the Falangists.

Republicans. Nationalists on same side as Falange

ahem, falange were part of the side known collectively as the nationalists

oops, yeah, trying to write complete thoughts on the phone sux

In classic Marx style, if he were alive today I bet Marx would write something like “Why Nathan’s critics are wrong about why he is wrong about me and why he is actually wrong about me. Also some unexplained jabs at Max Stirner.”

— Emma Caterine 🌹 (@EmmaCaterineDSA) April 29, 2020

Will's dad wrote the book that this movie was based on

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/The_Treatment_FilmPoster.jpeg

and the soundtrack is by John Zorn

In his backyard talk tonight, Matt actually regrets posting that, and is talking himself thru some sorta Hegelian talk about why twitter is garbage for anything other than basic socializing, and even then it ain't great.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/606458874

http://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Nathan-Robinson-Socialist-img.jpg

marx deserves plenty of criticism but social democrats are fucking terrible at it

NJR is more an anarchist/LibSoc, not a social democrat tho

With an objectively funny accent.

A M-L but it stands for M'Lady instead of Marxist-Leninist

Whose this Tom Wolfe wannabe fucker anyway

editor of Current Affairs

Did ppl know he looked like that when they started buying the magazine

you assume that people actually buy the magazine

I met the guy at the DSA Conv last August. Nice fellow in person, shorter and younger than you’d expect, quite happy to have any CA writers guest on my podcast should I request them

NJR is more an anarchist/LibSoc

At least Matt’s current stage as attempting to be bodhisattva is better than some Joker shit
https://youtu.be/uHAdhekKayo

https://twitter.com/juche_couture_

Nothing but respect for "Juche Couture" as a profile name

it’s p beautiful that chapo and nathan, whom everyone outside of their audience find insufferable, also hate each other

i have a friend who’s really smart and says he admires Nathan’s writing for being v clear for being really clear and effective. even if it’s cringe to me, i can see how that didactic style is popular. it’s similar to the arg that listeners would be ramming vans through crowded intersections if they weren’t radicalized by the pod. takes all kinds

curious about the falling out between NJR and amber, who was an early CA contributor iirc

NJR is more an anarchist/LibSoc
lol is he fuck, he's a liberal dweeb
― fuck it (Left), Friday, May 1, 2020 1:31 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

isn’t this really just cosplay tho? they’re all hardcore bernie supporters

does CA have a similar benefactor situation to the Baffler? NJR at one pt was paying ppl to review his Trump book on amazon

have nothing to add but NJR's "forced incredulous laughter while making a point he thinks is kinda edgy" thing is 99% of the reason i can't listen to lefty podcasts, none of these people know how to speak into a microphone like it's their job

Big if true

For the first time EVER, Chapo Trap House ended the month with fewer patron donors than it started with at the beginning of the month.

People are using their dollars to tell CTH that they do not condone their misogynist brigading or their enabling of fascists. pic.twitter.com/Xhyk2sDiYX

— Gwen Snyder is uncivil (@gwensnyderPHL) May 1, 2020

hmm wonder if anything happened over the month of april that might have caused people to have less disposable income to spend on chapo

isn’t this really just cosplay tho? they’re all hardcore bernie supporters

well exactly

feel like gwen has discovered a shtick to create her own platform, but it's not quite enough of a hook to get an interview or quote anywhere of note

also, bernie dropping out and the fact they're kind of wavering between occasional interviews and just talking about bad NBC shows with guests when that's a different type of content might be a reason

This mediocre podcast is not a “pipeline to the alt right.” The moral panic out there these days is reaching absurd levels.