Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

I think the “larger political purpose” question was answered by the Daily Show 15 years ago.

haha fair point. and interesting parallel to draw.

fwiw they have said time and time again on the show itself that posting and listening to podcasts is not organizing and should not be confused as such

It's only a problem if such podcasts actively deter from engaging in political action and I highly doubt that's the case. Although I do agree that the esoteric nature of these interminable Twitter beefs is eye-rolling, which can be said of almost anything that involves social media.

so this is more like an exercise in ideology as a performative/sporting event?

I'm not saying this is a problem per se I'm just trying to understand the phenomenon, what people get out of it etc

like, you have your favorites and you get to root for your side in the world of social media etc

etc I say

Not that different from politics 'proper' tbh.

Performativity and ideology are inseparable from 'actual' political action. It's inextricable imho.

basically chapo is the most lucrative, most listened to left-wing (not counting liberals here) podcast in north america and lots of left-wing people on twitter are aghast about the hosts' antics from a "they should be cancelled" perspective. pretty much par for the course in this day and age.

that's true.

xp

basically chapo is the most lucrative, most listened to left-wing (not counting liberals here) podcast in north america and lots of left-wing people on twitter are aghast about the hosts' antics from a "they should be cancelled" perspective

so leftists listen to it but they also find it offensive? seems like there's more significant people to worry about cancelling, would be my default response.

ie people with actual power to impact policy

honestly I'm not trying to be judgmental I just find this whole phenomenon baffling

Not to mention Trump is possibly the most performative POTUS we've seen so far in our lifetimes. He comes from reality TV ffs.

basically chapo is the most lucrative, most listened to left-wing (not counting liberals here) podcast in north america and lots of left-wing people on twitter are aghast about the hosts' antics from a "they should be cancelled" perspective

so leftists listen to it but they also find it offensive? seems like there's more significant people to worry about cancelling, would be my default response.

― Οὖτις, Friday, July 5, 2019 11:20 AM (two minutes ago)

a lot of people don't listen to it, hate it, and get mad about things that the hosts' tweet, say in interviews etc.

I don't really get it either, cyclops. It's just that policy is a language that very few voters are willing to speak, and we have to make do with that.

The sense of ownership that comes with the new model of patronage may also be a factor: ppl read this interview and think “shit, I’m funding the coke habit of a reprehensible moron”. Obv that’s an inevitable result of being a consumer of entertainment in general but this mode feeling more personal and direct might make it smart a bit more. You can also literally cancel them in a way that might feel more meaningful, at least on your end

so leftists listen to it but they also find it offensive? seems like there's more significant people to worry about cancelling, would be my default response.

at this point all of the ire is directed at one person who is maybe on 1/5 of the episodes and mostly says dumb shit elsewhere

I wasn't referring to whatever this latest flare-up is (the specifics of which I don't really care about) but the phenomenon of Chapo as a source of interest/controversy in general, which is alluded to repeatedly throughout this thread

This is the chapo thread

I mean also it's been instrumental in showing there's a demo to support a whole ecosystem of independent left-wing content, so I think what happens w/ them reverberates a bit, especially since there's so little left-wing representation in the mainstream media

so this is more like an exercise in ideology as a performative/sporting event?

It's leftist news of the week comedy (or "comedy") - their bread and butter is doing readings from awful centrist and right-wing columnists/writers and riffing on them. It's not really an "exercise in ideology" so much as they appeal to a base that has a (very) broadly shared ideology.

idk what mainstream media is anymore, apart from Fox

If you do an art film comedy podcast, you're going to have in-jokes about Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr and Jodoworsky and shit because you and your audience get them innately. It's like that but with tankies and the New Left and the Banana Wars.

I don’t get it why do people care about something I don’t care about it’s so weird

Chapo Twitter controversy falls primarily into two camps - residual liberal outrage at Bernie Bros where people think they're all reactionary racist misogynist brocialists and 'rose emoji' outrage when Amber says something dumb that actually is racist/misogynistic/brocialist.

lol latebloomer, exactly!

^otm

Um, xpost

I don’t get it why do people care about something I don’t care about it’s so weird

― Conceptualize Wyverns (latebloomer), Friday, July 5, 2019 11:41 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am basically thinking this all the time.

We have a whole very bad thread for that

shakey also one of the absolute kings of posting about things he doesn't care about on ilx

Someone will post “stranger things” to it later xp

I legit don't care about Chapo trap house although initially when this thread started I was wondering if I should.

"Stranger Things" is a little different in that I cared enough to watch it and afterwards let people know that it is bad and stupid and they are bad and stupid for liking it.

my posts on the "Star Wars" thread are p much just trolling, I do not care enough to ever watch anything Star Wars-related ever again

Caring enough to post is not, like, a high level of caring tbf

it’s not specific to chapo but that level of politics discourse is kinda like sports actually

Thats how it looks to me

the CTH conceit is that it's people that are either in or adjacent to the media that covers politics. the hosts generally have their own political stances that they use alternatively as a framing device for humorous exploration or as occasional diagetic material when they delve into actual policy

part of the confusion is that so many people think that a knowledge of policy wonks, inside baseball views of what actually goes on when politicians aren't on the floor of the house, etc. is just as relevant as actual political stances and the drafting of law

it's an interesting sidebar, but a lot of what drew people into that is dumb shows like the west wing, etc.

the one thing that's worth commenting on, and I think CTH does ok with this, is the attitude that that material is as important as policy

What is “that level of politics discourse”?

90% of political discourse that is about whether Joe Biden's smile and ability to stand next to Obama for eight years makes him a viable candidate in 2019 is "that level" imo

at this point all of the ire is directed at one person who is maybe on 1/5 of the episodes and mostly says dumb shit elsewhere

Fair enough, but the title is also "the dirtbag left", and I thought that was an Amber thing?

basically chapo is the most lucrative, most listened to left-wing (not counting liberals here) podcast in north america

It's not incidental that it's big via Patreon, and it came to a lot of people's attention post the Trump election - there was a gap for "what are the leftist/ish kids into" and there they were.

And again this was partly presented as "the kids are into being okay with making offensive jokes", which intersected with a Jacobinian "identity politics (sliding into intersectionalism) is a distraction from class politics" - "We *clap* want *clap* more *clap* female *clap* prison wardens" and so forth.

(being who I am I file a lot of this under "noizeboard", though I don't know how fair that is?)

I'm not saying this is a problem per se I'm just trying to understand the phenomenon, what people get out of it etc

this is what I wonder about ilx politics threads

I’m an idpol sjw and hire more women guards remains a great tweet describing a real thing

which people have earnestly posted near-duplicates of

so many layers

If you go back and read the first New Yorker piece (where dirtbag left got broadcast), the "offensive jokes" bit wasn't Howard Stern - it was ignoring the We Must Be Serious And Respectful shibboleths of the mainstream media and political discourse ie joking about executing Bush Admin war criminals and Henry Kissinger.

or calling John Roberts a pisspig on Twitter for an example from today

podcasts in particular also engender a weird form of jealousy because everyone thinks their conversations with their friends are more interesting than they are