Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

I did like the MTG and Lincoln Pervert segments. Which I guess is how it always has been with the show for me—some good jokes, some bad, too-online jokes.

Gotta say tho, hearing the SF article read out loud was... something. When it hit the other day I basically did a little self-care and noped the fuck out, so I had only gotten the broad strokes secondhand.

Who in their right mind listens to Chapo for positivity? It's a comedy podcast about shitting on politicians.

Sometimes they do it and it's hilarious and also feels genuinely cathartic. Other times it makes me think that the concept of "irony poisoning" is not w/o some validity. It's probably not all that healthy to react to every single phenomenon by rushing to find a list of reasons why it's a. bad and b. stupid. Even in the context of performing comedy... I dunno, maybe dan nainan is more my speed.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n22/thant-myint-u/not-a-single-year-s-peace

A group of reform-minded former generals came to power. In his first year in office, the new president, Thein Sein, freed nearly all the country’s political prisoners, ended media censorship, lifted all internet restrictions, legalised unions, and shifted the economy out of army control. A fresh peace process resulted in ceasefires with local insurgents, including the Karen National Union, which had been fighting non-stop since 1949. (This hadn’t been part of Than Shwe’s plan.) Thein Sein was guided by a small circle of fellow retired generals and their advisers. A box-set of The West Wing was made available to help reformist ministers understand the workings of democratic government.

dell, I wouldn't disagree that they are knee-jerk in their stances and imo a big problem is that they are so obsessed with annoying libs that they often take their eyes off the ball (Capitol pretty big example), but on the other hand I really can't see how them doing a fairer assessment would work as a comedy podcast and we all know that even in the best possible scenario a Biden administration will still get up to all sorts of fuckery so I don't think they'll run out of credible attack lines. As I said, sometimes I find that shit cathartic and sometimes I need something more hopeful, I don't think it's a good podcast to be completist about.

The BJG vs. Sam Seder debate on Bad Faith, with Virgil as "moderator" was pretty ummm..

This was excruciating. I skipped through some of it but BJG flitting back and forth between "Force the Vote isn't going to get M4A" and "You are literally standing in the way of millions getting health coverage" was discombobulating

The Virgil Texas guy, what is going on there? How much are they raking in on Patreon and they can't give him a proper mic? I suppose he doesn't really need it if he doesn't speak and just wanders off randomly for block of time. I suppose he didn't like being stuck in that storeroom

A disappointing amount of left populism seems to be performative disregarding or misunderstanding of any data, and a belief in willing things into being by shouting

BJG well out of order in that beef. Some sociopath asked them both to comment on what side their recently deceased friend Michael Brooks would have taken on their disagreements and BJG actually said she thought that he'd be siding with her after reading her article. "Decased person x would agree with me" is always a dumb as rocks tactic but in this case I found it truly morally repugnant.

Jimmy Dore needs to get in the trashcan asap, dude heard about Lava Jacto (an investigation into corruption by Brazilian police which turned out to be a cover for discrediting left wing politicians) and went crowing on social media about how the US should have something like that. Don't expect everyone to be up on Brazilian politics but if you're not keep your damn mouth shut ffs.

this week's QAA is essential listening

I really appreciate how they bring in knowledgeable folks to co write episodes and actually, like, bring in primary sources to expand on events. basic shit but so rare in podcasting

Anvil, I think the problem is that Virgil’s mic feed is coming from his laptop during the video chat. That would explain why he sounds like shit on YouTube yet properly miked on pod.

this week's QAA is essential listening

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Friday, February 5, 2021 8:23 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is really great/disturbing

Matt / Amber / Daniel Bessner on _Muncher_

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/ghostbusters-afterlife-reboot-slimer-muncher

I'm all for Jacobin publishing weirder shit but lol that it took three people to write that

A lot of people have a lot of bad things to say about twitter memes (me, for example), but this could 100% have been a How It Started / How It's Going.

Groupwatching and riffing on the the Mike Pillow tv special: https://www.twitch.tv/chapotraphouse

Will narrating HW Bush’s life is a boring TrueAnon.

honestly the "storytelling" on TA is so hopelessly scattered that this is kind of a relief to me

sometimes it's hard for me to follow TA threads but man i do like listening to em.

I got kinda tired of their shtick. I always feel like it could be an amazing podcast if they cared to do like 15% more prep.

opening banter is absolutely dreadful 99% of the time as well

agree w simon about TA even tho i find them endearing. will is good at radio; he doesn’t get stuck expressing the same thought four stammering times in a row without seeming to notice; when he has a brief as he does here he moves thru it briskly and clearly. p basic stuff sure but midcentury cia is my heart music; will almost always have time. felix has absolutely nothing to say in these situations tho: he just reduces to the occasional sarcastic rephrasing of something just said.

