Jake Tapper’s career trajectory is an object lesson in how to succeed in corporate media. The formula generally goes like this: go after the fringes of the left and the right––but mostly the left. Never offend any traditional centers of power. Mug. Constantly mug for the camera. Hitch your brand to “The Troops” And-always, always––attack from the neoconservative right.
 
As previously discussed in our John McCain News Brief, the issue with John McCain was less so about the man himself but what he represented: posturing National Security state jingoism at the heart of America’s civic religion; a phony notion of self-importance that animates US militarism. Just the same, this week’s episode is less about Tapper and more about what he represents: the dead center of American corporate media; hollow, faux-adversarialism marked by military worship; less interested in original reporting than serving as a bouncer for Club Acceptable Opinion.  

We are joined on this week's episode by journalist Natasha Lennard.

Episode 55: Jake Tapper and the Art of Faux-Adversarialism

Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm) stops by the trap to discuss his new docuseries,  "Dangerous World of Comedy".

Chapo Trap House

292 - Hats Off to Larry feat. Larry Charles (2/25/19)

“'Right-to-work' means freedom and choice,” a Boston Globe op-ed explains. “As housing costs rise, some people are choosing to live on the road instead,” a Fox Business headline states. “If your insurance company isn’t doing right by you, you should have another, better choice,” reads Joe Biden’s campaign platform. 
We’re told repeatedly that “freedom of choice” is essential to a robust economy and human happiness. Economists, executives, politicians, and pundits insist that, the same way consumers shop for TVs, workers can choose their healthcare plan, parents can choose their kids' school, and gig-economy workers can choose their own schedules and benefits. 

While this language is superficially appealing, it’s also profoundly deceitful. The notion of “choice” as a gateway to freedom and a sign of societal success isn’t a neutral call for people to exercise some abstract civic power; it’s free-market capitalist ideology manufactured by libertarian and neoliberal think tanks and their mercenary economists and media messaging nodes. Its purpose: to convince people that they have a choice while obscuring the economic factors that ensure they really don’t: People can’t “choose” to keep their employer-provided insurance if they’re fired from their jobs or “choose” to enroll their kids in private school if they can’t afford the tuition. 

In this episode, we examine the rise of “choice” rhetoric, how it cravenly appeals to our vanity, and how US media has uncritically adopted the framing--helping the right erode social services while atomizing us all into independent, self-interested collections of “choices.” 

We are joined by Jessica Stites, executive editor of In These Times.

Episode 95: The Hollow Vanity of Libertarian "Choice" Rhetoric

“145 CEOs Call On Senate To Pass 'Common-sense, Bipartisan' Gun Laws,” NPR states. “Local Democrat pushes back on NY bail reform law: It's about 'common sense,' not politics,” a Fox News headline reads. “The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Trump’s Appeal to Common Sense Is His Dismissal of It,” The Nation warns. Everywhere we turn we are told by pundits and politicians that "common sense" demands we support their preferred policy prescription. 

It's a common appeal: a political issue—whether health-insurance, immigration, foreign policy, or gun violence—reaches a real or perceived extreme, and, in reaction, media pundits and political figures claim the most appropriate response must be ostensibly neutral, reasonable "common sense" reforms.

But these claims are insidious. While "common sense" may appear to be a constructive guiding principle, there is no meaningful definition of the concept and when it is evoked, it's almost always an appeal to status quo ideology. What’s sensible to a member of the Tea Party isn’t the same as what’s sensible to an activist seeking to end police violence. So, whose “common sense” is really being promoted when we hear these calls to action?

On this week's episode, we explore how appeals to “common sense” present politics as a matter of rationality rather than of morality; how these demands reinforce centrist and right-wing ideologies and how the Left can work to build an alternative common sense.

We are joined by cultural anthropologist Dr. Kate Crehan, Professor Emerita at College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Episode 101: The False Universality of “Common Sense”

Defying quarantine Matt and Virgil go to back to work tuning up electoral politics. Can Bernie still win? Will we all die? Does Biden know how to open PDF? Our greased up pundits go under the hood to find the answers to those questions and more. Later they speak with Branko Marcetic, writer for Jacobin and In These Times and author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.

Don't bother buying tickets for our NYC live show because it will be cancelled, unless you're just really into getting refunds. (Also the Roger Rabbit screening is cancelled, but you could have guessed that.)

BONUS - Beltway Garage: Reboot feat. Branko Marcetic (3/15/20)

As COVID-19 continues to endanger the health of people throughout the world, it also magnifies a long-existent global humanitarian crisis: The use of sanctions by the United States and other powers as a weapon of war. In Iran, one of the countries most devastated by the contagion, sanctions have strangulated the supply of medical equipment crucial to testing the population and treating those who are infected, inspiring some members of the political establishment to call for sanctions to be eased.

