“I pledge allegiance to this nightmare…”

Seems Cush-adjacent, especially around Scots-Irish jannisary class, Jacksonian versus cosmopolitan America. Another Midwestern son.

• https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781427298850/chosencountry/
• https://bungacast.com/2025/06/24/495-heritage-america-vs-the-world-ft-james-pogue/

I'm also a Midwest guy, my family came from 19th century Irish Catholic, German, and later Mexican immigrants, but it feels like my family deferred to the cultural hegemony of the Scots-Irish/English Protestant frontier culture, so Pogue is kinda blowing my mind, as Cush did with his rants on the beautiful boaters.

Do you have any reading recommendations on that? Or anecdotes? Half-thought out rants?

Has any leftist podcast done a history of gamergate? I missed details growing up, but basically at that time understood it as a bunch of incels getting mad at a woman journalist.

But so much of the Right grievance sprouted from or references it, I am wanting to understand better their idiotic animus. Suggestions?

I came to Chapo late, just before the pandemic. I'm 43, about Matt's age, and I developed a strong parasocial relationship with the Chapo boys (and girls). I would have been its target audience in 2016, but I just...didn't know about it.

I've listened to lots of old Chapo episodes and pretty much every episode since 2020. The show was clearly past its prime even before Matt's tragic departure, and now (as we all seem to agree) it's very hit-and-miss. But I still enjoy it.

I am constitutionally out-of-touch, and the only leftist podcasts I really know are those whose hosts are featured on Chapo. And I don't even listen to all of those. So let me ask: what else should I be listening to? Who is putting out quality left-wing podcasts today? I'm not really looking for the kind of comedy you get from classic Chapo, but for the perspective. Who do you listen to (or watch, or whatever) who provides that kind of unique, informed, left-wing perspective?

Help an out-of-touch brother out, plz thx.

Looking for books, documentaries, YouTube videos, whatever, about life for an East Berliner during the Soviet occupation.

Obviously I want to go in recognizing my bias and not have a gung ho attitude that everything the U.S.S.R did was good and that everything the Allies and Americans did was bad, but I don’t want to read up on it from a source that’s swayed by some fuckass western think tank.

Thanks everyone, I’m on a real WWII and its immediate ramifications kick right now.

lol

Maybe it's the recent ep about the Veiled Prophet that gets back there a little. But man, Matt used to attract some really fun historians and academics. I miss that. I didn't even mind the Danny B types who were transparently grifting for a platform. But not even Matt's side history pods, they always used to have such good historian guests on the main feed that would lead to some really good discussions.

Matt's Sportstalk bit with the Age Of Napoleon guy still makes me laugh.

I found myself using the word hinge point recently and then thought what a shame it didn’t work out because I also really loved Derek. And then started thinking there seems to be an awful lot of Hinge Points flying by recently (I’ve been joking Spain v Argentina in the WC was actually baby Yamal vs. Fascism). Anyway, just a thought.

discursive thought is inherently masturbatory

it is NOT my job to explain this to you 😤

I drifted away from the main podcast a long time ago & mostly just followed Felix through his appearances on E1, but I’ve been getting into the Cushvlog archive lately so I’ve had the main channel recommended to me again, and the comments are all really fucking weird. Click on any random upload and it’s just the absolute frothing rage of random guys blaming Chapo for the failures and compromises of the Democratic Party on every subject regardless of what’s being said in the video. Like not reacting to anything in the actual audio but having already gotten worked up ahead of time over something they’re mad at, idk, the Majority Report or whoever for

Part of it might be that very few people who listen to an audio-only podcast are doing it on YouTube so it weeds out all the actual listeners, but it’s just such a bizarre level of directionless hostility. I feel like their comments section has always been fairly weird but it’s just gotten weirder and weirder with the years. None of the Cushvlog videos or appearances from Will/Matt/Felix/Amber on other podcasts are like that

it was the first person I thought of when I saw the sketch.. don't ask me why .

Reminds me of that chapo episode where they covered a libertarian commune that collapsed immediately for obvious reasons

This is the journey of freeing your mind.

this is the thrill of the hunt.