"We're going to launch a salvo of aid at them!"

That comes from game theory being picked up in the 1960s - 9/11 opened up an endless war where the US is the greatest power, so we can use psuedo-chess terminology.

AKA, the Newspeak of higher-level political BS.

Join Spencer, Hannah, and Esther as they talk about the rise and fall of Cracked.com, America's only comedy website.

Get Cynical S4E1 - The Rise of Cracked.com

Ryan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.

Surplus Enjoyment

In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.

1980s Christmas

On this News Brief, we are joined by Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center to discuss the upcoming Johnson v. Grants Pass case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on April 22nd 2024. This is the most significant case about the rights of homeless people in decades, determining whether cities can make it a crime to be homeless, to sleep outside, even when there is no safe shelter available to them. We discuss the boarder media narratives that got us to this cruel, irrational point.

News Brief: Media, Billionaires' Attacks on Homeless People May Pay Off Big at Supreme Court

"Ex-officer Amber Guyger testifies in wrong-apartment murder trial: 'I was scared to death,'" a " story reported in 2019. "Starbucks Files Complaints with Labor Board, Accuses Union Organizers of Bullying and Harassment," reported Food & Wine Magazine in April 2022. "Labour MPs fear for safety as pro-Palestine protesters target offices," The Guardian warned in November 2023

Within the last decade, we’ve seen the rise of a phenomenon we’ll refer to as “elite crybullying," in which people in power engage in political manipulation in order to portray themselves as victims. Routinely, we hear that armed American police fear for their safety around unarmed civilians, lawmakers feel for the their safety after there's a sit in protest and corporate executives are being unfairly intimated by union organizers. 

It's a sleazy, manipulative tactic that not only flattens, but flips, power dynamics. By claiming to have been bullied or traumatized by those who oppose them, wealthy and influential figures suddenly transform themselves from victimizers into victims. Meanwhile, by this same perverse logic, they characterize their actual victims–be they organizing workers and peace activists, who merely seek to stand up for themselves, or people killed by military and police violence – as victimizers.

On this episode, we explore the rise of ruling-class crybullyism, how elites increasingly traffic in the language of anti-bullying and therapy-speak to indemnify themselves from criticism, examine how cynical distortions of power relations recast the upholders of colonialism, labor abuses, and police violence as the oppressed, and the people who dare to object as the oppressors, all in an effort to silence dissent from the justifiably angry masses. 

Our guests are Mari Cohen and Saree Makdisi.

Episode 199: The Golden Age of Crybullyism

Happy easter :) super producer Max joins us to continue our 300+ episode celebration, we talk about the ongoing P Diddy scandal, pink coke, and Jacques tells us about more about Portland. We love!

SD 302 - Reunion Episode

We take a step back and listen to some of the untold stories of the only Jewish state, and grapple with our own mixed feelings on the war, Israel, and what it means to belong.

Episode 366: Olive Branch

Happy Sunday Seekers!

Today we talk about Bush era LGBTQ activism, that guy from glee identifying as culturally queer (we support him), Kristi Noem assassinating her puppy for being annoying and what happens when you antagonize ghosts and spirits. Plus we take your calls! We tell you how to impress your girlfriends religious parents, how to bust on SSRI's, and how to break up with someone who has BPD when you also have BPD.

We'll be doing another call in episode soon, leave a voicemail at (332) 203-8247

SD 310 - Seeking De(RED)ments

Barack Obama unleashes "kinetic strikes” on Libya, Hillary Clinton lobbies for "limited military coercion" in Syria, Congress passes “robust sanctions” on Iran, and Trump gives “US generals more room to run” as he “ramps up” “pressure” on ISIS. The Center for American Progress calls for a “no fly zone” to “protect civilians.” It’s important the US “engage” in the Middle East as it “reasserts itself” on “the world stage,” and backs up “diplomacy” with “military muscle.” While Russia "expands" its naval and nuclear capacity the US merely “modernizes” its fleet or stockpile. “All options are on the table” when discussing Venezuela and Iran. 

So much of how we discuss US militarism and imperialism is laundered through seemingly anodyne phrases, rhetorical thingamajigs that vaguely gesture towards an idea without drawing up unseemly images of what’s really being called for.

In this two-part episode, we examine what’s being said, what’s being left out when we use “foreign policy-speak,” and how writers can avoid these lazy euphemisms, and instead make a concerted effort to objectively describe the policy being advocated for rather than relying on well-worn thought-terminating cliches that are designed to do all of our thinking for us. 

Our guest is FAIR's Janine Jackson.

Episode 70: Laundering Imperial Violence Through Anodyne Foreign Policy-Speak (Part I)

Welcome to TrueAnon’s 9/11 Week. We’re kicking it off with a re-upload of our first episode in the series. We’ll be making the rest of this series public and adding more episodes through Friday.
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TrueAnon rides a horse into the Afghanistan of the mind in search of 9/11. Joined by truther extraordinaire twitter.com/housetrotter we take a look at the history of of Afghanistan in the 20th century, the Bush-Saudi nexus and what the hell is up with the CIA & Central Asia.

[9/11 week] Bush Did 9/11 (Part 1)

We have on Tom Fowler (twitter.com/tombfowler) to talk about the Spy Cops Inquiry in the UK, and about the scandal from the Met Police infiltrating themselves into the lives of activists in order to ruin them -- and his own experience with a famous undercover.

Check out: spycops.info

powerbase.info/index.php/UndercoverResearch_Portal

UNLOCKED -- Episode 122: Spycops Undercover

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 70: Laundering Imperial Violence Through Anodyne Foreign Policy-Speak (Part I)

Citations Needed Podcast

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