both Vaush and people like the chapos are considered part of the 'dirtbag left', but I don't have nearly as many problems with CTH as I do vaush. What separates the two? my theories are that people like xanderhal and Vaush seem to take marginalized groups for granted and advocate for power structures in society, but the chapos have seen through the veil of neoliberalism.
I think "dirtbag left" simply means tactically going against the rules of civility that are usually expected from political content. It's more of a rhetorical style than an ideology, and can obviously also be used by people who are politically bad.
That being said, I don't think those twitch people are dirtbag left, they are just scumbags.
Yeah, I thought the Dirtbag Left was, in the strictest sense, Chapo-aligned podcasters and like, twitter users I guess
The Chapos think Iran should be nuclearly armed.
Whatever is problematic about them, they have an understanding of imperlism.
"dirtbag left" doesn't describe a coherent ideological stance. it's at best an affect, and one which hasn't described a single large posting faction since the 2020 primary. the chapo pod isn't really much like the subreddit (rip), which isn't much like vaush or idk fuckin hasan piker.
idk maybe it's just sending death threats to politicians on twitter, which we can all agree is good.
both Vaush and people like the chapos are considered part of the ‘dirtbag left’
They are? :thinky-felix:
Ah, Vice, the news outlet that brought us Gavin McInnes, Milo Yiannopoulos and articles about what to do when one of your testicles explodes.
I described the dirtbag left as "Chapo-aligned" podcasters in another comment, and isn't :amber: friends with them
Yes, the Cumtown, Red Scare and Chapo Trap House people all know each other irl and are all friends more or less.
Dirtbag left just means someone who isn't worried about being civil (and specifically not being civil with liberals). Vaush isn't even a leftist and they only thing he's not civil about is shitting on marginalized groups. I dunno where you people are getting this crap.
They are legitimately better than most media 'ventures' though. Like a Citations Needed for lonely dudes. Yes, they do 'platform' some worm-brained people like Adam Curtis (or non-politics people like that one director guy) but he already makes movies for the British government lmao it's only a win if they can attract more viewers with that kind of stuff.
you don't have to like the cushvlogs, but don't make up stuff
the trivially true observation that obsession with the spectacle of party politics traps you in a fantasy world. avoiding comforting stories about the left's capacity to move the needle or even exist as a unified movement currently. not barking at the tv just because you see another dog. it's not an argument that Doing Things is a fool's game, but that we should be willing to ask why the last 5 years of Doing Things primarily online has yielded so little.
Grill pill is about finding a counter to alienation by having a productive offline activity to pursue. A wholesome way to relax that allows you to reconnect with yourself and your own interests by focussing on something that's right in front of you, that you do for yourself or people you care about, and that yields an actual and immediate reward (instead of trapping you in a constant escapism loop like gaming or binge watching). For Matt, that's grilling. It's specifically not about the "i just want to grill" meme that describes "apolitical" centrists.
The point of the grill pill is to do non-alienated, non-alienating labor, and gaming normally isn't labor, whereas preparing food is.
Yeah none of them really "agitate" for anything which makes them lame. Their recent episode interviewing that person about police gangs was good. I think they're just good as a counter to the right-wing psycho-sphere (if anyone even finds them). But like you said, caring about podcasts is stupid. Except for Citations Needed.
At this point, "dirtbag left" refers to practically anybody who does not work for the mainstream media, makes no attempt to be civil and has vaguely left-wing opinions.
Yeah as mentioned here "dirtbag left" is a combination of leftist beliefs and using vulgarity to punch up at those at the top of the power structures. Civility is the language of liberals and the privileged while vulgarity is - and always has been - the language of the people. It has nothing to do with ideological content - the staff at Jacobin and the hosts of Chapo Trap House both have the same political views, but Jacobin has the aesthetic of the New York Times while CTH sounds like four guys in a beer hall.
Take how Jacobin and CTH engage with liberals like Mayor Pete. Jacobin would write a 2,000 word article detailing the flaws in Pete's healthcare plan. CTH would talk about how he's a sexless dog killer. Jacobin would criticize Bill Clinton by writing about the deleterious effects of welfare reform, while CTH would put up a graphic of him with Jeffrey Epstein and riff on his time on pedophile island. Both of these approaches are valid - they have different audiences - but the trademark of the dirtbag left is using vulgarity to punch up.
This is VERY DIFFERENT than people who use slurs or constantly punch at minorities or LGBT people or whatever. Vaush isn't "dirtbag left", he's an edgelord who uses ethnic slurs and says "god this leftism shit would be so much easier if trans people didn't exist ughhh." That's punching down, not up. Dirtbag leftism requires both vulgarity and punching up. If you're vulgar but don't punch up, you're just an asshole. If you punch up but aren't vulgar, then you're not dirtbag. Vaush isn't a dirtbag, he's an asshole. Liberals can't tell the difference between Vaush and CTH because what liberals care about is civility and decorum rather than ideological content.
There's a relevant Current Affairs piece, "The Necessity of Political Vulgarity" that explains this better than I can: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/05/the-necessity-of-political-vulgarity