TrueAnon is schticky but these episodes where Will narrates but Felix and Matt don't kick in anything are brutal. Riff baby riff

I think I respect QAA so much because they're actually putting in something close to the amount of work I'd be putting in if my day job was to make a podcast. unfortunately in the effort rankings chapo is still way above average

trueanon's third 9/11 ep was absolutely embarrassing, literally spouting loose change talking points. was disappointing because the episodes prior setting the historical context were really compelling

why did they invite two Bruenigs if only one talks

Liz Bruenig joined in the chorus of bad op-ed writers complaining about prep school teenagers and cancel culture today.

trueanon's third 9/11 ep was absolutely embarrassing, literally spouting loose change talking points. was disappointing because the episodes prior setting the historical context were really compelling

^^otm. i really do like the show even if sometimes it gets into the weeds, but this was the one time where it veered into youtube crank territory. just a mess.

and you're right: the 2 preceding were excellent context and, you know, based on real shit that happened.

xp "it would be kewl if a major newspaper had a leftist op-ed writer" (monkey's paw clenches into fist)

Liz Bruenig joined in the chorus of bad op-ed writers complaining about prep school teenagers and cancel culture today.

― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Tuesday, February 16, 2021 12:30 AM (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is what you're complaining about?:

I understand the other ppl here but isn’t bruenig just saying she rather wouldn’t want to chaperone the bizarre concept of a New York Times field trip for rich kids?

— MB (@MBR1998) February 16, 2021

So so terrible. I hear she's a xtian too

bruenigs reporting on the death penalty is quite good, i imagine her christendom maybe aids her in that?

absolutely have her blocked on twitter, however

I don’t really have any beef w EB and probably agree w her 90% of the time, but I do think it’s a little fucked that the only unapologetic socialist with a legacy media job in this country is a pro-life catholic

I honestly don't know what that spat was about. She made a joke about not wanting to chaperone rich kids around. who wants to fucking do that? all the back and forth afer that seemed like people not reading the tweets they were responding to. After that she mainly said she didn't let grandparents watch her kids because they were too loose with the N word.

Bruenig’s princeling comment isn’t objectionable if you completely ignore the context, yes!

Prep school kids are probably little shits and all their future wealth should be taken by force if necessary.

It’s also 100% okay for them to correct their grandparents for being racists or transphobic.

If your tweet involves getting on a thread agreeing with Bari Weiss and Conor Freikorps, it’s probably a bad tweet.

Important to know

why does the online left love this religious reactionary and her obnoxious nerd husband so much

because fuck off

eat shit

is this praxis?

I don't follow either of them closely but I sometimes read Liz Bruenig's columns and they're generally pretty good! Far better than the vast majority of opinion writers, not that that's a high bar. I don't get the feeling that her personal feelings about abortion are doing much that's measurably harmful but perhaps i'm mistaken.

Matt seems pretty good on economic stuff, particularly when dismantling hack neolib fantasies. and Liz's personal thoughts on abortion aside, wouldn't you rather her have that gig than Bari Weiss?

what if, and hear me out here, those two weren't our only choices

shit yeah and hear me out heere i mean i'd be all for NYT & WaPo hiring actual leftists. i think Briahna Joy Gray should have a show on MSNBC and Sam-Adler Bell & Matthew Sitman should be on NPR

but the guys who sign those checks probably don't agree with me on most things

I'm saying you don't have to pay attention to those two, you can dedicate even more time to paying attention to the folks you just mentioned for example

and Liz's personal thoughts on abortion aside

I was raised catholic so I give her a pass on that because she is not, to my knowledge, advocating for the repeal of Roe v Wade which puts her in line with probably half the catholics I've ever known. she has written great stuff on the death penalty. sometimes she tweets dumb things. her op-eds are pretty good. whatever, she's neither the greatest person in media nor the worst.

hey guys nothing would make me happier than to choose who gets to talk on cable news or pen op ed columns in the paper of record

you can dedicate even more time to paying attention to the folks you just mentioned

where i direct my attn probably doesn't have much impact

i'm more interested in a cohort of comfortable and inordinately powerful suburbanites (whose politics mostly boil down to hating Trump and binging MSNBC and praising David Brooks as "one of the good ones") getting exposed to actual good ideas/ people who aren't cynical jabbering idiots. and yes, it's a bummer that Liz seems to be one of the few leftists with a mainstream platform.

not that *she* has one, per se, but that so many smart deserving folks do not.

and i think that's more or less by design.

It’s a bit odd that some people think LB is somehow occupying the NYT socialist columnist position that would surely go to someone better if she just resigned after realizing she was bad

ok fine I'm thankful for the scraps we're given