12mo ago

I am a USAmerican "socialist" podcaster

And I will never tell you what I really think about Ukraine or China, because I would lose subscriber.

Give me money on Patreon

I have bills to pay

44 comments

Me listening to Ben Norton: “Can’t relate”
- Does he have a podcast though?
  
  It’s the YouTube uploaded on podcast apps w/o the video. I don’t like it much, but I’ve listened at times.
  
  Multipolarista, no?
Even TrueAnon does this shit, it's fucking pathetic
- my understanding is that the TrueAnon party line at least regarding China was that they (and by they I mean like, Brace, because he's the most outspoken on this) explicitly identify as Maoists but in a 'fundamentally ambivalent to Dengism and would prefer a Maoist track' way instead of a 'china has fallen, billions must die' way, but I may be over/misanalyzing some things. I half-remember a bit where Brace was talking about "if China starts the turnaround and we can see it in like 20 years then call me a Dengist when those 20 years have passed", might be misremembering.
  
  I mean, that’s basically my position too.
  I don’t think China is the perfect state and the majority of economic relationships within China are in the capitalist mode and billionaires are on a leash but there are still many power billionaires.
  I like China because it is the closest to being able to push the button and has leadership that seems to at least aspire to pushing the button maybe even within my lifetime.
  Which is A LOT and hugely preferable to whatever the fuck kind of feudalism the west is evolving towards but I won’t stan them as being actually very communist right now. They’re dialectically evolving towards some better form of socialism and they look after their people a lot better than the west, and there’s a lot to like but damn I wish they would push that dang button.
  
  He also said he thinks the West needs to accept a peace deal that lets Russia keep Donbas and that it's delusional to keep this bloody conflict going thinking that Zelensky will be marching on Moscow if only we keep sending him more missiles. So yeah, he's been pretty blatant about his stances.
  
  Brace Belden must be made to read The Governance of China and understand the Two Centenary Goals.
  
  The dragon rises [gong sound]
  It's a great bit, but come on Jack!
- I don't think so at all, both brace and liz are pretty outspoken about their opinions. What do you think they believe but aren't saying about ukraine or china?
Add : Umm labor aristocracy doesn't exist and saying it does is just to score morality points. No people in the imperial core don't benefit from imperialism.
I'm definitely not disagreeing with you. But like, The Deprogram boys have been OK with this? (sincere question)
- No I think they do a lot of fencesitting. They will acknowledge that NATO created the conditions for Ukraine's invasion but seems like they need to always make it clear that Russia is a capitalist country and they don't like that aspect of Russia. The truth is that the latter is irrelevant for the former, but if they don't say the latter they probably think they might be seen as Putin stans which will scare away radlib paypigs.
  
  I don’t see how it’s irrelevant. You have to beat people on the head with no subtlety on some things or else they’ll run around spreading random rumors or interpretations that hurt you for no reason
  
  The truth is that the latter is irrelevant for the former
  I don't think it's irrelevant if you're looking at it from the standpoint of whether it helps the world get closer to communism.
  
  The truth is that the latter is irrelevant for the former
  I swear to God this is a sincere question and not concern trolling. You saying the invasion is justified? (I'm not gonna jump on you if the answer is yes)
  
  :this:
  
  No I think they do a lot of fencesitting.
  You can personally think they're a bit cowardly for not getting off the fence, but I have to ask, would them doing so do any good? Frankly I think the whole mini-industry of western leftist influencers, even the ones with actually good takes, is totally pointless for anything besides entertainment. They're not reaching anyone new, not to any meaningful degree, since the population of people in the west with any potential to become actual principled leftists is tiny as fuck. Every ideology has consolidated and locked in, 99% of people who are currently a Lib/Chud/Succ/"Tankie" right now is going to remain one till the gave. Our ranks right now are about as big as they're ever gonna be so all we really have is posting for each others amusement and the smug satisfaction of "I told you so"-ing unreachable Libs.
- Well they've hosted an ultra TWICE. And they did not push back on his anti-china bullshit.
  
  Fair enough. I don't really listen to them anymore. Most of their guests were fine, but a few were sus.
Hegemony be like:
lol basically the deprogram.
maybe a lib thought of mine but i still see them as valuable members of the pipeline.
I'll only contribute as long as you never explicitly call out the extreme liberalism in your audience and take great care to remain "neutral" on all things. I'd hate to support someone who actually stands for what they believe in.

44 comments