As someone who is weary of the bombast coming from each camp I find very few podcasts worth taking time to listen to. You offer value. I haven’t regretted my subscription to you at all.
Right! So many people I know think it’s crazy to read substack or listen to podcasts, they think it’s all conspiracy theories and we should just listen to the corporate media for our facts. So deluded. In the end, I think it comes from fear. If the mainstream media is lying to us and has been lying to us for decades, then it is a frightening prospect. But, I think most of us have realized it’s better to face that fear than to live in denial. It’s kind of like becoming skeptical of the Health industrial complex. It’s scary to think that all of these institutions that are largely responsible for our healthcare are corrupt, but again better to face it then live in denial.
As this resistance to Trump kicks into high gear and as we discover who we are as liberals/the left/democrats, etc. I have a favor to ask my fellow liberals. Please do not again make this a battle between working class white males and everyone else. There are plenty of people who liberals traditionally view as privileged who despise Trump as much as you do or are persuadable to an alternate idea. I’m one of them. This practice of creating an oppressor vs oppressed narrative between working class Americans has helped to crush our electoral chances and apparently does little to convince many other voters to our cause. It plays into Trump’s hand. It’s too exclusionary, IMHO.
Millions of the everyday people liberals/progressives view as oppressors/privileged are actually being crushed under the weight of poverty, addiction, mental illness, class oppression, cost of living/housing, and low wages. All of us in the working class need to stand together to fight for our rights of living wages.
This next phase of the battle must be one of unity around the universal struggles impacting us all. An oligarchy has formed in the White House. It intends to pass policies that will enrich the wealthiest among us and leave the rest of us fighting for scraps. Our coalition must be diverse, large in number, and inclusive of all people we can find some common ground with even if we disagree with them in other areas.
There are privileged people in America. It’s the ultra elite CEOs who underpay, abuse employees, and cheat on their taxes. It’s not the working class people of any identity group.
In order to get progressive democrats to stop attacking working class white males, the party would first need to remove the managerial class wealthy women who created that movement. They would need to be removed from positions of leadership and replaced with Bernie Sanders types who actually care about the real working class, whom the majority just happen to be white. Agreed, but i think its going to be an uphill battle for the party. The wealthy managerial class women who fill up the ranks of MSNBC arent going to go down without a fight. MAGA proved its possible though. Fox News tried to attack Trump in the beginning, now look at them.
This was incredibly therapeutic, so on point with what's going on, and no one talks about it except you guys and it's insanity, really appreciate it! Have a great day!!
One can only hope the Democrats will choose fresh faces who, at the very least, lean into populist positions when moving forward from here, but I don't see that happening until the current geriatric leadership finally relinquishes power. Excellent interview.
Excellent! I will check out some of Vivek's writings.
Ana, I applaud your courage in the face of all the criticism you are dealing with and I agree fully with what Vivek, Bernie, Cenk and you are doing. Forget left and right; just go and talk to working class people and find out what they want!
Love the wide range of voices that you’re hosting. There’s an anti-establishment through-line but each guest still brings something different to consider.
This guy is wrong about Biden inflation being caused by "supply chain bottlenecks". 1) The Biden administration drove up the cost of energy domestically to "justify" public investment in wind and solar electrical generation and 2) An unhinged policy of deficit spending put unearned and unneeded liquidity into the economy. So we had two forces pushing prices higher. The former operating on the supply side (i.e increased cost) and the latter operating on the demand side. The modern Left will not gain sustainable traction with thinking like this. If taking down capitalism is your mission in life then try to do it with some intellectual honesty.
Back in 2021, a couple of days after Biden was sworn in as president, I started seeing stickers on gas pumps everywhere with pictures of Biden pointing at the price per gallon and saying, “I did this.” Since then I have not been able to take seriously any criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the economy.
The political movements in the United States currently are absolutely fascinating. As my political and social and cultural views have evolved over the years, political movements and ideologies fly past me from all different angles never standing still long enough for me to grab onto one. I guess that’s why I love “unaligned.“ Currently I would succinctly define myself as a populist Stoic libertarian anti-identitarian Daoist Luddite pacifist who desires a gargantuan social safety net. There, I guess that’s settled.
