Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

ah, forgot that thread was there

wokeness of many centrist libs... is glib and insubstantial and focusing on economic issues helps all marginalized groups

otm

What do they care? They don't have any alternative ideas or guiding philosophy behind that criticism ... they just look for little things to attack and criticize. It's glib and insubstantial, too.

yeah exactly, it's so disingenuous and calculated. and no, CTH hosts are not bullies like Trump is a bully. making fun of Ben Shapiro's height or Mike Cernovich's lisp? well, that's fine with me...

What do they care? They don't have any alternative ideas or guiding philosophy behind that criticism ... they just look for little things to attack and criticize. It's glib and insubstantial, too.

― carpet_kaiser, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 10:10 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they care because this putative intersectional liberalism is the main content of many of these peoples politics, and the basis of their claim to be the legitimate representatives of the marginalized and "the left".

They don't have any alternative ideas or guiding philosophy behind that criticism

uh... i think "focusing on economic issues helps all marginalized groups" is an alternative and legitimate idea

xxp

I first knew Chapo from their gang clowning of Arthur Chu on Twitter, that lasted months. Arthur Chu seemed like a tool, but other than the delight in tormenting the guy, not sure what that has to do with their better alternative to the Democrats and libs.

And yeah, like they give a flying fuck about helping marginalized groups. What history do they have with that? Picking on vulnerable weirdos on Twitter?

Entertainers, fine. The whole Chapo/DSA thing is utter horseshit. Talk about poisoning the well.

Arthur Chu is a sociopath, he's not a "vulnerable weirdo." http://theralphretort.com/it-ends-tonight-arthur-chus-wife-dumps-him-has-marriage-dissolved-11014016/

Alright, he seems like a creep, but my point still stands. Blood tastes the same no matter who it's coming from.

Blood tastes the same no matter who it's coming from.

what

let's not rely too heavily on low rent gamergate websites

I haven't paid attention v closely but it's weird how Arthur Chu went from "adorable weirdo" on the Jeopardy thread to persona non grata on every other thread in the space of like 18 months

xp. chapo are entertainers. the podcast is not politics, it's not substantial, it's for you to have a laugh at if you're on the left and dislike centrists and the right. no-one itt is under any illusion about that.

i think their most substantive/worthwhile episodes are when they have a guest talking about important stuff in a knowledgable way, i.e. Tim Faust talking about healthcare. but those are little interludes in a sea of irreverent and, depending on your viewpoint, dumb ribbing on NYT columnists and the like.

let's not rely too heavily on low rent gamergate websites

― goole, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 1:23 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed, but all you need to read are his ex-wife's tweets, which are included in the piece.

lol yeah

arthur chu, as catalogued elsewhere on ilx, is prime candidate for somewhat reasonable person who decided to parlay a small amount of fame into a twitter/writing career and is now hopelessly tweeting his way into a hole in the ground while hitting every rock on the way down
twitter addiction justified by it being your "job" to tweet

Also: poisoning Wells is goodd. Fuck wells.

the lol was to goole's comment about that site's provenance

icking on vulnerable weirdos on Twitter?

First they came for the Ben Shapiros and I said nothing

Then they came for the Eichenwalds and I said nothing, and went back to looking at hentai.

Who exactly are their better alternatives? Them? That's convenient. What better vision do they have beyond "winning" "bigly"? They're entertainers who wear a mantle of being a movement, and are doing damage to the cause they're co-opting.

literally everything in that post is beyond dumb

Must be if you simply say so

Are you Caleb?

Yup, I am whatever bad thing you want me to be today

Who exactly are their better alternatives?

Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, Keith Ellison.

What better vision do they have beyond "winning" "bigly"?

Single payer universal healthcare and a reinvigorated labor movement.

