Rev Left Radio - [UNLOCKED] Hypnotized by the Rot: America's Electoral Spectacle

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

UNLOCKED PATREON EPISODE: Originally aired on June 2nd, 2023  For more exclusive episodes like this, join our patreon and help support the show:  https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio  

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. Okay, today's Patreon episode is going to be pretty short. I just had a couple things in my mind that I wanted to sort of work out here, but also a couple announcements. One is, as you may have noticed, for the month of June on Rev Left, we're going to be doing a Best of series. Now, we did a Best of series about a year or two ago, and obviously there's a limit to the amount of episodes that we could have put on that Best of, because we're only going for

one month, so there's a bunch of other episodes that almost. almost made the cut for the last best of series that we're doing this time. So, yeah, for the month of June in particular, Rev. Left Radio was going to be doing a best-of show all through the month. Every two days or so, you'll get an old episode posted up. Just for new listeners, people who maybe have just got into us in the last year or two, have not gone through our back catalog, et cetera. It's just always nice to kind of refresh people on some of, you know,

the best episodes or the classic episodes. So there's really just me going through them and picking some that jumped out to me that I remembered as being particularly interesting or worthwhile covering diverse topics, et cetera. So, yeah, the best of series is already happening now. I think we're already one or two episodes into it by the time you hear this. And for the full month of June, it will continue that way. And you right now listening are the first person to hear this part of it, which is that a big reason that we're doing the best of series is that we are starting a new project. this month. I don't want to give too much away, but since you are the patrons, you are the core audience of our show. I wanted you to be the first to know, and perhaps I'll make a more public

announcement in the weeks to come. But we are starting a new podcast, and I know there's plenty of podcast out there, but this one is going to be a little different in the sense that it's going to be me and my childhood friend, or high school friend, David Isanagel, who has been on many Patreon episodes and on one public episode, I believe, of RevLev, talking about alcoholism, recovery, mental health. And if you'll notice in those episodes, there's a lot of organic banter, a lot of organic joking around, even when we're dealing with difficult subjects. It's very fun. It's different for me to be able to open up that side of my personality because on guerrilla history, on Red Menace and on Rev. Left, I am sort of being, you know, serious, professional. I'm having on guests. I'm talking with

them. I'm creating a certain atmosphere of intellectual seriousness and education. And that's all fun and great and a huge part of who I am and what I've always wanted to do. But I also like the other chance to have the in person, because David lives here obviously in Omaha. So we record all of our episodes in person together in the same room. That in and of itself creates, I think, a little bit of intimacy. Plus you have the fact that we go way back to like 14 or 15 years old. So we have a long friendship that comes out in the form of just the vibe that we create together where it's very joky. We can cover deep topics. We can get very serious and then shift very quickly into, you know, an old style of joking around and bantering and making fun of one another. And it's

refreshing. It's fun. And for those that are on this Patreon, I think, you know, the best chance of people of me finding a new audience for this show would be here where hopefully you enjoy my political content but you would be willing to listen to me talk about other subjects certainly we do a little bit of that on rev left but this will be all that so we're going to focus on mental health we're going to focus on you know psychology on addiction and recovery and relapses also we're going to do fun segments we're going to try to you know really continue to infuse those episodes with a laid-back vibe and a vibe that is open to joking around and being funny as as we deal with these heavy topics And we're also going to do something interesting, I think, that I don't see too many other shows doing, which is we're going to have on anonymous people in studio to talk about their specific mental health and addiction issues.

It's not going to be every single episode. Some episodes are just going to be me and Dave shooting the shit, doing segments, talking about various issues, not focused on politics, but I'm sure politics will come up because it's a part of who we are and it's a part of the social structure. but every few episodes or so we're not exactly sure how we're going to do this but we're going to have somebody on that's in the local area that he knows or that I know in our family group and our friend group in his AA group

you know wide casting a wide net friends of friends etc come in studio they're going to be completely anonymous so there's no sense in which these are just regular people they're not influencers they don't have platforms they're regular people working regular jobs living their lives and struggle with mental health or addiction

we're going to have them on and under the cover of anonymity allow them to be brutally honest about the addictive and mental health issues that they face. Now, there are obviously plenty of shows out there that deal with this sort of content, but the fact that it's going to be anonymous people, regular working people that are completely anonymous and they come into the studio. So you have that extra sense of intimacy and vulnerability when you're sitting in a room with somebody as opposed to merely talk. into a microphone over Zoom or something, I think that will add an interesting dynamic.

And then, of course, you have me and Dave who are going to be asking the questions of this person, et cetera. I'm trying to dive deep into the mechanics of what they're struggling with, again, while protecting their identity completely. These people are not people that are seeking fame. They have nothing to plug or promote. It's really about getting deep into regular people's lives and their struggles in a hopes that it will resonate with other people out there and that we could have, you know, some revelations, some breakthroughs, some interesting insights about the human condition. And at the very least, I think talking about some of these issues makes people who are struggling with similar issues feel less alone. I know that when I'm in the pits of

mental health crisis or an existential crisis, nothing feels better in those moments than hearing somebody else articulate things that I struggle with, make me feel less alone. make me feel as if I'm part of a broader human condition and that these things are overcomable, et cetera. So, you know, we're going to kind of try to do that. And the exact dynamics of the show are still going to be explored. Certainly, there's a few Patreon and one public episode on Rev. Left that gives you the gist of what we're going to be doing.