Ana, I hope you are doing well and that you and yours are safe. Your guest was informative and respectful, two of my favorite things to see in a podcast. You should have him on your show. There are a few things I would like to suggest. First, insulting voters (and your audience)--especially when it's typically one-sided is, by and large, not a good idea. Insulting people who are not in positions of power, do not have a platform, and whose jobs and time do not allow them to fully engage and learn about the state of our government and foreign affairs (i.e., pretty much everyone) comes off as gatekeeping, purity testing, and really mean, especially when coming from someone who does have a large platform. So, no more name-calling! As with Israel, it's okay and necessary to critique the Israeli Government, but it would never be okay to insult Jewish people. Also, if grace is to be given, it must be given equally. Second, like your guest, every time you critique (refrain from insulting because that makes it personal) an ideology, explain precisely what the ideology is and represents and how it is potentially harmful to everyone. For example, explain how identity politics is used against voters by getting them to vote for politicians who claim they will represent them but are actually elites who plan on tossing them aside for donors. Give examples; I'm sure Barack and Hilary will give you plenty to choose from. Last, I think it's about time to start attacking Trump for the vast amount of fucked up shit he has done in only two days! There's plenty of ideology and policy to critique, and a journalist refraining from doing so is shirking their responsibility.
Class conciousness is on the horizon. Any time conversations about class take front stage rather than a side topic, you know the conversation is headed in the right direction. However, whenever class becomes a discussion in identity politics, while ignoring the majority of the country's working class, you end up with MAGA.
I'm quite concerned about economics-- and I'm guessing that there is a pretty strong correlation between poverty and their probability of committing crime--particularly for theft or robbery. But I wonder how much data is collected about correlation between crime and income. If such correlation could be demonstrated, crime reduction could be another reason for establishing a universal basic income such as Andrew Yang has advocated. Not to mention that it would likely benefit the economy by reducing poverty and increasing aggregate economic demand. Much better than giving tax cuts to the rich. Or defunding the police.
As someone who is weary of the bombast coming from each camp I find very few podcasts worth taking time to listen to. You offer value. I haven’t regretted my subscription to you at all.
Thank you, Daniel!
Right! So many people I know think it’s crazy to read substack or listen to podcasts, they think it’s all conspiracy theories and we should just listen to the corporate media for our facts. So deluded. In the end, I think it comes from fear. If the mainstream media is lying to us and has been lying to us for decades, then it is a frightening prospect. But, I think most of us have realized it’s better to face that fear than to live in denial. It’s kind of like becoming skeptical of the Health industrial complex. It’s scary to think that all of these institutions that are largely responsible for our healthcare are corrupt, but again better to face it then live in denial.
Thank you for this conversation, Ana!
As this resistance to Trump kicks into high gear and as we discover who we are as liberals/the left/democrats, etc. I have a favor to ask my fellow liberals. Please do not again make this a battle between working class white males and everyone else. There are plenty of people who liberals traditionally view as privileged who despise Trump as much as you do or are persuadable to an alternate idea. I’m one of them. This practice of creating an oppressor vs oppressed narrative between working class Americans has helped to crush our electoral chances and apparently does little to convince many other voters to our cause. It plays into Trump’s hand. It’s too exclusionary, IMHO.
Millions of the everyday people liberals/progressives view as oppressors/privileged are actually being crushed under the weight of poverty, addiction, mental illness, class oppression, cost of living/housing, and low wages. All of us in the working class need to stand together to fight for our rights of living wages.
This next phase of the battle must be one of unity around the universal struggles impacting us all. An oligarchy has formed in the White House. It intends to pass policies that will enrich the wealthiest among us and leave the rest of us fighting for scraps. Our coalition must be diverse, large in number, and inclusive of all people we can find some common ground with even if we disagree with them in other areas.
There are privileged people in America. It’s the ultra elite CEOs who underpay, abuse employees, and cheat on their taxes. It’s not the working class people of any identity group.
In order to get progressive democrats to stop attacking working class white males, the party would first need to remove the managerial class wealthy women who created that movement. They would need to be removed from positions of leadership and replaced with Bernie Sanders types who actually care about the real working class, whom the majority just happen to be white. Agreed, but i think its going to be an uphill battle for the party. The wealthy managerial class women who fill up the ranks of MSNBC arent going to go down without a fight. MAGA proved its possible though. Fox News tried to attack Trump in the beginning, now look at them.
