Writer Rich Woodall on the financialization of music catalogues and the future of the music economy - for listeners and artists and profiteers, and his new article Mass Hipgnosis for The Baffler.

https://thebaffler.com/latest/mass-hipgnosis-woodall

IP Tunes: On the financialization of the music economy.

A podcast about the internet, hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman.  From Gimlet Media.  Coming soon. 

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“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"

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

Look man this episode gets pretty dark. Idk. Here's everything I could find about that Milwuakee house:

https://heavy.com/news/2020/06/watch-milwaukee-crowd-burns-down-suspected-sex-trafficking-house/

https://twitter.com/jonbernhardt/status/1275975081156587520

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2020/06/23/milwaukee-missing-girls-crowd-grows-rumored-sex-trafficking-house-shooting-fire-starts/3246406001/

https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/06/23/suspected-sex-trafficking-house-burned/

https://twitter.com/Eugene_V_Dabbs/status/1275549018278379521

https://twitter.com/abcdentminded/status/1275664887725858817

https://fox6now.com/2020/06/23/milwaukee-police-investigate-missing-persons-reports-for-2-girls-ages-15-and-13/

ANYWAYS

MERCH:

PodDamnAmerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON FOR BONUS EPs

Patreon.com/PodDamnAmerica

Vote for Andrew Romanoff in CO

https://andrewromanoff.com/

The People Under The Damn Stairs

Another Summer

Filmmaker and Twitter personality Rob Reiner looked back at the Kennedy/Johnson era through the lens of the Obama era in LBJ (2016), the story of how an idealist's vision can only be achieved by a pragmatism... and how the pragmatist's centrism may or may not have actually camouflaged an idealist the whole time. A piece of Boomer-porn, this movie is unmistakably the vision of a Joe Biden primary voter. PLUS: fiery hot thoughts on the Canadian Conservative Party leadership race, the Ed Markey/Joe Kennedy III battle, and the controversial release of TENET.

Michael and Us

#168 - The Centrist Manifesto

wow finally a fucking good movie

www.patreon.com/generationloss

075 // Shooter (2007)

This week, PJ looks into a theory circling the internet about who might be behind QAnon. The investigation takes him back to the beginning of the QAnon scam, and to the message board trolls who started it.

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#166 Country of Liars

Alex Goldman tackles his newest job: prophet of doom.

#170 A Song of Impotent Rage

Matt goes off live on http://www.twitch.tv/chapotraphouse

Topics: Q&A, Squibs, Uncut Gems America

Grill Stream

145 - Friday Vibestream: Alpha Sanction 02.05.21

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

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