But we're going to continue to experiment and take things further as well. There's not going to be a Patreon. There's no huge promotion on social media. It's really going to be a sort of, if you know, you know, sort of thing. thing. You know, I've always hated self-promotion. I don't like it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not good at it. I hate being on Twitter. I hate promoting myself on Twitter. All that shit is very gross to me. So this is just going to be a, you know, and I hate jumping out of the gate with like a new project. Hey, here's our Patreon. You know, we haven't even started the project yet,

but join our Patreon. Give us money. We're not going to do that either. We're going to see if there's an audience to this. All the episodes are going to be 100% free. And then down the line, if there is a genuine desire to get more in depth, to do other elements, maybe we can bring a Patreon online in the medium to long term future. But starting off, we want this to be as organic as possible. We don't want money to be involved at all. We just want to see, we just want to do what we want to do and then see if there's an audience for it. And again, if you're a Patreon of Rev Left Radio, I'm hoping that some segment of you would be willing to follow me into a new project that is not focused on politics. Perhaps because you like and or hopefully I hope

respect me and you enjoy the banter that you've heard between me and David on previous episodes or you would at least be willing to check it out even though it's not a political show because for whatever reason you like or trust me and think it would be an interesting thing to do. And that's also another element of what we want to do is something a little less intellectually demanding, something a little more funny, a little more lighthearted than the regular stuff that we do. I'm aiming for long episodes. I mean, once me and Dave get to talk and they can be two, three, four hour episodes. And I think that would be awesome to give to people who are working shifts, doing chores. Maybe you don't want to 100% have a pen and pad and taking down

notes on obscure historical events. Maybe you just want something that you can listen to in the background tune in and out of as it may be not really missing anything laughing going deep into emotional reality and and touching on people's you know struggles and then coming back to to levity and laughter and doing kind of silly and random segments etc so i don't know it's something that i've wanted to try um i think me and me and my friend dave are going to be pretty good at doing it and hopefully there'll be people out there that want to follow us over there again we have not made this announcement public there is nothing for you to sign up to we have even made the RSS feed, but those episodes that we've done on Rev. Left's Patreon are going to be

part of the backlog, and that public episode we did on alcoholism is also going to be there. So we're going to upload those four or five episodes we've already done on Rev. Left as our back catalog, and we'll move forward from there. Again, sprinkling in some of these very vulnerable anonymous interviews, as well as some of the banter of those episodes, and just continually experiment, et cetera. So the new project is going to be called Shulis and Sous and South Dakota. And this is another sort of barrier to entry. You know, when I was coming up with Red Menace or Guerrilla History or Rev. Left Radio, you're thinking, I want to cast a white net. I want people who are searching for certain key words to stumble upon us, right? If you're

typing in a revolutionary left-wing politics or socialism, communism, left-wing, radio, you know, those will pump up revolutionary left radio. It's like, oh, yeah, this is this type of show that I'm looking for. This is going to be a little bit more like purposefully obscure. not very not promoting not trying to just reach out and get the biggest audience possible it's going to be sort of a niche podcast and that the title i think is going to contribute to that self-consciously choosing a title that one is obscure and you're not going to immediately be able to find it or even know what it's about and two that begins to build a little lore into the podcast we've talked about what shoeless in south dakota means it comes from a story of one of david's um you know sort of relapses one of his most more harrowing moments under the influence of hardcore alcoholism and you know

ended up in South Dakota without his shoes on wandering around we've talked about that at length and you know him and I both thought that would be a good title to the podcast because again it builds in the lore you have to know you have to be in the know to even know what the fucking title means

it's not something that is super self-promote or keyword oriented so people that find the show are going to just be like word of mouth or you know hear it from the rev left Patreon or whatever and um and yeah just sort of be a a show that is open for us to take in many different directions okay i'll end it there shoelessness out the code it's not quite up yet i'll make a public announcement when it is um we do have an instagram up again it's not going to be a bunch of social media we're not going to be on twitter anything like that um but

it's important to at least have some outlet especially if you don't have a patreon you have no way of getting feedback from listeners or getting ideas from listeners or being ideas from listeners or able to correspond or interact with your listeners. And so from the get-go, at least a small Instagram page will be the only way, only public-facing thing that we really have for people who are interested to give us some feedback, let us know what they think of the show, give us ideas for things that they would like us to try, et cetera. I do want some line to our listeners. But again, it's not going to be something that we promote. We're not going to be on Facebook or Twitter. It's just going to be the one mechanism we have right now to be able

to interface with whatever audience we may have or build up over the coming weeks and months. Okay. So just be on the lookout for that. I'll obviously when it comes out, post it on Patreon. It'll be very, very obvious to all of you who are on our Patreon that this new show has started and the links will be provided to go find the show for free, et cetera, on all your podcast apps. Stay tuned.

But let's talk a little politics right now. So what is in the news currently is the big debt ceiling bill. I wanted to say a couple things about that. One, the debt ceiling drama that we go through constantly in this country isn't anathema. No other country that I'm aware of has anything like this brinkmanship built into the functioning of government where every year, two years, there's a debt ceiling crisis where the government is going to shut down. If nothing gets resolved, then the U.S. will default. It will have dire implications for the entire global economy.

There's literally no reason to do it. No other countries do anything like this. So already it's an absolutely stupid fucking thing to have built into any political system whatsoever. So already it's superfluous. It's irrelevant. No other country does it. It's not necessary. So, okay, we're already pointing the gun at our own heads as a country with having this debt ceiling.

