We take a trip to Israel with Noah Kulwin and talk about Israeli political culture, Netanyahu, liberalism, money, and the Judicial Overhaul. Truly, Israel is a land of contrasts!

Tickets for the final Year of the Smile show in Austin, TX: prekindle.com/event/53167-trueanon-austin

Transcript of Yair Netanyahu telling his friends they can have sex with his girlfriend: haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-01-11/ty-article/the-full-transcript-of-yair-netanyahus-wild-tel-aviv-night/0000017f-e544-d62c-a1ff-fd7ff4de0000

Episode 281: Next Year In Jerusalem

Chapo Trap House

723 - The Pentagon Discords (4/14/23)

We take a trip to China to uncover the origins of the Falun Gong, the contradictions between superstition and science, rural ear reading, levitation, and Qigong fever.

Episode 284: Falun Gong Part 2: Qigong Fever

Welcome to Movie Mindset! In this inaugural episode, Will and Hesse guide you through two of the collaborations between director Tony Scott and star Denzel Washington, Man on Fire (2004) & Deja Vu (2006). Join us as the ultimate auteur of the action-thriller meets the ultimate American leading man in these two propulsive explorations of justice, time, duty, depression, vengeance, destiny and sick-ass explosions.

This first episode of Movie Mindset is available for free anywhere you get podcasts. Subsequent episodes will be released exclusively for Chapo Trap House subscribers on Patreon at patreon.com/chapotraphouse.

Movie Mindset

Movie Mindset 01 - Tony Vision

"I Was A Teenage Conspiracy Theorist," The Atlantic magazine playfully titled a 2020 essay. "Choose your reality: Trust wanes, conspiracy theories rise," reported The Associated Press in 2022. "Do You Know Someone Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories? We Want to Hear About It," wrote The New York Times last year.

Fears of "conspiracy theories" are a common trope in the U.S. media, a worry that's grown more acute with the rise of QAnon, anti-vaxx sentiment, anti-semitism and a host of other dangerous theories that unduly rot brains throughout the country. To a great extent, this understandable: Many ideas that meet the definition of "conspiracy theories" are, indeed, baseless and dangerous and can direct people's political energy and resources into wasteful, racist, and downright stupid rabbit holes.

But that fact shouldn't delegitimize or foreclose all skepticism of those in power, but too often the term "conspiracy theory" is used to do just that. Repeatedly, media lump together so-called conspiracy theories, regardless of their accuracy, rationale, and ideology: at once, UFO chasers, QAnon, and the Black Panther Party being subject to FBI disruption are somehow placed in the same category of paranoid kooks. At the same time, unproven, and often debunked ideas advanced by media that also meet the definition of "conspiracy theories" — such as Saddam Hussein being behind 9/11 or so-called Havana syndrome — are treated as unassailable, meriting ongoing investigation, limitless resources, and of course, utmost solemnity.

On this episode, we detail the double standards applied to conspiracy theories inside and outside of the realm of U.S. corporate media. We’ll examine the development of the concept of conspiracy theories and the media's selective invocations of the term to discredit real grievances directed at American power and the U.S. government, and moreover, how power-friendly conspiracies — namely those focused on Enemy States like the Havana Syndrome narrative — are permitted to fester and grow without pushback because their red yarn dot connecting implicates the right lists of Acceptable Bad Guys.

Our guest is Jacobin writer Branko Marcetic.

Episode 180: Havana Syndrome and the Power of Mainstream, Acceptable Conspiracy Theories

We interview Oswaldo Zavala (twitter.com/Oswaldo__Zavala), the author of Drug Cartels Do Not Exist (vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/9780826504661/drug-cartels-do-not-exist/), about images, stories, and realities of drug cartels in Mexico and beyond. Plus parasites, stories, violence, the State & much more.

Also by Oswaldo Zavala: La Guerra en las Palabras (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717742/la-guerra-en-las-palabras-una-historia-intelectual-del-narco-en-mexico-1975---2020--war-put-into-words-by-oswaldo-zavala/)

Episode 290: The Beast

Blake Masters (NOT THAT ONE, Blake is the creator of Showtime’s Brotherhood, and writer for Rubicon, Law & Order: LA, and Falling Water among many other shows) joins us to discuss the ongoing WGA writers’ strike. Will and Blake touch on the transforming landscape of Television, fair compensation in the age of streaming, standing creative professionals’ ground against AI, and how entertainment unions fit into the larger world of American organized labor. And also, how all TV writing eventually leads back to Columbo.

BONUS: What’s at Stake in the WGA Writers’ Strike

We discuss Biden’s age as a factor in the 2024 election.

Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes!
www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

731 Teaser - HE GOT OLDER

733 - Open Worlds feat. Josh Sawyer (5/19/23)

Infrastructure designed to combat "disinformation" is expanding rapidly within the US government and intelligence agencies. But how do they define it in the first place? And how much transparency around their methods is the public granted? Our guest is Ken Klippenstein, journalist for the Intercept.

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

Ken Klippenstein: https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein / https://kenklippenstein.substack.com / https://theintercept.com/staff/kenklippenstein/

QAA's Website: https://qanonanonymous.com

Music by Pontus Berghe.  Editing by Corey Klotz.

References

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/

https://theintercept.com/2023/05/05/foreign-malign-influence-center-disinformation/

https://theintercept.com/2023/05/17/pentagon-perception-management-office/

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2021/10/08/performing-disinformation-a-muddled-history-and-its-consequences/

https://ia904509.us.archive.org/20/items/debord-disinformation/Debord-Disinformation.pdf

743 - Time Colosseum (6/22/23)

redditing_maniac

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