Long March? But it just started! We head down Peking’s way to look at why the US keeps shooting all the Balloons, our situationship with Taiwan, and why every US politician can’t stop talking about China.

Episode 273: The Dragon Rises: Tiger's Paw

We placed all our bets on Juicero and all our money in the bank — this is the story of how TrueAnon lost everything in the SVB collapse. Plus we talk shit about VCs.

Episode 277: Unbank Yourself

Hey Gumshoes! So excited to announce a new Patreon reward: podcast commentary tracks. Soon we’ll be offering a behind-the-scenes look at how all your favorites got made, from the people who made them.

To start us off, Brace, Liz, and Yung Chomsky go back to 2019 to walk through the recording of our every first episode, The Ep-Files. Enjoy, and as always, like and subscribe! 

patreon.com/TrueAnonPod

ANNOUNCEMENT: Investigator Tier

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

We’re joined by Jonathan Melrod (twitter.com/JonathanMelrod), author of the new autobiography “Fighting Times” (pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1289). We talk about the factory turn of the 1960s, SDS/RYM II, encounters with the Red Squad, and his 13 years fighting in American auto plants and as an activist in the UAW. 

Jonathan's FBI file: static1.squarespace.com/static/605d7866711508185e437efe/t/629e3e73925c4d39eb5082fe/1654537863547/Jon+Melrod+FBI+file_Redacted.pdf

Episode 282: Fighting Times

Chapo Trap House

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

Usually, telling lies on the internet is Constitutionally protected. 

But what happens when it’s not? What happens when you post and meme so hard and so maliciously that you go far outside the realm of protected speech and wind up in a federal prison. That’s the story of a 33-year-old man named Douglass Mackey, who operated a few Twitter accounts under the name Rickey Vaughn. Using these accounts he spread Pizzagate lies, racist tropes, and also messages deliberately designed to mislead people into giving up their right to vote. On May 31st, Douglass Mackey was convicted of Election Interference in the 2016 presidential race after a one week trial.

To better understand this case we spoke to someone who has been covering it for years: Michael Edison Hayden from the Southern Poverty Law Center. We chat about Douglass Mackey’s background, the crime he was found guilty of committing, and what it means for the future of online disinformation campaigns. We also discuss the trial’s involvement of “Microchip,” a notorious troll who is currently working as a federal informant.
 
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

Michael Edison Hayden: https://twitter.com/MichaelEHayden

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

Editing by Corey Klotz.

Episode 227: The Posting to Prison Pipeline feat Michael Edison Hayden

We’re joined by the creative team behind the new film How To Blow Up A Pipeline (director Daniel Goldhaber, co-writer/producer/star Ariela Barer, co-writer/producer Jordan Sjol & producer/editor Dan Garber) to discuss their work on the movie. Will talks to the crew about adapting the non-fiction book to narrative film, developing characters’ sense of political motivation, the value and nature of propaganda, and of course, bombs.

Then, Felix and Matt join back up  to look at Biden’s recent trip to Ireland, and read from Spiked magazine’s lament of the President’s “woke conquest of Ireland”.

There may be tickets left for the late show of our screening of John Carpenter’s “In The Mouth of Madness” at the Roxy Cinema on April 27th, come thru. Will and Hesse will be speaking at both screenings: https://www.roxycinemanewyork.com/screenings/chapo-trap-house-movie-mindset-presents-in-the-mouth-of-madness-35mm/

724 - Pipe Lines....Blow Awaaaaay feat. How to Blow Up A Pipeline (4/17/23)

We’re joined by author Lauren Oyler to discuss her new Harper’s article about her experience going on a cruise centered around Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP brand. We discuss performative crying, serial killer branded work-outs, vagina-themed everything, and selling self-actualization. Then, we catch up on an eventful few days in the media, with Musk’s Twitter checkpocalypse, and Tucker & Don Lemon getting the axe at Fox & CNN respectively.

726 - Cruising feat. Lauren Oyler (4/24/23)

We plan out what builds we’re going with using items from King Charles’ upcoming coronation. Then, we compare and contrast visions of masculinity within the Republican party using the models presented by Donald Trump and Josh Hawley, and start forecasting what the Trump v. Biden match-up might look like. Plus, we’ve got new Epstein revelations, and an update on a classic bit of William F. Buckley lore.

New merch now available here: https://represent.com/store/chapo-trap-house 

Hell on Earth: The Original Podcast Soundtrack now available here: https://chapotraphouse.bandcamp.com/album/hell-on-earth-original-podcast-soundtrack

728 - Mighty Men (5/1/23)

"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

TrueAnon is a podcast about your enemies made by your friends. Join unlicensed private investigators Liz Franczak, Brace Belden, and Yung Chomsky for a show that will drive you insane. Every other episode is a Patreon exclusive: patreon.com/TrueAnonPod

Episode 281: Next Year In Jerusalem

TrueAnon

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