And of course, it becomes a point by which, the out-of-power party can engage in brinkmanship and try to get some of their shit pushed through. Now, Democrats will be like, you know, we believe in institutions. You know, they won't push as hard on these debt-sealing things. You know, they'll let the Republican, they'll come to an agreement very easily to lift the debt ceiling. There's a bunch of like black and red-pilled fucking psychos in the Republican Party that don't give a fuck that would like to see a default that collapse who will push, you know, their agenda as hard as they possibly fucking can. And so what ends up happening, even with Democrats in power,

is that Republicans use this as a choke point to get some of their bullshit through. And the things that are coming out of this initial debt-sealing agreement, I think it's still going through the process of being passed by the House of Representatives in the Senate. But Democrats are touting it as a victory. We bravely stopped a shutdown of government, which should never even be on the table in the first place. But the main things that jumped out to me is that the Republican, The Republicans insisted on a $40, I believe it's $40 billion increase to the military budget. Okay?

So that's what they wanted to get through. The biggest fucking empire on the planet spends 10 times more than any other country on its military budget. I mean, you know, they've spent the last two years bitching and crying about Ukraine and all the money going over there. But still, the first chance they get, they pile more money into the empire's coffers. And of course, the Democrats don't care about this. They support it too. The bipartisan consensus around the military industrial project is fully in place. And so, you know, it's no sweat off their back to throw a few billions of more dollars to the Pentagon and the Department of Defense.

So they're raising the military budget. They're making it harder for people to get food stamps. So work requirements with regards to food stamps. So, you know, we have 20% child poverty in this country, people struggling to find good-paying employment, fighting inflation, recession every few fucking years, economic downturns all the time. Food stamps are one of the tiny little floaters that the American ruling class throws out into the ocean of depravity that is American capitalism for those that are really struggling. And now there's more hoops for you to jump through, more indignified shit that you have to do just to get food for you and your family.

So awesome. So a bigger military budget, less food for hungry families. just a wonderful, wonderful program so far. And I still have a little bit to look into this, but student loan debt repayment is going to be pushed through. And I think if I understand this correctly and people can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe there is a proviso in there that says that the student debt can no longer be pushed back. So one of the things the Biden administration has done, Trump obviously suspended student loan payments during the pandemic crisis. One of the things that the Democrats have done is while they're fighting in courts and against the Supreme Court to get just a measly $10,000 to $20,000 taken off of people's bloated fucking student loan debts. They have been fighting that fight while they've been pushing back the line for when you have to start repaying your student loans. So that now is no longer a possibility.

They're going to reinstate student loan payments and they're going to make it impossible for them to move the thing back. beyond, I believe, September 1st of this year. And again, if you don't, if you forgot, a few months ago, they had a Supreme Court case about student loans. Is this 10,000 to 20,000 for Pell Grant recipient, student loan aid constitutionally acceptable, right? It goes to this fucking insane, unelected, undemocratic, authoritarian, right-wing fucking body known as the Supreme Court. And they have not released their decision yet, but based on the process that occurred.

it is very likely that they are going to try and overrule that 10 to 20,000 help. So you have the Supreme Court, we don't know for sure, but it's pretty likely that they're going to come down with a decision that says that you cannot give $10,000 to $20,000 of student debt relief to people burdened by insane student debt. And with this debt ceiling bill, they are going to say you also can't hold off. You can't push back the line of when people need to start paying this. And I also think there's something about interest rates. I don't exactly know.

I would have to look into it. And I should have done that, but I just remembered it right now. I should have done that beforehand, but I just remembered it right now. Something with regards to like, you know, because since the pandemic, interest rates have been frozen. So, you know, not only do you not have to pay your student loans, but also you're going to, you haven't been accruing interest on your principal since the, since the pandemic, right? It's supposed to be helping people economically to get back on their feet. during an uncertain time, et cetera. So that may come to an end,

and there's some talk about having to re-instate all that interest. I don't know if that's true. I have to look into it. If you're so inclined, definitely look into it and let me know in the comment section to this post, whether or not that I got that correct. But that would just be, again, salt in the wound for millions and millions and millions of Americans.

Again, by people, by often boomers, politicians, who got to go to school for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of fraction of the price that we do and who schooling meant more and who lived in an economy where buying a home, affording vehicles, having a good union job. These were all built in for most white middle class boomers of this period who are now in power as politicians telling us we don't deserve anything. We shouldn't even have got the help that we've gotten so far because of the COVID pandemic, that the interest rate, there's nothing wrong with the system and that we have to go back to paying it, which is just another blow to our financial futures.

We, of course, are the generation, the millennials I'm talking about that came into the labor market. I was 19 years old when the Great Recession happened, which put all of my entire generational cadre, you know, a decade or two behind the previous generations as far as the ability to accrue wealth to buy a home to build assets, right? So we already are coming into a terrible financial situation right out of the high school or college. and then you have things like, you know, the COVID pandemic which further destroyed things and destroyed wealth and pushed all of us back. And then we have around us this entire time, this burgeoning student loan crisis hanging around our necks ensuring that already we can't

get housing. Already it's hard to find a good paying job with any benefits. Already we don't have health care. Already we started our financial careers in an economic shitstorm. All of that and they're still going to say, but fuck you, pay back your bills for your student loans, which again now getting a bachelor's degree on the job market is more or less equivalent to getting a high school diploma just a decade or two ago. So the goalposts have shifted, which with regards to how much a bachelor's degree will actually get you in the economy in society, but the cost have exploded. So you get less than you've ever gotten for a bachelor's degree and it costs more than it's ever costs. But it doesn't affect the people in power. They got to pay for college with the

