Edit: I should say, she's actually pretty on board with the rich/corporations fucking up the world, but she blames black people, poor people, immigrants, young people, for their problems instead of seeing the larger implications.
Maybe a specific episode of Chapo, Citations Needed, documentary, etc, whatever, she's what I would call a very conservative lib
It’s just a one-off thing (kind of), but I’m very fond of Wallace Shawn’s essay Why I Call Myself a Socialist.
Re-reading it, it’s quite good: it is a pretty materialist analysis, and even pokes a bit of fun at liberalism (specifically the idea that “equality before the law” is meaningful).
An excerpt:
Around 400,000 babies are born on earth each day. Some are born irreparably damaged, casualties of the conditions in which their mothers lived -- malnutrition, polluted water, mysterious chemicals that sneak into the body and warp the genes. But the much more tragic and more horrible truth is that most of these babies are born healthy. There’s nothing wrong with them. Every one of them is ready to develop into a person whose intelligence, insight, aesthetic taste, and love of other people could help to make the world a better place. Every one of them is ready to become a person who wakes up happily in the morning because they know they’re going to spend the day doing work they find fascinating, work that they love. They’re born with all the genetic gifts they could possibly need. Wiggling beside their mothers, they have no idea what’s going to be done to them.
It’s a short read. He as another, much longer essay, The Fever, which makes me cry every time I hear it. You can find videos of him reading this essay, although it is a 2hr reading. But it’s also quite good.
I think she'd like citations needed, just have to find the right episode
I actually don't know where she stands on drugs, just thinks black people complain too much
I personally found "Citations Needed" very radicalizing, listening to multiple episodes over time really hammers home the corrupt nature of the system. Here are what I find some of the more palatable episodes about economic inequality and racial injustice:
Episode 39: From Cradle to Courtroom: How The Media Stacks the Deck Against “Defendants”
Episode 37: Black Lives Matter, Dreamers, and the Problem of 'The Perfect Victim'
Episode 27: How the Media Mainstreamed Racist Pseudoscience
Episode 23: The Media's Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn
Episode 21: Quantifying Negative Media Portrayals of People of Color
Episode 58: The Neoliberal Optimism Industry
Episode 63: Gambling and Neoliberal Rot - How Our Most Regressive Tax Flies Under the Radar
The Dollop is great because it's mostly comedy and if you pick the right episode order, the politics sneaks up on you. The only problem is the vulgarity and cursing if she's against that kind of thing. Behind the Bastards is also good if you start in the right place, but again the cursing. I wouldn't start out with Chapo just because the irony and style of humor and requisite internet-brain-ness. There's the Yes Men Fix the World documentaries. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Hypernormalisation. Some More News on youtube is probably pretty accessible too.
"Why socialism" by Einstein is a good place to start. Possibly some episodes of Richard huge dick Wolff to make her understand capitalism fucks all of us.
I'd suggest bringing her to acknowledge the fact a lot of super popular figures in the US were/are libwashed, like MLK for example.
Probably gonna gift this. Does it have enough anti-lib anti-democrat language in it? She hates Republicans but can't see how Obama or Clinton did anything wrong...
Maybe [this article(https://gowans.blog/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/) if she has any interest in economics?
Might be too economical for her. She's more concerned that minorities are messing up the country, but also hates trump and thinks the rich are the cause for a lot of problems. All over the place ideologically lol
Weird, it works for me.
https://gowans.blog/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/
citations needed episode 106 "the sanitization of sanctions" might be a good one? but idk i think every episode they do is good lol, but I don't know your mom. you could maybe check through all their episodes for a topic that could appeal to her?
Disagree. It's a good episode but has a lot of very fast discussion where they throw out names like Samantha Powers etc but assume you A. already know who that is and B. know exactly how her actions and world view fit into the narrative.
Also they kind of rush through the actual discussion of how specifically sanctions can cause such dramatic harm, often their examples come across as marginal cases but they could have done a better job getting an academic to explain it in detail.
(I used that episode as a first episode for my partner last week, so I was actively listening through that lens lol)
I might recommend their GDP fetishism episode instead?
lol that's fair I was just trying to suggest an episode that showed how shitty democrats and republicans are, and it's one of the more recent ones I listened to that wasn't a 'news brief'
Lies My Teacher Told Me [PDF] by James Loewen, author hasn't broken free of liberalism but very good for your purposes
I replied earlier but this is my super duper effort post(s):
BTB = Behind the Bastards TD = The Dollop
These will be in chronological order within each section. This isn't comprehensive as I haven't listened to every episode of every podcast, these are just the eps I have listened to. I also left some comedy stuff out because otherwise the list would be much longer and this list is to tell a story about America and capitalism.
