Name: #83 Voyage Into Pizzagate by Reply All
Duration: 52 min 58 s
Description: A conspiracy theory, a pizza related map, and a website fighting for its very soul.

A conspiracy theory, a pizza related map, and a website fighting for its very soul.

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#83 Voyage Into Pizzagate

Amber, Will and Chris talk to A. Savage, vocalist and guitarist for the rock and roll band Parquet Courts. 

Pick up their new album, Wide Awake!, here: https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/parquet-courts-wide-awake

Chapo Trap House

Bonus: Interview with Parquet Courts' A. Savage

“Building a wall won't save America's crumbling middle class,” Elizabeth Warren tells us. “Sanders healthcare will raise taxes on the middle class,” a CNN headline reads. “There’ war on the middle class,” a Boston Globe editorial laments.   

The term “middle class” is used so much by pundits and politicians, it could easily be the Free Space in any political rhetoric Bingo card. After all, who’s opposed to strengthening, widening, and protecting the “middle class”? Like “democracy,” “freedom,” and “human rights”, “middle class” is an unimpeachable, unassailable label that evokes warm feelings and a sense of collective morality.

But the term itself, always slippery and changing based on context, has evolved from a vague aspiration marked by safety, a nice home, and a white picket fence into something more sinister, racially-coded, and deliberately obscuring. The middle class isn’t about concrete, material positive rights of good housing and economic security––it’s a capitalist carrot hovering over our heads telling us such things are possible if we Only Work Harder. More than anything, it's a way for politicians to gesture towards populism without the messiness of mentioning––much less centering––the poor and poverty.

This week we are joined by Jane McAlevey, a union organizer, scholar and Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center.

Episode 91: It's Time to Retire the Term "Middle Class"

We catch up on President Trump's recent cavalcade of triumphs and humiliations. We're then joined by CTU member Kenzo Shibata to discuss the Chicago teacher's strike, what the union is fighting for, and what they're up against. Finally, we finish with a little lesson from Eric Trump on Marcus Aurelius, and the meaning of "hypocrisy".

Please consider supporting & reading more on the teachers' strike:
Bread for Ed gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bread-for-ed
A piece Kenzo wrote on the context of the current strike: https://truthout.org/articles/teacher-strike-confronts-chicagos-long-history-of-racial-injustice/
A history of CORE and Karen Lewis: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/04/cores-coming-out-party
A thread on one of Lori's ghouls, if you're ready for some game theory https://twitter.com/KenzoShibata/status/1187455086093467648

362 - Wet Sauce feat. Kenzo Shibata (10/28/19)

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

A lot of you have some body pillows to throw away that's all I'm saying SMDH

Z 023 - The Claspers of Fate

And Introducing host and Chapo Trap House producer Chris Wade (@saywhatagain) joins Alex, Dan, and Charles for another journey into CanCon comedy folk, subjecting everybody to gems from Moxy Fruvous and the Arrogant Worms.

50 - CanCon Part Deux (ft. Chris Wade)

Hot Dad (@hotterdad) joins Charles, Alex, and Dan to discuss songwriting and synths and watch performances from his prized Beachfest DVD.
Watch the Beachfest DVD here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ3aNiADBpM

56 - Beachfest (ft. Hot Dad)

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

#83 Voyage Into Pizzagate

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