fucking pennies they found in their fucking couch. They got a new house handed to them. You know, like they got everything so easy. And then they not only shit on us, not only pull up the ladder behind them, they tell us that we're the most entitled generation to ever exist. It is bonkers. It is pathological. But that's America. This is the society we live in. This is how much they give a fuck about their regular working American citizens. This country is not run for us. The two parties are not run for us. There is no democratic representation. It is ruling class cliques jockeying for power at the very top. But no matter who wins, the basic fundamental economic interests of the top 10% of Americans are always tended to. Because those are the people

who are in power. Those are the interests of all the politicians from both sides. Those make up the donor classes of both parties. Those are the people that fund dark money packs to fund these campaigns of all these politicians who then owe them something when they get into office. So, you know, the concerns of regular working people do not fit in anywhere. And one thing they do in Fox News does as brilliantly is set other working class people against other working class people, right? So you already have this corrupt system. You already have the interest of the which only being served, and then you'll play into these culture war things where they'll tell like, you know, a trucker earning $40,000 a year that's, you know, helping students with student

loans is somehow a slap in his face, you know. So like a guy that, that, you know, works a different job. Maybe he's a plumber. Maybe he's, uh, works at a grocery store, whatever. Um, just any job that didn't require a college degree. Now they're, they're setting it up such that those people are getting poked and prodded and riled up to be against giving any help to anybody. And this is how the ruling class in America has been able to maintain its power for so long. It's this classic divide and conquer strategy, using gender, using race, using different factions of the working class to pit each other against each other, using culture war issues, to peel off elements of the working class such that their minds are drowned

in the insanity of culture war politics and are, prime to be against anything that helps people in general. You know, if it doesn't directly help me, I will fight like a dog to make sure you do not get any help because you guys are all liberal elites that went to college, got indoctrinated with Marxism, right? It all plugs. It's a plug-in-play scheme. And the ruling class fights for their class interests.

They know goddamn well what side of the bread there. They get buttered on. They know how to organize class resistance to any. anything that would impact their profits, their position in the social and economic and political hierarchies of American society. They do class war just fine. They do it actually, they excel at it because they can convince regular working people through smoke screens and culture war bullshit and anything else, racism and all this stuff, to fight against their own interests, to fight against members of their fellow class while the Democrats and Republican elites fight for their

economic class, which of course they present as really existential, you know, political differences, but in reality, when they get into power, what happens? The old line, the rich get richer, the poor get poor, and the bombs never stop falling. So

that's the fucking scheme. And the debt ceiling bill, it shouldn't exist. We shouldn't have these crises every few years. It's a shithole country. And then the way they resolve it is by giving Republicans more money to stuff into the coffers of the Pentagon. Less money for student loans. student loan recipients to get any help whatsoever and less help for people who just need

fucking food in the richest country to ever exist. Now that $40 billion every year that's going to go to the Pentagon, that could go a long way with trying to give some student debt relief. It could go a long way to making sure that we eliminate child poverty and food impoverishment in this country. The money we've given to Ukraine alone could have been used to dramatically reduce childhood poverty in this country. it's not in the interest of the ruling elites to do so.

It's not profitable to make sure your kids have healthy food, that you have safe and secure housing, that you have a really good job with a union, and that you have access to health care regardless of your income. Those things aren't profitable. It is profitable to go to war. Huge corporations make billions and billions of dollars endlessly creating new fucking ways to kill and torture and maim people

and to sell those weapons to other country. That makes a lot of money. So, yeah, throw more money into the fucking Pentagon budget. you know that's a profitable endeavor for the ruling class making sure that the average fucking citizen in this godforsaken shithole country has a decent fucking life and it does doesn't have the boot pressed against their fucking windpipe 24-7 it's not profitable so it's not going to happen it's not going to happen so there's that then of course we're getting into the election cycle the election doom loop i did an episode a couple weeks ago talking about

how we keep going through the same fucking bullshit, how Biden and Trump are now vomited up on us, not once but twice, how absolutely disgusting it is. And then, of course, we're starting to hear these same old arguments, which will continue to increase in the coming months about harm reduction.

And, you know, I have some people out there that believe in this, and, you know, they're good-hearted people who, you know, have left-wing politics, but, you know, do believe, that there is some difference, right? This is a Chomsky argument. If there's 5% difference between Democrats and Republicans, and Democrats are just 5% better, given the scope and power of U.S. politics, that results in an impact on millions of people's lives. So I don't want

a straw man or pigeonhole this argument. There are good people who believe in it for decent reasons. But my belief more and more is that regardless of the intentions of people who say stuff like, you know, harm reduction, we've got to vote for Biden. What it actually cashes out as is just vote blue no matter who right and one thing about because because of course harm reduction when these people talk like this they just always mean voting for democrats against republicans and then every four years they act like it's a brand new argument they're coming up with you got you got to reduce harm what are you so privileged that you don't care about reducing harm for for for marginalized people you have to fucking vote for the democrat because yeah they're terrible they're shitty they're corrupt

but they're not as bad as the republican so what actually ends up happening if you buy into this argument you just become a democratic voter Oh, I'm an anarchist. I'm a communist. I'm a socialist. I believe that capitalism should die, you know, whatever. But, you know, I do believe in harm. I'm not a fucking monster. I believe in harm reduction. So I'm going to vote blue no matter who. And then so what are you really doing? Now, I don't think voting matters one way or the other. And that's like the sort of underlying current to this entire discussion. Anybody that gets really worked up about voting or not voting, I think you've sort of lost the plot. As I always say, if everybody you know personally in your life, all of your friends, all of your personal acquaintances, all of your friends, all of your personal acquaintances, all of your