They should add Matt's "this podcast doesn't count as 'doing politics'" line to the start of every episode as a disclaimer to maybe forestall some of the thinkpiece deluge

nothing leftists do counts as 'doing politics'

what?

carpet_kaiser reminds me of all the 'mainstream' Dems who respond to criticism of Clintons/Obama by asking for a detailed agenda for when I am president

They're clearly carpetbaggers who jumped on the tweeting, podcasting and being socialists $$$ train.

idg the line that chapo isn't politics. i mean yeah it's not organizing nor electioneering nor thinktanking (or maybe...) but it's not not politics.

yeah, it's communications.

i think their point is that sitting there listening doesn't count as doing something

someone should tell them they're like the cnn classic crossfire but without dissenting opinions :)

carpet_kaiser reminds me of all the 'mainstream' Dems who respond to criticism of Clintons/Obama by asking for a detailed agenda for when I am president

Yeah, this doesn't even come close to what I believe.

chu went from Good to Bad for tragic unselfawareness, repeated tryhard assertions about homosexuality, and zealous defense of hillary clinton. i'd seen the tweets from his poor ex wife before but i try not to over-interpret people's private lives. calling him a sociopath is a bit much; people throw that around too much imo.

Reminded how Jon Stewart also always felt compelled to jump back to "Hey look I'm just a comedian".

They should add Matt's "this podcast doesn't count as 'doing politics'" line to the start of every episode as a disclaimer to maybe forestall some of the thinkpiece deluge

This comes dangerously close to the late '00s Jon Stewart "I'm just a comedian," though - it needs to be clarified that podcasts and posting is not the end of politicking. Then they're no better than the libs who think resistance is buying from Starbucks because the CEO was going to be in Hillary's cabinet.

Which, to be fair, Matt at least has been heavily involved with his local DSA.

honestly the worst casualty of the left-liberal war has been amanda marcotte, who's become shockingly dishonest and disningenuous

imo Chu went bad from being extremely online to the extent it was his job, his hobby, and his only personal relationship (to the detriment of his marriage)

he had some amazingly bad takes, but if you looked at his twitter feed, he was coming up with a take on _every news item_ to the extent he tweets or retweets nearly constantly twenty hours per day. it's not the incredibly bad takes that are notable to me, it's the fact he churns out four or five takes per hour -- most are just mundane or irrelevant

marcotte is kind of the opposite, one incredibly hot take per column

xxxp yeah they're all involved with DSA organizing and marching

yeah mh i think that's right. twitter is bad for the ol' brain-o

that extremely lucrative career choice, professional socialist

I was much happier when I thought that Chapo Trap House was the name of some wacky new genre of music.

They're clearly carpetbaggers who jumped on the tweeting, podcasting and being socialists $$$ train.

― President Keyes, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 2:01 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Clearly. https://graphtreon.com/creator/chapotraphouse

jeet piece is v silly

you can’t really build a coalition of egalitarian politics by browbeating a key segment of that coalition.

the like 20 media idiots and failed technocrats being browbeaten on this comedy podcast are not a key segment of the democratic coalition nor do they have a record of delivering for anyone who is, and their continual hiding behind the skirts of the millions of nonwhites they allegedly represent yet could not actually inspire to vote for their candidate is getting pretty gross-- as is the notion, implicit in alt-center claims to represent whole classes the left does not, that only witebois want to go to the doctor, or to work

in style it is much closer to the vituperative, insulting, shock-jock tactics used not just by Twitter users with Pepe the Frog avatars, but Trump himself ... the Dirtbag Left has no use for civility, and instead wants to counter the alt-right’s mudslinging in kind. Their slogan could be, “When they go low, we go into the gutter.”

to any reasonable adults who may be slumming itt: next time you've decided to pass an afternoon pretending not to know what "neoliberal" means and you've already done the thing where your interlocutor described the history of the democratic party post-1972 but you were stricken briefly deaf, consider that a short definition might be "person who thinks calling ross douthat a dweeb is worse than fascism"

Wasn't the carpet kaiser a trumpist a few days back? Still wondering who it is. And no, it's not me.

Jeet Heer is right that the Democratic party, as a coalition party, is fundamentally different than GOP. You can say as much as you want that it's only 20 centrists that should be brought to heel, but it's not just 20 centrists that is going to wreck Bernie Sanders' chances once again in the south in 2020. And you can't win them over with dominance politics.