Conversation #51: Cheapo Trope House (August 19, 2018)

Paul got his palsied, liver-spotted hands on an an advance copy of The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason, the new book by the Chapo Trap House gang. The book’s official release date is Tuesday, August 21st. We have some excerpts from the introduction and two chapters, one on “libs” and the other on “cons.” Along the way we talk about who this book is for, the problems of sarcasm and irony in discourse, and ask whether it preaches only to the choir, or could expose a wider audience to unfamiliar ideology. And we try to survey the contours of the chasm that has opened up between “leftist” and “liberal,” words that once seemed nearly synonymous, but which now are at least as far apart in meaning as “conservative” and Republican."

Then, we’ve got another excerpt from Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. This time the subject is “everyday anti-fascism.” We try to expand that conversation outwards, talking about the role of shame as ostracism in enforcing societal norms, and how one might serve anti-fascist aims by maintaining community with people with fascist tendences, while at the same time not promoting their ideas. We also discuss the idea that non-violence is a privileged position. And we briefly mention what happened when the Washington Post tried to cover disaffected white workers in a majority-Hispanic chicken processing plant in Pennsylvania.

How to Listen

You can find the MP3 file here.

The Podcast feed is here.

The Podcast channel on YouTube is here.

More Information

• The “Cocaine Intelligence Unit” patch is from the DEA, not the CIA, and you can actually order one. See more patches here
• The publisher’s page for The Chapo Guide to Revolution can be found here.
• Here is the Soundcloud page for the free Chapo Trap House podcast.
• Here is the page for the free podcast RSS feed (use that link to subscribe in iTunes or other podcast listening software).
• Here is the page to become a patron and get access to the second “Grey Wolf” feed.
• I mentioned The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, although I think I got the name wrong and called it “The Nineteenth Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte.”
• The publisher’s page for Mark Bray’s remarkable book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook can be found here
• Here is the controversial article from the Washington Post paul mentioned, called “White, and in the Minority,” about workers in a Pennsylvania chicken-processing plant.
• And here’s a rebuttal.

This Week’s Music

No music this week! But if you want to get into the Chapo mindset, here’s the song.