family never voted again, never voted for anything ever again, nothing would change. Not one electoral outcome would change. So when we know that individual votes literally don't matter, it's a raindrop in the ocean of bullshit, plus the electoral college and who do we got to choose from to begin with and all this bullshit, we know that it's really silly to waste a bunch of time arguing one way or the other, right? arguing like you fucking don't vote if you vote you're not a real socialist you not that's just as silly as you have to vote for harm reduction no matter how shitty the democratic candidate is you have

to vote from because they're always going to be better than the republican both those arguments are premised on this idea that voting really fucking matters that that the interest and the will of regular americans has any say in policy outcome etc but then we can also dig a little deeper because the harm reduction argument so saying what i already said setting that that aside for now. Let's just take the harm reduction argument at its face. I think it's a bad argument in part because the goalposts are always shifting, right? It's just like these two terrible, rich corporate proxies that are shoved down our throat every four years. Pick between these two. And it doesn't matter between these two because since there's always only two, it's just always

about picking the one that's less shitty. So that means the goalpost can always actually shift right words and the harm reduction argument can continue to play out. So you could have, I mean, this is obviously not going to happen, but you can have a Trump v. DeSantis general election, and you would have to, based on the logic of the harm reduction argument, vote for one or the other based on harm reduction. So which one out of Trump or DeSantis would be more harm reductive? Impossible to say, but that's the logic of the harm reduction argument. You get two choices. There has to be one that's less bad. Vote for the one that's less bad, right? Of course, corporate Democrats slide right in there. They're shit. They're corrupt. They don't do anything. They don't solve any problem.

but somehow we're supposed to think that they actually will reduce harm. It's not actually true. In fact, there's an argument to be made that, you know, getting a Trump in there, what does that do? It lights a fire under the ass of the left, makes us actually take to the streets, makes us actually confront fascist. What happens when Biden comes into office? Fucking 90% of the left just kind of goes back to their own life, gets on Twitter and

tweets their opinions all the time. There are some comrades still doing great organizing. They should never be forgotten. They continue to do the work through thick and thin. some people to a lesser degree are helping by doing political education I hope I fit into that as somebody that's even in the dark time still trying to promote the basic ideas and principles of principled socialism and Marxism

but you know so those people are great people are still doing the best they can but there is a sense in which a lot of people become disengaged when there's a Democrat in office and so what does that really do there's a there's like a calculus at play that shifts because when the left is more on the offensive good things happen. More people get into organizing. More people take to the streets. Radical ideas like socialism and Marxism and anarchism and all these left-wing revolutionary ideas, they gain more palpability. People see through the system. They're fed up with it. They're ready

to take a hard stance, right? And a lot of that does go away under a Democrat. So that's just food for thought. But you know, you could keep saying, Hitler versus Mussolini. Those are your two choices. You have to choose the one that reduces harm. So you've got to vote for Mussolini. I don't care if you're a communist. I don't care if you're a union leader, you know, and these guys are existential threats to you. Hitler would be worse. See, for harm reduction's sake, you got to go out and you got to vote for Mussolini, right? The goalposts are always shifting. The truth is, harm is actually never reduced. It's just moved around, right? It's just shifted a little bit. For example, Biden's foreign policy with this whole Ukraine and Russia's thing, dumping tens of billions

of dollars, and that's only the public transparent. transactions that we can see. You know, imagine the shit that goes on beyond the public eye that we can't even imagine. You know, his foreign policy, by all measures, is worse than Trump, right? Trump was not spending tens of billions of dollars to fund a proxy war against Russia and Europe, you know, all throughout his presidency. He did that fucking strike on Soleimani, the Iranian general, fucking disgusting. Anybody that pretends that Trump is an anti-imperialist figure are fucking clowns, assholes, and idiots. Of course, Trump is bullshit, but when you think of foreign policy, it's really, really hard to start making an argument that Biden's foreign policy has reduced harm around

the world. You can make a very good argument that has actually increased it. So again, who are the subjects of harm reduction? Upon who whose shoulders does harm get reduced when a Democrat is in office? When Obama is blowing up weddings and hospitals, the left is completely either rosy-eyed about how wonderful the leader he is or disengaged because the Democrat is in. People are dying all around the world, right? There's not as much pushback because people think

you know, Democrats are better than Republicans. I don't only have to pay that much attention and isn't Obama so charismatic and I love the way he talks, right? So how is harm really reduced? Now, again, you could say, well, Trump's going to come in and he's going to continue to divide the country. Well, guess what? The country's already divided.

