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Guess what? Havana Syndrome’s not a real thing, who would have guessed? Then, we look at the New York Times two ways: (1) their insistently hysterical and “non-activist” coverage of trans issues, and (2) another op-ed detailing the plight of conservatives on America’s most prestigious campuses. All featuring our friend and returning guest Jacob Bacharach.

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Anonymous

Wait, Will thanks skinny jeans are fashionable? I guess, if you want to look like a medieval peasant. But then you should just wear hose, and not try to make pants do something they can't.

Anonymous

Everyone here acting like what I’m describing isn’t happening/isn’t a thing worth acknowledging or being concerned about or treating me like I’m sort of ignorant bigot that hasn’t clocked adequate life experience for noticing it, being upset by it or for expressing it when it’s clear this movement is more about derision and punishment than it is about defending or protecting vulnerable people is what fucking sucks about being on “the left” right now and it’s why no one likes or trusts us anymore. I can feel how I feel and I’m not a bad person for wanting off the train that’s going in a direction I never signed up for.

Anonymous

Mail Jacob a mic and make him plug 4. He's got "the stuff"

Anonymous

Jacob touched on this but I went to a pretty expensive and somewhat prestigious school. Not Ivy League but not a state school either. This was pre Covid but it was after all these dumbass columns had started. It is absolutely not hostile to conservatives. Economics and business classes are outright conservative propaganda and basically the only time I saw pushback against “conservative ideals” was when they were racist or transphobic. Certainly many more students were liberals or leftists but it wasn’t this anti conservative environment they all describe. I think it just all comes back to the thing where conservatives are always looking for a chance to be the victim.

Axel Herrera

It is interesting to me that trans issues are the one thing that can still get leftists at each other's throats. I guess in some sense that's encouraging, that this is one of the only things that can. But it's also a bit disappointing. The subreddit post for this episode was actually locked because of all the vitriol over the trans stuff (I've been listening and commenting on Chapo for a while, so this doesn't happen often).

Bilbo

Yup! There is actually quite a bit of transphobia on the left. I think it takes several forms. I can note three trends in particular that ive noticed: 1. Old School terf/swerf ML paternalism - "trans existence is modern bourgeois excess and therefore invalid/should be resisted." This in spite of the fact that trans people and various forms of "third gender" have existed in the historical record all across the the world in various cultures, including many pre capitalist, non western, and even pre agrarian ones. (North American indigenous two spirits, spanish documentation of the Iriquois in 1711 describing transmasculine and tranfem tribal roles, Tale of Two Brothers 1194 BC describing early attempt at transition surgery in Egypt, Nuba peoples of Sudan indigenous third gender category, muxhe gender role common in pre colombian central america, Edo period Japan and its role for both transmasc and transfemme people in court life, theatre, and the sex industry, Thai Buddhist concept of trans existence withthin buddhist concept of reincarnation (makes a ton of sense if you think about it), and finally the transfemme gods Cybele and Attis worshipped in pre christian greece.) -Just to list some of the examples. 2. Post imperial liberal terfism - Your JK Rowling stuff based out of the UK. The rigid sex dichotomy coming out of the industrial revolution and empire. Think the stuffy victorian notions of men as worker/providers, women as effette and in need of protection (from the other). Also very paternalistic and patriarchical. Its not a mistake that many of the suffragettes moonlit as fascists down the line. Lots of sex essentialization and eugenic ideas of social manipulation based on said essentialization. 3. Finally what we see in the comments here and parts of the Chapo fanbase generally - Good old fashioned dirtbag left boys club manchild immaturity - I think for a segment of the male fanbase the funny "dirtbag left" has existed purely as an entertainment vehicle that was never actually tied to any deeper moral or philisophical underpinnings to the greater left project. (not that it should be, as Matt has pointed out many times, log off and do politics outside of podcasts and media consumption). I think for many listeners its one thing to ask them to laugh at the New York Times and media writers, but to ask them to sympathize with a group they do not understand and feel is getting special treatment is a bridge too far, thus a reactionary reaction within the fanbase. Gamer shit. I am glad that the Chapo hosts are on the right side of all this. Matt is too smart for terf nonesense, Will is an Ally, and Felix is family so no chance he is going Fash. Redscare is going weird arthoe tradcath fash, and much of the dirtbag left has gone down the pseuds rabbit hole of going anti trans to appear edgy and contrarian, which is just the same grift as Bari Weiss in the end. Anyway thats all.

