Chapo Trap House is a weekly, roughly social democratic comedy podcast which started in 2016 covering the Sanders campaign and presidential election. It has continued since then, lambasting obnoxiously dumb media pundits, opinion columnists, conducting interviews with interesting people, parodying pop culture, and pressing back against some of the worst trends in both Republican and Democratic politics.

The Subreddit began as a fan community, but quickly turned into a large tent non-sectarian watering hole for all stripes of anti-capitalist political tendencies. Various kinds of Anarchists, Communists, Social Democrats, and “radlibs.” There were many struggle sessions and arguments, lots of ribbing, dunking, and self-criticism, but generally if you were an anticapitalist, and not an absolute moron, you were welcome. It was a general discussion place for a wide variety of leftist podcasts, news, and media. There was even a running joke that “Citations Needed” was the official podcast of the sub, and that the Chapo Trap House podcast was actually named after the community.

It became one of the most active (per user count) communities on Reddit, despite being quarantined for edgy slaveowner and landlord memes, with daily discussion threads averaging 3000-5000 post per day. Its “extremely online” userbase became a constant scapegoat for brigading and abuse from liberals and conservatives throughout Reddit who didn’t like their assumptions being challenged. Since a large portion of the users holding the anticapitalist line anywhere on Reddit were members of r/ChapoTrapHouse, everyone tended to assume this criticism was a coordinated campaign to manipulate the discussion, and thus, a TOS violation.

As far as branding goes, I don’t think the community takes any issue with “appearing” to be extremists. They have a relatively coherent worldview, and underneath the surface of memes, there was a fair bit of historical and theoretical education taking place. People learning about historic struggles for liberation and emancipation, learning about theory and political economy, sharing that history, examining how it fits or conflicts with political theory. Aside from the edgy rhetoric, I’m not aware of any members of the community actually engaging in acts of extremism. The truth is, there was a spectre haunting Reddit, and for the most part, their imaginations about what was taking place within the CTH community got the best of them.