Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

Dumb people have been predicting this since March of 2016 and yet...

Really, go on.

Know Your Enemy eps with Roth on Trump, the 5-4 folks (also v good pod) on how differently conservatives and liberals treat the courts and how badly the liberals have shit the bed, and Dorothy Fortenberry (Handmaid’s Tale) on Dem Party fissures and future were probably my favorite listens of 2020

trillbillies are the sole podcast that remains from my podcast bender of a couple years ago

I liked them on the special about Hillbilly Elegy I should check that out,

Yeah I love them

They did a did an excellent crossover with Citations Needed on Hillbilly Elegy if CTH isn’t really your speed

I love the Trillbillies as people but I find thire show a little too unfocused for me so guest spots are ideal

i recommend the "Year Zero" episodes of Trillbillies, just Tarance and a guest and very focused. a recent one featured mike davis, essential listening

cool thanks will do! wished they had gotten to talk more on the elegy ep.

unfocused

^true. it can be charming but it would be cool if a superfan did some edits of the best bits.

but the important question is if the NYT et al will refocus their 'cletus safaris' from fox-poisoned rust-belters and small business tyrants to hillbilly commies and queer appalachia

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

I've tried Bad Faith a few times and always noped out within 10 minutes.

QAA otoh is becoming appointment listening (except for the recent Bad Faith crossover ep lol)

that's disheartening. hadn't tried it yet but i've really enjoyed BJG when she's popped up on Josh & Dave's West Wing Thing (and maybe a couple of other places?)

but agreed on QAA. lotta laughs, lotta genuine pathos.

Yeah it's absolutely wretched at the moment, barely ever funny at all and you can feel their "Actually, Trump was good" contrarianism master-class take coming.

On the Wonder Woman 84 review (#484), when they're discussing the film's plot point that the evil villain's evil plan is to start giving everyone what they wish for, Amber describes it as the "that pie in the sky, Donald Trump / Bernie Sanders kind of policies(? muffled)" (1.02:10) and later when the host says he's not clear what the next stage of villain's plans are, why he wants to go on TV and talk to everyone in the world at once, Matt says "Because he wanted more! Because he doesn't - he just wants more, he doesn't care who he hurts, he just wants more, just like Donald Trump, and just like everyone who isn't disciplined enough by calisthenics on the lesbian isle". (1:02:50)

Other than that, it was good, they're good entertainers, they run well with each other's jokes, they're good media critics! I think it's the first one I've sat through (it turned up in my recommendations on YouTube). I can spot Amber and I think Matt, who was the host (i.e. the one keeping them broadly on track)? Was Felix the one doing the lame "speaking as a liberal"?

I could have done without Amber's thoughts on the Troubles, mind.

Like, I understand that Amber is terrible, and they're mostly just annoyed at liberal Hollywood's fixation on Trump, and since they're talking about a Hollywood creation that means that they're criticising the criticism, but there's not _nothing_ there.

Will is the one who can’t pronounce “rather” correctly to save his life

actually he's the only person in America who pronounces it correctly

had a junior high teacher who said it like that, was also from nyc

The episode they did on the movies of the Trump era was really good, but the ones where they just leap off with no plan to churn out an episode are becoming increasingly tedious and just not funny — and it is a comedy podcast.

I don't have the patience to listen to their podcast regularly,and I kinda wish I did, bc I think Felix is extremely funny. I do worry a little about Matt -- I think he takes his own bullshit a little too seriously. I feel like Felix is more grounded in a "none of this matters bc we are specifically a comedy podcast after all... plus I'd rather be playing video games anyhow" sort of way.

I also get bugged by what seems like their kneejerk contrarian-ish reactions. Like, yeah I get it, the vast majority of politicians/elected officials on any side of the spectrum are terrible, and biden/harris are no exception. But, given that most of us have had maybe a grand total of 48 hrs in the past 4+ yrs to feel positive about ANYTHING, can you maybe just stfu for one day bout how badly the aforementioned ppl suck?

Oh also, matt/felix over time have gotten lazy w their tweets to where they sometimes threaten to read like bad dennis miller parodies, mad lib style.

Mad Libs for Rad Libs Mad at the Libs (again)

Increasingly common take among my leftbook friends is that Biden is actually looking better than Obama so far and that his policy priorities reflect a leftward shift in the democratic base as well as pressure from left groups. Basically the idea being not to focus so much on what's truly in the candidate's heart and remember that political processes are more complex than that, Nixon went to China, LBJ passed the civil rights act, etc.

your friends otm

I agree but i feel like it’s gonna be hard for chapo ppl to give up on all the sunk investment in dem/biden bashing. like if biden passes the PRO act https://brandonmagner.substack.com/p/breaking-down-the-pro-act which would be the biggest pro-labor legislation since NLRA, my guess is they will just not mention it

There’s a ton of wishful thinking and center-left media manufacturing pushing positive coverage of Biden, I wouldn’t start deciding he’s seen the light or that ‘the party has been pushed left.’

I wouldn’t start deciding he’s seen the light or that ‘the party has been pushed left

no one said this

his policy priorities reflect a leftward shift in the democratic base as well as pressure from left groups.

I also get bugged by what seems like their kneejerk contrarian-ish reactions. Like, yeah I get it, the vast majority of politicians/elected officials on any side of the spectrum are terrible, and biden/harris are no exception. But, given that most of us have had maybe a grand total of 48 hrs in the past 4+ yrs to feel positive about ANYTHING, can you maybe just stfu for one day bout how badly the aforementioned ppl suck?

So...like actually listening to milo talk for 2-3 hours? No fuckin' thanks.

his policy priorities reflect a leftward shift in the democratic base as well as pressure from left groups.

i'm talking about the "see the light" part. and there has been pressure from the left. no one has any illusions about joe biden jeez

Like, there's a basic level of absurdity in preemptively blaming the left/Chapo/etc. for not recognizing the good he did in passing the PRO Act - when the act hasn't passed and Biden hasn't even endorsed it! He vaguely supported parts of it on his website.

You might as well say the embittered lefties just won't even recognize the hard work he put into passing Medicare For All if he passes it.

why would i blame podcasters for something passing or not?

the only true thing to say is that i wasn't excited about biden, like, at all, and at least we are off to a better start than expected

We're not really off to any kind of start, though. The Senate centrists are trying to water down the stimulus and voicing opposition to the $15 minimum wage. Meanwhile 31 new drilling permits have been issued despite the moratorium.

i surrender

(oh and of course he backed Guaido and plans to levy more sanctions against Venezuela - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-state-venezuela-idUSKBN29O2PE)

Matt Christman seems a lot more interesting than the other Chapos.

Like, there's a basic level of absurdity in preemptively blaming the left/Chapo/etc. for not recognizing the good he did in passing the PRO Act - when the act hasn't passed and Biden hasn't even endorsed it! He vaguely supported parts of it on his website.

― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 12:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Ok but like the house passed PRO last year and biden endorsed AB5. and his website mentions most of the main parts of it as well as some things that go further.. and he fired Peter Robb on his first day in office and Alice Stock on day 2. but i accept your point and will wait until 1 week after a labor law bill passes the senate to blame chapo for not having positive coverage of it :)

Who in their right mind listens to Chapo for positivity? It's a comedy podcast about shitting on politicians. Can totally understand not being in the mood for that at this particular juncture, I'm often not and haven't listened in ages.

I don't the show is just getting lazier and not as good

on the last free episode they talked about that batshit SF Chronicle article about Bernie and their takes were just louder and dumber versions of what everyone had already said about it on twitter

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