Axel Herrera

Thanks for the summary. I was drawn to the "dirtbag left" after I became disenchanted with "libs" in 2016 (namely, the preoccupation with "Russiagate"). I admit that it was refreshing to find a wing of the left that wasn't obsessed with identity politics and being inoffensive. But that didn't mean I was ever opposed to LGBT issues (I am a gay man after all). I just was very aware of the fact that libs seemed to hyperfocus on identity to distract from class issues and obsess with using the "correct language" without much substance. So I continue to listen to Chapo and TrueAnon and Citations Needed. But when I looked into other "dirtbag left" outlets, like Red Scare, I saw that they were basically just sounding a lot like alt/new right. Not completely in step with the Trumpist/populist right, but basically saying the same anti-vax, anti-trans, pro-trad/religious rhetoric I hear from the right all the time. And I became aware that there is a slippery slope, "horseshoe effect" that leads from dirtbag left to alt right, and trans issues seem to be one way that happens.

Chris Ryan

I don’t think those categories are all-encompassing, accurate though they seem to be. I’m not saying this is me, by the way, but I know for a fact that a growing number of leftists are averse to giving any credence at all to the importance of any white liberal’s identity. So in that case, the pushback that certain trans people feel from the left has nothing to do with their gender, per se, as the actual left takes issue with people of all genders who are actively complicit in the ongoing destruction of human society.

Lcfitz

Damn I still like npr

Anonymous

Great episode, thanks! would you consider unlocking? my niece is trans and my sister has been disturbed by the recent nyt pieces. i would love to share it with her — i think the discussion helps demystify and contextualize the present moment.

etienne

driving in the northeast appalachians is brutal because all you can get on the radio is the clear channel alleged top 40 radio that actually only play ads, the fox sports, npr, and if you're lucky preacher radio, but really NPR always comes in and it ultimately makes you want to drive off a cliff

Anonymous

Respect to Chapo for standing up to all this transphobic garbage.

A M

where do you freaks come from. why are you in the replies of this podcast. why are you paying for this podcast

casey

princeton is actually rather conservative as far as your standard liberal colleges go. unpleasant place.

etienne

pretty hypocritical of this guy talking shit about big pharma right after undergoing a lobotomy

Anonymous

what are "trans" kids

Anonymous

what is "trans" kids I only know trans kids

Max Beta

Hey dum dum, are you going to question them for "mimicking big pharma" on contraceptives & abortion rights next? Very clown.

Max Beta

The thing I can say about this topic, is that if someone has never been in the inner circle of a child with gender dysphoria, they don't know a fucking thing about it.

Anonymous

thought the preview thumbnail was the cover of drukqs

Anonymous

No but skinny jeans are what conservative men wear now

Sam Tung

Really good ep

etienne

am i still allowed to wear levis 513 or do I need to get into the market for jncos

Anonymous

No fr look at George Santos, Andrew Tate, and John Tory…there are more I can’t think at the moment but it’s already happening—all wear TIGHT pants.

Arid

I graduated from Minnesota in 2020, and you're right about these things mostly preoccupying elite places. We had a couple of campus activist groups, but nothing huge. And as an engineering student I had way too much shit to do to worry about taking drammatic stands on stuff. There were some anti-trump marches, and defacing of the campus conservatives' "build the wall" mural, but that's not "woke policing" or whatever people are whining about I work at Cornell now and they've started doing the land acknowledgement shit, which I think is really funny because it's not like they're actually giving any land back! Just whining about it