While these pleas are necessary, they’re woefully inadequate and long overdue. Sanctions aren’t just a problem when there’s a pandemic. Iran had been subjected to U.S. and UN-imposed sanctions long before the appearance of the contagion—as had Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, and far too many other countries deemed Official Enemies of the United States and its allies, resulting in economic destabilization, vulnerability to U.S. militarism, starvation, illness, and mass deaths. 
Amid these life-or-death stakes, media and think tanks’ responses to sanctions range from mere handwringing to outright bloodlust. Rather than decisively condemning sanctions as ruthless acts of economic warfare, American media largely perpetuates the narrative that sanctions are a necessity, and often a force for good, in the effort to punish and “change the behavior” of some perceived “rogue” government. Meanwhile, little criticism is offered outside of tepid suggestions that those sanctions should be tweaked. 

On today’s show, we’ll examine how the U.S. levies sanctions to undermine countries opposed to U.S. hegemony, how sanctions are laundered as benign in the media, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the preexisting, decades-long barbarism of U.S. foreign policy. 

We are joined by guests Keyvan Shafiei and Hoda Katebi.

Episode 106: The Sanitization of Sanctions

How can one achieve happiness? It’s the eternal question. From Aristotle to Al-Ghazali, Thomas Aquinas to Arthur Schopenhauer. The answer, we’re told, is to look within. These days, we’re told repeatedly by our modern philosophers, Oprah Winfrey, Srikumar Rao, Tony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra and other corporate happiness monitors that prosperity and fulfillment come through deep introspection and mindfulness—just pay for more inspiring books, videos, retreats, seminars, and classes!

These prescriptions, while ostensibly useful in the short term for answering personal questions or alleviating stress, all fall within the genre of self-help. The trouble is, on the whole, they’re not very helpful at all. The self-help industry is predicated on the ever-American and thoroughly capitalist concepts of rugged individualism and personal responsibility, arguing that if you have a problem, it’s invariably up to you, and only you, to fix it. Meanwhile, it imparts the appearance of virtue and legitimacy with hollow, cherry-picked references to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and psychology.

In recent years, there’s rightfully been a new crop of criticism leveled against the self-help industry, with books offering “anti-self-help” alternatives for improving one’s life, calling for people to relax and stop placing so much pressure on themselves. Still, many of these critiques embrace the same form of individualism as the media they decry, ignoring the reality that the best way to ‘help’ people is to ensure their material needs—like housing, food, and healthcare—are met. 

On this episode, we’ll chronicle the development of modern self-help culture, from its 19th-century protestant, capitalist roots to its modern ambassadors; analyze how self-help culture promotes the values of neoliberalism; examine the ways in which modern mainstream critiques of the self-help industry fall short, embracing the same reactionary principles they should be rebuking, and dissect the profound institutional incentives that compel us to prioritize solipsism over solidarity. 

Our guest is political economist and author William Davies.

Episode 109: Self-Help Culture and the Rise of Corporate Happiness Monitoring

We're unlocking our April 19, 2019 Patreon episode with the late, great Michael Brooks in which we discussed the "Intellectual Dark Web" and one of its stupidest practitioners, Dave Rubin.

Check out "Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right" by Michael Brooks - https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/against-web

Michael and Us

UNLOCKED - #98 - The Intellectual Dork Web (w/ Michael Brooks)

Alex Vitale, professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and Author of The End of Policing joins us to talk about COPS, the Capitol riot, and Bernie's mittens.

ALEX VITALE:
@AVitale
http://www.alex-vitale.info/
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing

OTHER SOURCES:
https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/

UNLOCKED -- AMAB w/ Alex Vitale

Max Collins of Eve 6 drops by to discuss mysterious cartoon memories, predatory music management, the Trolls franchise, rock ‘n roll for children, evil owls, and more all through Don Bluth’s 1992 animated film “ROCK-A-DOODLE”. We also talk about Eve 6, being a teenage superstar, and finding emotional catharsis through twitter, but this is a ROCK-A-DOODLE ep.

The new EP is called “Grim Value” and it’s available wherever music is streamed/sold!

Songs:
Rock-a-Doodle - Sun Do Shine
Rock-a-Doodle - Rock-a-Doodle
Eve 6 - Inside Out
Eve 6 - Amphetamines
Eve 6 - Can We Combine

And Introducing

BONUS: ROCK-A-DOODLE! (feat. Max Collins of Eve 6)

We are joined by the creators of Preserving Worlds, a documentary series on Means TV that explores the process of archiving dying online game spaces like Second Life, Worlds Chat, and the Doom mod community.

PRESERVING WORLDS:
https://means.tv/programs/preservingworlds
https://means.tv/

DANIEL BESSNER'S FPS PIECE
https://www.thedriftmag.com/the-cultural-contradictions-of-call-of-duty/

BRIDGE MUSIC
Boss Theme by Sawsquarenoise on dojokratos
https://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Chiptune

KATE WILLETT'S BOOK
https://www.audible.com/pd/Dirtbag-Anthropology-Audiobook/B08W5FSQ1V?qid=1613952937&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=Z5VFRYRGPMG16EZH249G

MERCH
poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON (Bonus eps + Discord!)
Patreon.com/PodDamnAmerica

Librarypunk 2021 w/ Preserving Worlds

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 101: The False Universality of “Common Sense”

Citations Needed Podcast

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