General partisan shit (anti republican/conservative with a little anti-dem sprinkled in)
- BTB: The Astrologer who Manged the Reagan Presidency
- BTB: No Matter how much you hate Paul Manafort, you should hate him more
- BTB: Paul Manafort pt 2
- BTB: Charles Koch: The Luke Skywalker of Rich People
- BTB: Charles Koch pt 2
- BTB: Alex Jones: The Godfather of Fake News
- BTB: Alex Jones pt 2
- BTB: Alex Jones pt 3
- BTB: Erik Prince: The Rich Kid who Bought an Army
- BTB: Erick Prince 2
- BTB: Ronald and Nancy Reagan: The Bastards behind the AIDS Crisis
- BTB: Ronald and Nancy pt 2
- BTB: Why Ted Cruz Sucks: A Comprehensive Biography
- BTB: The Bastards of the 2018 Midterm Elections
- BTB: What's Alex Jones up to now?
- BTB: Paul Manafort Update
- BTB: Jacob Wohl and the Krassensteins: A tale of several grifters
- BTB: The whole sad story behind the "we build the wall" gofundme
- BTB: Roger Stone: Evil Genius or Sad, Broken boy?
- BTB: Roger Stone pt 2
- BTB: The Complete Insane story of Trump University
- BTB: Trump U pt 2
- BTB: The Mueller Report Episode
- BTB: Jacob Wohl is still the dumbest person in politics
- BTB: How Pat Buchanan, Secret Nazi, Paved the way for Donald Trump
- BTB: James O Keefe: The patron Saint of News Grifters
- BTB: Andy Ngo, the next generation of news grifters
- BTB: Qanon Grifter Bill Mitchell
\ - TD: 1 Cliven Bundy
- TD: 100 Jade Helm
- TD: 122 The Iraq War
- TD: 146 Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo
- TD: 173 The Know Noting Party
- TD: 224 Bundy 2: Oregon Takeover
- TD: 288 Ross Perot
- TD: 300A Donald Trump
- TD: 300B Donald Trump
- TD: 321 Erik Prince and Blackwater
- TD: 330 Feinstein and the Flag
- TD: 352 John "The Maverick" McCain
- TD: 358 George HW Bush
- TD: 384 Rep Matt Shea
- TD: 387 Lyndon LaRouche
- TD: 400A Ronald Reagan
- TD: 400B Ronald Reagan
- TD: 419 The Clarence Thomas Hearings
Holy shit thank you so much. This deserves more attention lol gonna save it
NP. At some point I want to expand this list more and maybe organize it a little better and add links. It took me over a year to get through all these eps. If anyone can listen to all this and still walk away with a healthy respect for capitalism and not think America is a land of cults/grifters/insanity, then IDK. They're beyond saving.
General Fascism Stuff
- BTB: The Silly Bastards of the modern Fasist Movement
- BTB: Does Punching a Nazi work?
- BTB: The Brith of American Fascism
- BTB: The Birth of American Fascism Pt 2
- BTB: The Bastard Manifesto
- BTB: The Eternal Facist (War on Everyone reading series)
- BTB: The War on Everyone pt2
- BTB: WoE pt 3
- BTB: WoE pt 4
- BTB: WoE pt 5
- BTB: WoE pt 6
- BTB: WoE pt 7
\ - TD: 39 LAPD- The Beginning
- TD: 40 LAPD 2
- TD: 41 LAPD 3
- TD: 42 LAPD 3
- TD: 94 The Business Plot
- TD: 233 American Summer Hitler Camps!
- TD: 399 The Third Wave
- TD: 437 Charles Lindbergh
General Racism Stuff
- BTB: King Leopold II: The First Modern Bastard
- BTB: King Leopold pt 2
- BTB: Oregon is a Bastard: The History of a White supremacist State
- BTB: Patriot Prayer: The street gang tearing portland apart
- BTB: Phrenology: The Bastard Science of Racism
- BTB: Phrenology pt 2
- BTB: The Birth of the Ku Klux Klan
- BTB: KKK pt 2
- BTB: George Lincoln Rockwell: The Most Racist American in History
- BTB: GLR pt 2
- BTB: GLR pt 3
- BTB: Mosley: The British Hitler who inspired the Christchurch Shooter
- BTB: Mosley pt 2
- BTB: The Complete, Insane History of American Border Militias
- BTB: Border Militias pt 2
- BTB: The Goat Testicle Implanting Doctor who Inveted Talk Radio
- BTB: The Goat Testical Doc pt 2
\ - TD: 19 Ferguson
- TD: 26 The Subway Vigilanted Bernhard Goetz
- TD: 35 Thanksgiving
- TD: 66 Tong Wars
- TD: 165 The Racism of Maryland Route 40
- TD: 166 The Racism of Record Keeping in Virginia
- TD: 189 The Wilmington Coup
- TD: 214 Black Panther Fred Hampton
- TD: 221 Oregon and the KKK
- TD: 228 Boston Busing 1974
- TD: 229 Boston Busing 1975
- TD: 266 Eugenics
- TD: 276 Harriet Tubman
- TD: 310 Levittown: The Whitest Suburb
- TD: 318 Fighting Irish vs The Klan
- TD: 368 Operation Wetback
- TD: 409 Leonard Peltier
- TD: 438 John Brown
- TD: 439 John Brown
- TD: 440 John Brown
General Capitalism is bad Stuff:
- BTB: The Most Evil Company in history
- BTB: Evil Company pt 2
- BTB: Mark Zuckerberg: The worst person of the 21st century
- BTB: Zuckerberg pt 2
- BTB: Zuckerberg pt 3
- BTB: Jeffrey Epstein: Pimp to the Powerful
- BTB: Jepstein pt 2
- BTB: Elizabeth Holmes: The CEO who treated your blood like a phone
- BTB: Elizabeth Holmes pt 2
- BTB: The Sackler Family: America's Deadliest Drug Dealers
- BTB: Sacklers pt 2
- BTB: How Youtube became a perpetual Nazi Machine
- BTB: Update on our old pall Jeffery Epstein
\ - TD: 68 Centralia Pennsylvania
- TD: 77 Christian Artist Thomas Kinkade
- TD: 81 The Lamb Funeral Home
- TD: 87 Action Park!