He's going to continue to embolden, you know, the worst elements in society. they've always been in bold and this is America you know white fucking vicious reaction areas have been a mainstay in American politics no matter who's in charge so again it gets really dicey when you get into the minutia

and again when you don't just take their promises because if you listen to a Democratic general candidate give promises and you just take them at their word then you might say there's an argument they're going to tackle climate change they're going to give a student debt relief they're going to raise the minimum wage right these are all their promises So how could you? Yeah, they both suck, but you got to reduce harm by voting for them because they're going to do all these things. Then they get in office and don't do any of them. In fact, they actually do the opposite. They make it harder for those things. They contribute to the problem, solve zero problems. So it's not just their promises. It's like, what do they actually do when they're in office? What did Clinton actually do? What did Obama actually do? What does Biden actually do? Not their soaring rhetoric and their promises. What are their actual fucking policies? And once you get into that realm, the harm reduction argument,

becomes even more obscure. It becomes even harder to pin down exactly what harm is being reduced here. And so, you know, I just wanted to kind of put that out there because you're going to be hearing it a lot more. Of course, many people that have been listening since 2020, 2016, we know these things. But I'm just trying to prime people for the bullshit that's coming their way because it is going to come and you should be equipped with at least some arguments to push back on people who are confused on this topic. again because it does cash out to just vote blue no matter who harm reduction if taken seriously by the people that you know are advocates of it literally just means vote for the democrat every time and so the democratic party not that they're going to do anything to appeal to the left anyways

but they don't give a fuck if you're like abstractly against them you know if you're going to go in the booth and you're going to be a hardcore democratic voter every election they don't give a fuck what you abstractly believe they'll take your vote and shit down your throat You know, they don't give a fuck. You to them are just part of the base that turns out for them. You don't even have to really be appealed to because you're an automatic vote for us. You know? Well, who's not an automatic vote?

Those moderate, center-right suburbanites. So because these lefties are already going to vote for us out of harm reduction, we don't actually have to appeal to them whatsoever. Even under the best uncorrupted circumstances, we don't need to appeal to them. They're going to vote for us at a harm reduction, vote blue no matter who. It's these center-right people that we really got to go after. They will not vote for us unless we give them a reason to. So now we're going to shift our politics to appeal to center-right suburban homeowners,

which is moving politics to the right. Because the right will continue to move rightward. They'll keep staking out post further and further to the fascist right. And then the Democrats see no need to try to appeal to their left. They do need to appeal to the center-right, so they'll do that. So harm reduction actually even works against anybody believing they can push the Democratic Party to the left, right? Harm reduction, get them in office and then push them to the left. You're doing the exact opposite.

You're giving them every reason to tack to the right because your vote is taken for granted. And the only opposition you have to this party is abstract. It's just ideas in your head. But when push comes to shove, you're going to go pull that lever for whatever Democrat's going to run. They can count on you for that. You have already been accounted for by the Democratic Party. they can move on and find other constituencies that won't vote for them ought to fucking medically. So, okay, beware of that. The other thing I wanted to say is that these American politics

is reality TV, right? It is meant to be consumed as entertainment. It has nothing to do with democracy or the will of the people or genuine representation of constituencies. It is a charade that is already bought and paid for. The people that make it to the general election are bought, vetted, and paid for. They are not going to rock the boat. They will get a CIA bullet in their head if they're to the left of Bernie Sanders and somehow some way get past the gauntlet of anti-democratic pressures to rise to the level of presidency.

The first thing that will happen is both parties in the media will attack them. But if they actually have real mass support, support that begins taking the form of strikes, of mass actions, of not going to work, whatever it may be, you will get a bullet in the fucking head by the CIA. They will only let that go too far. Remember, Bernie Sanders was too far for the Democratic establishment. He was too far to the left. This little fucking weak motherfucker, this tepid social Democrat, a liberal in and out that would

just say he's a socialist and would kind of support some basic workers' rights, better than anybody we've ever had the chance to vote for. Don't get me wrong. But a liberal nonetheless and a backslapper and a Democratic Party guy as well and a personal friend of Joe Biden. That guy was too far left that the entire Democratic establishment had to come together to make sure he did not get in. And if he somehow managed to get past them, you would have both the Democrats and the Republicans attacking them constantly, plus the media apparatus is on both side attacking him constantly. And if that didn't work, that's when the CIA steps in. We know how this works. So, so in that sense, elections really are always rigged, right? Elections in American politics are always rigged in the

sense that only corporate proxies ever make it to the general election anyway. And independent candidates from third parties have no shot, but the faux populist movements inside the establishment parties that are given the veneer of really representing the people and taking the fight to the powerful these are also mechanisms by which the establishment itself can re-fortify itself and bring in that energy to the party itself the populist movement is not outside the republican party it's in the maga movement within it the populace movement on the left is not outside the democratic party it's the squad within it right and so you can get this idea that establishment and foe populist movements are completely absorbed. The aesthetics of populism

are presented. We're really fighting for the people. We have candidates that are going to come out and fight for the people. But they're all subservient to the party apparatus overall and the party apparatus itself can turn on these candidates at will and fucking destroy them. So in that sense, again, elections are always rigged. Money is always the deciding factor. Studies after study after study shows that the interest or the will of the average American voter has zero impact, not 1%, not 5%, 0% impact on actual policies that get pushed through. So taking all this together, it just makes the electorate, it's a spectacle. It's meant to be reality. It's why there's fucking two years long and all of us are going to watch all the debates and we're going to fucking enjoy the spectacle of American politics and we're going to pretend like it's like when American Idol has a contestant.

you know like fucking 20 years ago whatever the fuck and they tell you to vote you know like oh you're you're watching this reality tv show but you can decide who wins that's actually more democratic than the fucking political system of the united states of america because you know i think that that the american idol text vote has more of a chance of actually being one person one vote deciding the outcome than the american electoral fucking system um and so you know to say that this is a democracy to say that we should really care about these candidates being reflections of genuine interest among them. It's all bullshit. We are given the illusion of choice. And this is the best thing that an authoritarian capitalist regime can do, run and dominated by the ruling class. Yes, different cliques within the ruling class, but still the ruling class holds complete and total power. We are given the illusion of choice. We have political parties. They hate each other. They're always going at each other's throats. You know, you can choose. You can go. We believe in democracy. We hate those authoritarian regimes. they don't let people pick, right?