This was incredibly therapeutic, so on point with what's going on, and no one talks about it except you guys and it's insanity, really appreciate it! Have a great day!!
So happy you enjoyed the discussion, Chris!
One can only hope the Democrats will choose fresh faces who, at the very least, lean into populist positions when moving forward from here, but I don't see that happening until the current geriatric leadership finally relinquishes power. Excellent interview.
Excellent! I will check out some of Vivek's writings.
Ana, I applaud your courage in the face of all the criticism you are dealing with and I agree fully with what Vivek, Bernie, Cenk and you are doing. Forget left and right; just go and talk to working class people and find out what they want!
Love the wide range of voices that you’re hosting. There’s an anti-establishment through-line but each guest still brings something different to consider.
This guy is wrong about Biden inflation being caused by "supply chain bottlenecks". 1) The Biden administration drove up the cost of energy domestically to "justify" public investment in wind and solar electrical generation and 2) An unhinged policy of deficit spending put unearned and unneeded liquidity into the economy. So we had two forces pushing prices higher. The former operating on the supply side (i.e increased cost) and the latter operating on the demand side. The modern Left will not gain sustainable traction with thinking like this. If taking down capitalism is your mission in life then try to do it with some intellectual honesty.
Back in 2021, a couple of days after Biden was sworn in as president, I started seeing stickers on gas pumps everywhere with pictures of Biden pointing at the price per gallon and saying, “I did this.” Since then I have not been able to take seriously any criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the economy.
Regarding point 1, citation needed.
The political movements in the United States currently are absolutely fascinating. As my political and social and cultural views have evolved over the years, political movements and ideologies fly past me from all different angles never standing still long enough for me to grab onto one. I guess that’s why I love “unaligned.“ Currently I would succinctly define myself as a populist Stoic libertarian anti-identitarian Daoist Luddite pacifist who desires a gargantuan social safety net. There, I guess that’s settled.
Thanks again, Ana, for an interesting discussion.
Very happy to see critical socialist voices here. And Vivek specifically is great!
Ana, I hope you are doing well and that you and yours are safe. Your guest was informative and respectful, two of my favorite things to see in a podcast. You should have him on your show. There are a few things I would like to suggest. First, insulting voters (and your audience)--especially when it's typically one-sided is, by and large, not a good idea. Insulting people who are not in positions of power, do not have a platform, and whose jobs and time do not allow them to fully engage and learn about the state of our government and foreign affairs (i.e., pretty much everyone) comes off as gatekeeping, purity testing, and really mean, especially when coming from someone who does have a large platform. So, no more name-calling! As with Israel, it's okay and necessary to critique the Israeli Government, but it would never be okay to insult Jewish people. Also, if grace is to be given, it must be given equally. Second, like your guest, every time you critique (refrain from insulting because that makes it personal) an ideology, explain precisely what the ideology is and represents and how it is potentially harmful to everyone. For example, explain how identity politics is used against voters by getting them to vote for politicians who claim they will represent them but are actually elites who plan on tossing them aside for donors. Give examples; I'm sure Barack and Hilary will give you plenty to choose from. Last, I think it's about time to start attacking Trump for the vast amount of fucked up shit he has done in only two days! There's plenty of ideology and policy to critique, and a journalist refraining from doing so is shirking their responsibility.
Class conciousness is on the horizon. Any time conversations about class take front stage rather than a side topic, you know the conversation is headed in the right direction. However, whenever class becomes a discussion in identity politics, while ignoring the majority of the country's working class, you end up with MAGA.
I'm quite concerned about economics-- and I'm guessing that there is a pretty strong correlation between poverty and their probability of committing crime--particularly for theft or robbery. But I wonder how much data is collected about correlation between crime and income. If such correlation could be demonstrated, crime reduction could be another reason for establishing a universal basic income such as Andrew Yang has advocated. Not to mention that it would likely benefit the economy by reducing poverty and increasing aggregate economic demand. Much better than giving tax cuts to the rich. Or defunding the police.
WOW. Great discussion! Thank you!