- TD: 99 The Radium Girls
- TD: 138 The History of American Firefighters
- TD: 151 The Oil Boomtowns of Texas
- TD: 155 John Pemberton's Drug Tonics
- TD: 168 America's first Crematorium
- TD: 188 The Domino's Pizza Story
- TD: 193 When the Cars Came
- TD: 207 The Animal Horror of Macquarie Island
- TD: 239 Enron
- TD: 249 Colorado Labor War
- TD: 260 The Welfare Queen
- TD: 261 Henry Ford's Henchman
- TD: 264 Selling the Chemical Reactor Block
- TD: 271 Uber
- TD: 275 Newsie Strike
- TD: 280 Opium in the US pt1
- TD: 281 Opium pt 2
- TD: 291 PT Barnum
- TD: 295 Swamp People of Carolina
- TD: 350 Wells Fargo
- TD: The Resnicks: Water Monsters
- TD: 390 Rob Rhinehart and Soylent
- TD: 404 Jan Pieterszoon Coen
- TD: 435 The Coors Family
General America is crazy stuff:
- BTB: Concentration camps are back, so let's talk about their history
- BTB: The Birth of the anti-vaccine movement
- BTB: Vaccines pt 2
- BTB: Vaccines pt 3
- BTB: The World is Burning: Your Guide to the current uprisings
- BTB: Qassem Soleimani and the Bastardful History of US/Iran relations
- BTB: The Worst Grifters of the Coronavirus pandemic
\ - TD: 2 Purity Balls
- TD: 7 American Vampire Panic
- TD: 8 The Dolphin
- TD: 9 The Pendragon of Marin
- TD: 10 The Jackson Cheese
- TD: 11 The Lobotomy Doctor
- TD: 13 Colonial Teeth
- TD: 14 Carry A Nation
- TD: 15 Ten Cent Beer Night
- TD: 16 The Two Daredevils
- TD: 20 David Hahn
- TD: 22 The Rajneeshees
- TD: 24 John Africa and Movement
- TD: 27 Oofty Goofty
- TD: 28 The Talk Board (Ouija Board)
- TD: 33 The Stomach Men
- TD: 46 The Cereal Men
- TD: 50 Ugly Laws
- TD: 56 Newport Sex Scandal
- TD: 60 The Comet Panic
- TD: 72 The Hanford Radiation Nightmare
- TD: 78 The Dark Secret of American Swimming Pools
- TD: 80 The Hollow Earth
- TD: 90 Child Birth In America
- TD: 101 The Death of George Washington
- TD: 104 The Hippo Bill
- TD: 121 The First NY Post Office
- TD: 128 Nim the Chimp
- TD: 133 The Toxic Woman of Riverside
- TD: 149 John Wayne Thompson's Armageddon
- TD: 159 Pedestrianism
- TD: 163 Syphilis in America
- TD: 167 The History of NY Sanitation
- TD: 214 Huey Long
- TD: 217 Edmund and the Holly Rollers
- TD: 220 Tylenol Man
- TD: 225 The Birth of Porn
- TD: 293 Gaston Means
- TD: 323 1908 NY to Paris Car race
- TD: 334 Andrew Jackson
- TD: 336 WOmen and Transportation
- TD: 361 The Truck Nuts War
- TD: 364 Proctor and Satan
- TD: 376 Mince Pie in America
- TD: 386 The war on Squirrels
- TD: 388 The Deaf President Now Protest
- TD: 412 Mother Jones
Obviously Some More News is well known and lib friendly. It's like the Daily Show or John Oliver's show but with more leftism. There's a few good eps on racism via telling others why they're wrong:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ciwjHVHYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyNVIUpGTWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGxfNl9C6CQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEy-xtIQJkA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzQrbio2Qw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx6MgBjR4K0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cZUcKPfN34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pei4boOUaBQ
Richard Wolff episode of chapo. https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-186-executive-producer-feat-richard-wolff-21818
You could get her into the Revolutions podcast. Duncan is pretty frustratingly lib so she'll feel right at home, but the podcast is somewhat popular in this community and I'm currently giving it a re-listen myself. She'll end up getting tidbits here and there about groups like the Diggers and multiple episodes about Marx.