Russia and China, they're terrible authoritarian regimes. They don't really let people pick. We here in America, we let the people pick between this rich fucking asshole and this rich fucking asshole. And that's freedom and that's democracy. And you have a real choice. And we'll have debates too. So you can decide. So you're giving this illusion of choice.

And that is the best thing that an authoritarian system could do. Give you the illusion that you have a say. when you have just as much say in American politics as the average Russian has to the outcome of Russian politics, as the average Polish person has to the outcome of Polish politics, as the average Ukrainian has with the outcome of Ukrainian politics. Zero. Zero. There are no real democracies in big, powerful countries. Democracies exist on the island of Cuba. You know, they exist in these relatively peripheral. places where they can afford it, but big powers, big powerful states that are contending for geopolitical hegemony, I mean, you know, there's no real democratic mechanisms. But in some sense, you could even say that China and Russia are more democratic than the United States in the, in the sense that. I mean, China actually is actually much more complicated and probably much more democratic than any of these other states being mentioned in certain ways. But just on the,

on the sense of the popular support. So like, you know, surveys that show the amount of Chinese people that more or less, they might have their quibbles here and there, but support the Communist Party of China, support leadership, support where the country is headed, you know, those are routinely very high. In Russia, right, a right-wing gangster state like the United States, Putin has more popular support than Trump or Biden has ever received ever. So, of course, you know, there's state misinformation, just like here in the U.S. Ideology is transmitted through the major media outlets and TV shows, push, you know, the agendas of the ruling elite in their class.

All that is true. But even when, even in that system, there's more genuine popular support for the people that rise to the top in those countries than there are for either Democrat or Republican leaders in the United States. And that is just really fucking hilarious when you hear these dumb fucks get up on stage talking about the exoccurts. battle between democracies and authoritarian regimes. The truth is, the owning class would never and will never let the rest of us actually decide on anything that impacts them. And you are a mark if you think that they would. All right. Last point I want to say is the face of American decline.

And I've made this point in many different ways over the years, but it's worth saying again. what do we see with Biden, right? This old fucking fool, this absolute nincompoop. I'll never use that word in my life, but I'll say it today, nincom poop. Biden being unable to remain standing or finish a fucking sentence while being propped up by a corrupt political party really does make him the perfect representative of a declining America and the corrupt impotence of the detainting America. and the corrupt impotence of the detached ruling class to solve any of our problems or even pretend to, even try to, right?

So Biden is this senile, you know, individual who can't even walk across the stage or finish a sentence, and he is the Democrats go-to guy. We're not even going to have primary debates. We're not going to let anybody else. We're not going to let the Democratic base choose who they want to go against Trump. We're telling you this fucking corpse is our guy. So he's the perfect representation of the Democrats and of one half of American society. This fucking venal, corrupted, impotent, ruling elite that cynically uses stuff like identity politics to present itself as the good guys, you know, that do absolutely nothing for anybody.

And Trump, being a pathological ego monster who scams his own supporters and cares only for himself, makes him the perfect representative of the other side of American decline. Varacious greed, abysmal ignorance, a total lack of curiosity about the world or any sense of self-awareness, unadulterated, petty, hedonistic self-interest, and the worshipping of nothing but wealth, fame, and the self. And he's able to rise to the heights he has, all because he was born to a rich daddy, got life handed to him on a silver platter, and then ruthlessly exploited anyone and everyone that's ever stumbled into his purview. So together Biden and Trump representing the two faces of the American elite are the true ugly face of America. They really are not these fringe candidates that don't represent any Americans. They don't represent average Americans.

They're not supposed to. But they do represent the American elite perfectly. The two faces of the American elite. And there could be no better representation for the Democrat and the Republican Party than fucking Biden and Trump. and shoving them down our throats once again when huge majorities of Americans say no thank you anybody but these assholes

is the perfect encapsulation of the detachment of the ruling class elite to any concerns of the people any formalities of democracy any sense that this is anything but a system and a society run by and for those at the very, very top who gives a fuck what happens to the rest of the country

and so if you're somebody that actually picks one of these sides that actually dons the Make America Great Again hat or pops the blue pill and says vote blue no matter who you're a part of the problem you are getting handed two fucking turds on paper plates you're picking one up putting it on your head and dancing as an enthusiastic supporter of one of these candidates in the parties that back them you're a mark

you're part of the problem you are exactly what keeps this shit going and that's the only thing the only way that we're going to get changed is from a mass organized revolt from the bottom up period whatever that looks like

however that takes place as far off as it seems the only way that we're really going to get the sort of change that most Americans want and that will be good for the average fucking person living in this shithole country is never ever, ever going to be through these two parties and their candidates.

It will never be because these two parties function as the bulwark against the masses by the ruling class. They also have other bulwarks. They have the Senate. They have the Supreme Court. They have the electoral call. They have all these things. But the parties themselves are the final bulwark against any real movement from below.

They'll give you faux populism all day. The Republican Party will fart out faux populism all day long. to make you think that Trump is really going to take it to the system, right? But it never actually works out that way. And so that is the game that we're playing. And if you get sucked into this reality TV show and you think that you're actually making a difference and you're getting worked up. And then when Trump gets elected in 2024 and you're on the ground crying or or celebrating or Biden gets elected and you're like, God damn it, this country's gone to shit or celebrating, you're a part of the problem. We need to grow the fuck up as a society.

