Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

Amber A’Lee Frost came to New York City as a working class activist in a punk band, arriving just before the start of Occupy Wall Street—the first major event in decades for a socialist movement that was nearly extinct at the turn of the century. She's been at the vanguard of radical politics ever since, as a writer, veteran member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and cohost of the wildly popular Chapo Trap House podcast. She has reported on millennial activism everywhere from the sunny streets of Havana, to the Labour Party’s unexpected victory in the UK, to small towns in her home state of Indiana.

Dirtbag is a much-anticipated debut from one of the greatest emerging writers in modern socialism. This memoir is more than Frost’s story; it is also the story of the only movement that has a chance to reshape our world. Both are chock-full of momentary triumphs, stupid decisions, new international friendships and rivalries, struggle, joy, setbacks, and heartbreak. Both are related with magnetic prose, remarkable candor, and unflappable humor.

Throughout it all, Frost burned the candle at both ends. She kissed a man in the rain at a train stop after he sang her “The Internationale,” and gave herself hangovers that left her begging for death. But all of the late nights, heated debates, and joyous camaraderie was set against the unmistakable sense that somehow, socialism was winning.

no thanks

What band was Amber in?

i think she deep sixed all evidence of band

Pomplamoose

lol

Labour Party's unexpected victory in the UK

Lol wut

books i will never read

the ALAB episode about the racism baked into civil tort law is nuts

― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, March 17, 2021 9:08 AM (six days ago)

this was a great episode. at the beginning i remembered i read a bunch of articles about this tort damages problem in law school then they name-dropped my professor because she wrote the important one :)

ALAB, Revolutions and QAA are pretty much my only appointment listening at this point

if the Trillbillies were like 25% more focused I would enjoy them about 100% more

i barely listen to podcasts at all with no commute but i'm trying to walk more so i may resume

I was aiming to listen to almost no podcasts this year and just listen to music while driving and walking but I am failing miserably.

Good chat here on spiritual socialism, Reconstruction history, and more

https://dissidentpeasant.com/2021/03/why-cant-we-be-friends-w-matt-christman

I know Brace from SF and think he's kinf of cool, but man Trueanon pod and their fanbase are pretty insufferable.

The fanbase for pretty much every popular podcast is insufferable

spotting podcast merch in the wild always gives me a shudder

I love my UYD t but I know what you mean

where are you encountering a trueanon fanbase

twitter and reddit ofc... they have a q-anon pizzagate level loser way to connect every fucking person to cia and epstein and use lots of assumptions and guesses and bad research and brace and liz just fuckin encourage that bullshit

that's fair. it can be pretty darn fun to wildly speculate, irresponsible as it may be for them to do so

The fanbase for pretty much every popular podcast is insufferable

this is why I'm glad there is no longer an actual chapo subreddit or board

there is an off-site reddit i will not name for chapo which amplifies all the worst tendencies of the former subreddit, i looked at it exactly once

Oh I am familiar

Jeff in Georgia's a real sweetheart, glad he got Christman on.

I'm happy to listen to Brace go on about whatever up to a point but I had to peace out after the truther stuff.

there is an off-site reddit i will not name for chapo which amplifies all the worst tendencies of the former subreddit, i looked at it exactly once

― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, March 24, 2021 4:07 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Name it, I wanna lurk

ilxor.com

hexbear

Kind of surprised Katherine Krueger hasn't broken into the podcast game, I'd give a show from a few of the old Splinter people a shot (how's Hamilton Nolan's radio voice?)

I'm not the hugest fan of her writing but she has a great speaking voice

Kath and Will did a Vanderpump rewatch cast for a few episodes, not sure if Splinter or Discourse Blog have a show or not

Name it, I wanna lurk

― bruce spr!ngisH3r3 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, March 24, 2021 5:45 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

chapo.chat - it's horrible

new trueanon with felix about mandalay bay shooting. i can honestly see why people conspiracize about this event

In rapper Eminem's song titled "Darkness" on his January 2020 album Music to Be Murdered By, the song and the accompanying music video portrays Stephen Paddock's thought process before the shooting while also serving as a metaphor for Eminem's nervousness before a concert performance

You get, it turns out, rather more than just one shot

to the Labour Party’s unexpected victory in the UK

ehhhhh

Not losing as badly as expected being hailed as a great victory was one of the funnier Chapo eras.

pyrrhic moral victory

Chapo weren't the only one's calling labor's loss a victory.

I don't recall the mood on the pod being terribly exultant?

I remember them being extremely exultant.

Ebullient at best

Treating it as a moral victory and being encouraged by it in 2017 - fine.

Calling it an actual victory, in the year of our lord 2021 - absolute blithering fuckin shit for brains

it was a minor victory in its context but that context is never coming back

not sure these guys get why either of those things are true but that makes them no worse than large parts of the UK left

I don't recall the mood on the pod being terribly exultant?

sorry I thought we were talking about 2020 because they visited to campaign, and I was confuzzled

so virgil is absolutely never coming back

have they said anything?

when he wasn't on the anniversary show I was wondering

no which makes it extra weird. not showing up for that was the tell i think. awkward when the guests would mention him

do amber next

I tried listening to some podcast episodes from Virgil’s new gig, and idk, there are some moments but I kept rolling my eyes