I think you guys are totally missing what's happening -- it's not that these people see someone use a pronoun and turn into a fascist, it's that they consume right-wing media that takes every little annoying woke phrase of the week and broadcasts it, amplifies it, dissects it, and talks about it endlessly.  It's not that they're encountering annoying woke people in their lives, it's their media consumption.

"Increasing Numbers of US Students Look for a ‘Real’ World," read a 1965 headline from the magazine Moderator. "Academics: Get Real!," the Harvard Business Review implored in 2009. "‘Defund the police’ runs into reality," the Washington Post warned in 2021. "As Latin America Shifts Left, Leaders Face a Short Honeymoon," the New York Times declared in 2022.  

We're often reminded that anyone who espouses some degree of left-wing politics – whether a student, activist, political leader, or anyone in between – is at odds with the "real world." Academics, especially those in the humanities, sit in their ivory towers. Organizers and demonstrators against state violence have their heads in the clouds. Elected leaders campaigning on elevating living standards don’t know what they're in for.

But who's in charge of determining what’s ‘realistic’? Or what "the real world" is exactly? Why is studying theory, fighting for better healthcare, or working toward poverty reduction any less ‘real’ than plugging away at a spreadsheet for a weapons manufacturer or venture capital firm? And how did this pat and folksy concept of the "real world" emerge as a go-to dunk on eggheads and activists?

On this episode, we seek to answer these questions, as we examine the canard that anyone to the left of a Goldman Sachs executive isn't living in or contributing to the "real world."

Our guest is Street Fight Radio's Bryan Quinby.

Ep168: How Faux Folksy "Real World" Advice is Employed to Limit Political Possibility and Punch Left

In this News Brief, we discuss the nominally progressive news network's lies and omissions when covering efforts to reduce the US's unprecedented jail and prison population.

News Brief: Young Turks' Misleading Anti-Bail Reform Demagoguery

Jack Wagner from Otherworld (anchor.fm/otherworldpod) joins us to talk ghosts, spirits, energies, and The Gateway Process. Liz tells her tale of seeing a ghost. 

Find Otherworld on twitter (twitter.com/otherworldpod) and instagram (instagram.com/otherworldpod)

Get TrueAnon live tickets https://linktr.ee/trueanon

Episode 251: Freaky Tales to Tell for a Fright

The CBS to Adrenochrome pipeline — it seems like Lara Logan's fall from grace as a media figure was a real speedrun. On the way she got obsessed with Benghazi and eventually grew so redpilled even Newsmax jettisoned her. In this episode we also cover the recall and redaction of Dinesh D'Souza's '2000 Mules' book and what may have scared him about the Alex Jones verdict.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like 'Manclan' and 'Trickle Down': http://www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous

NOVEMBER LIVE DATES:
Nov 12th Philadelphia @ First Unitarian Church
Nov 14th Brooklyn @ The Bell House
Nov 15th Washington DC @ The Howard Theater
Nov 18th Toronto @ The Garrison
Nov 20th Chicago @ Lincoln Hall
TIX: http://tour.qanonanonymous.com

Merch: http://merch.qanonanonymous.com

Music by DJ Death (https://doomchakratapes.bandcamp.com/album/dj-death-resigned-discipline). Editing by Corey Klotz.

Episode 207: Lara Logan Gets Pilled & Fumbles the Bag

"Yes, undocumented immigrants take jobs from working Americans. Here’s the proof," an opinion piece in The Washington Post tells us. "Save our truckers, not affluent students seeking a free ride," pleads longtime Republican consultant Douglas MacKinnon in The Hill. "Biden's Student Debt Cancellation Robs Hard-Working Americans, Will Make Inflation Even Worse," proclaims a so-called Expert Statement from the Heritage Foundation.

There’s a warning we hear again and again, particularly from the Right: A policy that would actually help people must be stopped, because it’ll harm the Working Man. According to demagogues like Tucker Carlson and JD Vance – as well as many of their more liberal counterparts – immigration, labor organizing, protest rights, and student debt cancellation simply can’t be allowed, lest they harm hardworking, meat-and-potatoes plumbers and truckers.

