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Two thieves, Cufflinks (@intellegint) and Joey the Robber (@charlesraustin), are hired to steal the B.R.A.N. 5000 (@necrobranson) from a CERN facility in Geneva. Full episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50811729

Get tickets for our June 5 live stream festival w/ Chapo Trap House, Every Time I Die, Zola Jesus & more: frqncy.live/frqncy1

E2 #28 - The Abduction of the B.R.A.N. 5000 [Preview] [Patreon Exclusive]

What happens when a woman sends a stocky blond stranger to tell her ex she loves him. 

#1 A Stranger Says I Love You

An app called Figure One wants to be Instagram, but for doctors. Why would doctors need their own Instagram? We spy on the secret & disgusting medical internet, plus we speak to one of its residents. 

#2 The Secret, Gruesome Internet For Doctors

Twenty years ago, Ethan Zuckerman did something terrible on the internet. And he's still living with the consequences.

#3 We Know What You Did

Writer Chiara Atik has a hobby -- spying on the financial transactions of friends and strangers. She thinks that Venmo, more than any other social media site, is the place you can find actual, accidental truth online. This week we investigate that claim. 

#4 Follow The Money

In 1996 Jennifer Ringley started Jennicam.org, where she recorded and broadcast her entire life, 24/7. It made her famous. And then, one day, she disappeared from the internet entirely. What'd she figure out about the perils of living publicly before the rest of us did? Alex Goldman tracks her down.

#5 Jennicam

Yes Yes No returns, and the story of two people who created a company designed to ghostwrite people’s emotionally difficult emails.

Don’t forget to participate in Email Debt Forgiveness Day! Leave us a voicemail at (917) 475-6668 about your most anxiety inducing unanswered email. All will be forgiven, we promise.

#20 I Want To Break Free

Since the beginning of what’s generally called ‘RussiaGate’ three years ago, pundits, media outlets, even comedians have all become insta-experts on supposed Russian propaganda techniques. The most cunning of these tricks, we are told, is that of “whataboutism” – a devious Soviet tactic of deflecting criticism by pointing out the accusers’ hypocrisy and inconsistencies. The tu quoque - or, “you, also” - fallacy, but with a unique Slavic flavor of nihilism, used by Trump and leftists alike in an effort to change the subject and focus on the faults of the United States rather than the crimes of Official State Enemies. 

But what if "whataboutism" isn’t describing a propaganda technique, but in fact is one itself: a zombie phrase that’s seeped into everyday liberal discourse that – while perhaps useful in the abstract - has manifestly turned any appeal to moral consistency into a cunning Russian psyop. From its origins in the Cold War as a means of deflecting and apologizing for Jim Crow to its braindead contemporary usage as a way of not engaging any criticism of the United States as the supposed arbiter of human rights, the term "whataboutism" has become a term that - 100 percent of the time - is simply used to defend and legitimizing American empire’s moral narratives.

We are joined by Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept.

Episode 66: Whataboutism - The Media's Favorite Rhetorical Shield Against Criticism of US Policy

“'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

After over 100 episodes, scores of News Briefs, and almost three years of content production, Citations Needed has finally done it: reduced itself to a listicle. On this News Brief, we examine the top ten worst COVID-19 takes to date (not including the celebrity 'Imagine' video). Proceed with caution.

News Brief: Top 10 Worst Covid Crisis Takes (So Far)

To hear the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/TrueAnonPod

We talk through the events of the past week and take stock of the civil unrest sweeping the nation

Episode 73: Phase III (teaser)

“Obama lauds small business owners in his State of the Union,” announced The Washington Post. “I have always said that there is nothing more optimistic – perhaps maybe getting married – than starting a small business,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells us. “John Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses,” insisted a reelection ad for George W. Bush.

Everywhere we turn we are centering the needs of and reminded of the glowing status of the “small business.” They are the bipartisan holiest of holies in our economy – the scrappy little guy that also props up the moral pillars of capitalism – evidence that with a little elbow grease and knowhow anyone can build a business in their image. Small businesses are one of two major vehicles for COVID-19 relief – a wholly uncontroversial good that both parties, all ideologies, everyone!, can agree are worth protecting and prioritizing. 

But what do pundits and politicians mean exactly when they say “small business”? How does our romantic vision of “small business” match up with reality, and how is their plight used as a messaging vanguard to strip away environmental and labor regulations, tort protections, taxes and a host of safeguards against corporate greed?

The rhetoric forces the evocation of a wholesome image of a Mom-and-Pop candy store in Appleton, Wisconsin, in order to push for laws that will ultimately benefit hedge funds, Dupont and Koch Industries, and a murderers row of polluters and worker abusers.

Our guests are Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert and Street Fight Radio's Bryan Quinby.

Episode 111: How “Small Business” Rhetoric Is Used to Protect Corporate America

A bizarrely vague, cliquish letter demanding everyone be open-minded has no interest in explaining what, precisely, it wants.

News Brief: The Harper's Letter and Our Extremely Narrow, Self-Serving Definition of Cancel Culture

Remember when the Liberals campaigned on expanding national child care, but eviscerated the welfare state instead? Oh, the 90s! Doug Nesbitt, founding editor of rankandfile.ca, joins Team Advantage to discuss the reign of Canada's Liberal Party through the 1990s. How did austerity and double-digit unemployment become normalized? What happened to Canada's social programs? How did the business lobby exert such influence? How did the media manufacture a fiscal crisis?

Killing the Welfare State: Liberals and the 1990s

One point brought up in Episode 116, highlighting the connection between real estate interests and over-policing, solicited a lot of feedback from listeners. In this News Brief, we wanted to expand upon this topic by interviewing an academic source we cited in the episode: assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver Brenden Beck, whose work focuses on the intersection between "urban development" projects and the targeted, sustain harassment of communities of color.

News Brief: Detailing the Connection Between Gentrification and Racist Police Harassment

In this public News Brief we break down L'Affaire GameStop and what lessons can be gleaned from about psychological gamesmanship of the stock market and finance media's goofy, reverse-engineered moral pretext for being outraged by #GME. With guest Jacob Silverman.

News Brief: Finance Media's GameStop Meltdown and the Thin Moral Pretexts of Wall St's Game Rigging

A show about the internet, hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman.  From Gimlet.

#20 I Want To Break Free

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