We need to grow the fuck up as a society and reject all of the shit. And when you go into like a comment section on any political issue, and I was on a comment section there today, like how terrible Portland is, right? There's a whole Instagram page about Portland is terrible. Look at all these homeless people and these fucking people doing drugs, et cetera. And then all the comments are like, we need Republicans to come into office.

You know, if only we can get these radical left Democrats out of office, Republicans could come in and solve this problem. Well, what's your Republican solution to homelessness in the country? fascism, go there with billy clubs and beat them bloody and throw them in prison. So the taxpayers are already going to be funding them anyway, but we're going to have the fascist response of cleaning up our streets through brutal violence. But, you know, of course you go to red states. What, like homelessness and poverty isn't an issue?

Go to Mississippi, go to Louisiana, go to Arkansas, go to Alabama. Poverty and homelessness aren't an issue? Well, of course, in California and on the West Coast, there's going to be more of it because of the huge population numbers, right? you're going to see i mean california is the most populous state in the union it is like by itself would be the fifth largest economy in the world it has what over 40 million people californians so and then of course on top of that you have the great weather so you have you know this in san francisco in l.A for many parts of the year in places like seattle and oregon very comfortable temperatures

plus these way bigger populations on the west coast in general compared to a lot of these other states that you'd compare them to and yeah you're going to see more homelessness but the thing that the republicans have the solution is insane neither party has any solutions the republicans don't even pretend to when was the last time you saw a republican politician get up and give you even something like a systematic plan to solve homelessness it's not even on the agenda they don't even pretend to want to solve the problems they scream all day about trans people about drag shows that is where the average Republican voter and politicians' mind is at. To think they're going to solve issues of inequality, of homelessness, of health care is absurd.

Just as absurd as thinking the Democrats are going to solve these fucking problems. It's not a blue-versed red thing. The whole country is shit. The whole country has huge poverty. The whole country has fucking massive inequality and homelessness and people living on the edge of fucking precarity and medical debt being the number one cause of bankruptcy in this country. The whole country is like it because it's a capitalism issue. And having a different representative from a different faction of the capitalist class

come on and say that we're going to solve these problems. And you believing it, that does make you a mark. You are part of the problem. You're buying in to the reality TV show thinking it's real. And what we have to try to do is convince people, this shit is not about picking a team. It is not about the good guys versus the bad guys, blue versus red. The whole system is rotten. No problems ever get solved, no matter who's in power.

That is the argument we need to be making, not trying to, you know, bully people into voting for one of the other parties thinking that's going to solve anything, that's going to reduce any harm, that's going to make anybody's life better. These parties need to be revealed as the fucking fake cutouts for the owning class that they are. These politicians need to be reviled and hated and disgusted from all parties, from both parties, all of them. them should they they deserve they don't deserve our votes they deserve our hatred and our disdain and the only way that we're going to get to a position where we can possibly change course and this godforsaken society is people stopping the bullshit stop believing that either one of these parties are the vehicle for progress or either one of these parties are going to take us back to a golden age that we've lost or either one of these parties are going to solve any of our

problems or give us any options for anybody that is anything like a good person with real values and principles. You do not get to the top of American society in the economy or in its political system without being a fucking piece of shit, a soulless cretan. If you are on the fucking debate stage to run for the president of the United States, right? That alone means you're a bad person. Truly believe that.

And so, you know, the ones that get out of the primaries and then the general election, That's just like synthesized concentrated shit. You know, it's like taking all the general primary shit and condensing it into one globule hand-packed tube of shit in a suit and a tie from both parties. One having a blue patch, one having a red patch. It's the same shit. So not looking forward to the electoral spectacle

that's going to be shoved down our throat in the coming years. But, you know, we have another podcast. coming out might be interesting might take your mind off the bullshit for a while honestly more in my life i've been searching for ways not to spend my free time breaking my brain on american politics but spending my free time doing things that are actually meaningful for me and the people i care about and getting my mind off of the insanity of fucking politics because sometimes you need that to stay sane and so hopefully we can we can help create another outlet for people who want to do something like that um so yeah be on the lookout for that but

Yeah, that's my Patreon episode for today. I kind of just came in here and wanted to get some things off my chest. Again, I really interested to see the specifics of this debt ceiling bill. Let me know if I got anything factually wrong about that, or if I missed anything that's actually worse than the bill that I didn't fucking catch. Please let me know in the comments. Love and solidarity to all of you. Thank you so much for being patrons of this show.

I'm going to keep doing my best to make really good content. And after this best of series through the month of June in the launch of our new show, I already have some really good episodes planned for the comeback. So be on the lookout for that. And in the meantime, if you haven't already, check out guerrilla history. We're constantly putting out really interesting stuff over on guerrilla history, really educational content. And of course, Red Menace.

We're still working through Engels' famous text on the origin of the family private property and the state. And we're thinking about moving in the direction of people have asked us to do a Trotsky book on Red Menace. So I think we're going to do his book on fascism next. And then after that, we're talking about tackling Max Weber's, the Protestant work ethic, and the spirit of capitalism. So that will be very fun. And it'll be very interesting to see the ways in which Max Weber's analysis of Protestantism and the rise of capitalism differs from a more orthodox,

Marxist understanding of how capitalism arose, the ways in which those analyses dovetail and the ways in which they diverge. That will be a fascinating read. I've never read that text. but Allison and I are both pretty interested in tackling it sometime this summer. So lots of stuff going on, be on the lookout, and I'll talk to you soon.