But these cynical admonitions disguise some very important truths. Progressive policies serve the interests of many of these plumbers and truckers, many of whom might want to organize their workplaces or have their debt relieved. And the supposed menaces of job-stealing immigrants or entitled lawyers who want others to pay off their loans aren't actually responsible for depressed wages or plummeting standards of living–corporations bolstered by U.S. policymaking are.

On this episode, we examine the right-wing trope of ventriloquizing an imaginary “Working Man” in order to divert attention from policies that serve the corporate bottom line, We’ll detail how this tactic obscures class dynamics between labor and capital, reinforces racist conceptions that harm workers of color, and ultimately suppresses the rights of all workers while absolving their employers of wrongdoing.

Our guest is filmmaker, author and Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor

Ep 169: How the Right Ventriloquizes "The Working Man" to Push Pro-Corporate Policy and Gut Welfare

We do a Pennsylvania roadshow with Independent Parapolitics Researcher Robert Skvarla (twitter.com/RobertSkvarla) to discuss the history and practice of COINTELPRO — what it meant and what it means today.

Episode 252: Fed Files

"How The Left Created Trump," revealed Rob Hoffman in Politico in November 2016. "Blame liberals for the rise of Donald Trump," insisted S.E. Cupp in The Chicago Tribune the year before. "How the left enabled fascism," explained David Winner in The New Statesman in 2018.

For decades, we’ve been fed a narrative that the rise of any right-wing tendency is the fault of leftists and liberal scolds. The electoral appeal and success of fascist movements and politicians, we’re told, is first and foremost a reaction to blue-haired wokeness warriors whose language and protests alienate and antagonize Real People. These Real People, then, have no choice but to shift further right, where they find a political home – typically shared with the likes of faux-populists like J.D. Vance, Josh Hawley, and Tucker Carlson – that makes them feel included and represents their best interests.

It’s a convenient refrain. Instead of placing the blame on wealthy and powerful right-wingers and centrists who actually benefit from the preservation of reactionary politics, or giving credit to left-wing activists for challenging devastating right-wing policies, this narrative instead demonizes the powerless, while insisting that those who are fighting for a better world should simply give up, lest their agitative ways turn off potential allies and create another Trump. Who does this narrative benefit, and how do both overtly right-wing and ostensibly liberal legacy media allow it to persist?

On this episode, we dissect the concept that reactionaries’ politics are the result not of their own interests, but of a snarky, out-of-touch Lefties who say mean things and simply bring up racism, imperialism and other injustices too much, and if they simply went away, the Trump right would starve itself to death and be replaced by moderate, reasonable National Review politicians.

Our guest is The Dig's Daniel Denvir.

Episode 171: The Vacuity of "Radical Libs Forced Voters Into the Arms of the Right" Discourse

Coming Jan 11th from Chapo Trap House:
HELL ON EARTH: The Thirty Years War & The Violent Birth of Capitalism

In this special preview mini-sode, Matt and Chris discuss their new history podcast series, coming soon exclusively on patreon.com/chapotraphouse.

Hell on Earth

Preview: Hell On Earth

Hinge Points is back for a new season, baby! This first ep is free, but expect new episodes for the next 5 Thursdays, only at patreon.com/chapotraphouse.

Matt and Danny Bessner (from American Prestige) invite Chris to discuss the question: What if Doggerland (the area of land between Britain and France) was never filled in with water?

Hinge Points S2E1: Dog-gone-erland

In this News Brief, we are joined by Real News' Mel Buer and Maximillian Alvarez to discuss the media campaign to obscure Biden and Congressional dems role in selling out rail workers.

News Brief: Biden, Congressional Dems Partner with GOP, Media to Discipline Rail Labor

San Francisco’s police department and mayor dare to ask: Do Robot Cops Shoot at Electric Crooks? And if not, can we make them? 

TrueAnon looks at the failed rollout of unmanned vehicle-borne IEDs by SF’s police department.

twitter.com/SanFranciscoPOA/status/1597673959117402112

Episode 256: Programmed To Kill

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 171: The Vacuity of "Radical Libs Forced Voters Into the Arms of the Right" Discourse

Citations Needed Podcast

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