Just got done listening to one of their episodes. I’ve heard several before and had to quit because its just kind of garbage. More than just bad content that usually fails to engage with whatever it is talking about, but its actually pretty reactionary.
When I look back on how the sub for the podcast was so big and influential I just cringe.
A while back, r/genzedong had a thread praising Mao for giving sex workers – i.e., women who had been sexually enslaved by the imperialists – vocational training and jobs. The chapoheads lost their shit, because “duh ebil tankies” were being “sex-negative” or something. Apparently getting someone out of a literal rape situation and giving them a factory job and guaranteed income is repressing their sexuality. The mind of a Bernie Bro.
Nooo tankies if you de-commodify sex you’re sex-negative
Makes sense shitlibs could only perceive of sex as positive or valuable when it’s a commodity to be bought and sold.
I’ve seen shitlibs say that prostitution abolitionists are “*w-word for prostitutes*phobic” and “ableist”. Ableist because some disabled people can’t get sexual partners so they pay for them. Don’t think about the ableism of such statement too much btw.
I swear, we are about six months away from some shitlib calling billionaires a “persecuted minority”
A socdem politician from my country had a tweet along the lines of “I stand for all minorities including billionaires”
Deprogram is the way to go
They manage to be funny without it feeling forced and cheap, like it is with Chapo. Yugopnik and Hakim have really unique personalities. I seriously can never tell the difference between the Chapo hosts, unless they have Amber on, and she’s unbearable.
The amber you mention, she was published in Jacobin, or that circle of people/publications? If so, I know who you mean and couldn’t really deal with her either
Amber A’Lee Frost. I don’t know a ton about her, but whenever I’ve listened she’s talked over everyone constantly and hasn’t seemed to add much to the conversation. Not that there was much worthwhile with those guys anyways.
Seems quite good but I don’t really enjoy that type of podcasting, same with the Chapo tbh
Proud to say I’ve never listened to it, but their fanbase is insufferable.
So are the hosts. They all seem like shitty people. Virgil Texas is an actual groomer.
They are basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone with better politics.
Yep, its that annoying irony-poisoned / edgy politics where everything has to be memed to the point of being as offensive as possible. Case in point:
lmao that meme is perfect
90% of sub users probably didn’t even watched the podcast. Hell i did not watched even a single episode and i was often seeing posts of people surprised it’s even a thing.
If you’re looking for good socialist/communist podcasts, I can recommend:
- Citations Needed
- American Prestige
- The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
- The Deprogram
And these are just ones I personally listen to. There are too many good podcasts out there to waste your time on Chapo.
These are all good, and of course Carl Zha’s Silk and Steel.
Citations needed is one that manages to keep a really high and consistent level of work put into each episode. Most even “left” podcasts devolve into comrades just getting drunk and talking with each other after a few episodes.
Silk and Steel is in my queue, along with a few others. Citations Needed always has great guests as well.
Blowback is also one of my favorites, but that’s more like a series.
Carl Zha is a brilliant guy
To add on to this, I highly recommend Rev Left Radio and its sister pod for theory discussions, Red Menace. Blowback is another great one which takes a detailed look into US foreign policy. They have seasons on Iraq and Cuba, and are releasing one on Korea this summer.
Citations Needed is fantastic. Ill look into these others.
One suggestion I have is The Red Nation podcast
The Central Processing Unit. If you’re curious about how managed economies may function.
I’m fond of Dixieland of the Proletariat. They do a lot of interviews with people from different parties, activists, etc. One of their recurring guests is a woman who talks about indigenous rights and decolonization. It’s a lot less theory than other podcasts, more current events.
I liked Doug Henwood’s podcast in the past…even if he sometimes come across as a socdem. he has good guests on
People still listen to them?
Honestly idk but I assume to some extent people do listen to them. They get tens of thousands of views for their new stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I getcha.
shrug it was part of my political evolution.
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I listened to a couple of their episodes a few years ago, this was before I started to lean towards ML and even then I found it pretty cringy and way too Americentric
It was a worthwhile listen back in the Bernie campaign and making fun of all the corporate shitlibs. Snake and rat emojis. I’m asking you once again for your financial support. The Iowa caucus disaster that was decided by the shadiest looking coin flips and dark software, and still to this day has not been called by AP. Better times. Things were so simple.
But yeah, there was no reason to listen after Bernie lost. Time to grow up and get serious.I was actually going to post about this. I’ve never liked that podcast. I’ve tried several times and can’t get into it. I just get a bad vibe from everyone on there.
The sub was really not about the podcast in the end. I remember hearing that the podcast guys didn’t even like the sub cause it was so diverged from the podcast. It’s also why the chapo site became Hexbear.
I will say they did have a pretty funny D&D style RP game where they played as typical 70s white suburban homeowners and they have to investigate their new neighbor “Jeffstein” who was seen carrying into his house what looked like a small, child sized luggage bag, with what appeared to be a small arm sticking out.
Probably one of the few episodes I found actually entertaining.
Sometimes new people still show up on Hexbear to talk about chapo episodes and everyone who’s been there more than 5 minutes is like “wait, who?” Most of them seem to listen to the same pods people here have listed.
I tried listening to it years ago and I couldn’t handle it…was just…dumb(?) more than anything else. Nothing about it that was worth listening to
They are pretty bad. Feel like they do so many episodes on so many subjects sometimes they barely win by chance. Only listened to one on elon I sort of liked, nothing good since.
Try “Trillbilly Workers Party” or “Trashfuture”
