From the guest list, the show looked like it was created to have a space where left commentators of various sorts would come on and hash out ideological differences as the US left is in the wilderness post-Bernie. It would be interesting, I thought, to have a show where an ultra like Sean KB from The Antifada could explain Marxist theory on a panel with social democrats and have some kind of discussion.
It turns out that its basically just a radlib version of The Five from Fox News, where they just take turns kicking the tires on the days news.
Does anyone actually want a show like this? It seems like its trying to fill a market that doesn't exist - or maybe existed a few years ago and doesn't today. When I look around, I don't think to myself, "You know who has some understanding of the political struggle we face in this moment? This DSA-backed state legislator from NYC."
Listening to it was deeply unsettling. I don't recommend it.
I liked the non secret episode, bust that's just because I liked the specific people they had on but the topic of discussion wasn't too great. I think virgil's wonkiness plus the insider type information around how political communications works from bri can be an interesting news show. Press secretaries broadly speaking do make good news hosts due to their connections and understandings around communication techniques.
Also these DSA backed NY legislators do have some interesting backgrounds so it's disappointing they didn't focus on their work in like housing policy rather than anything else.
My guess is that this will fill a similar space as those sorts of podcasts you see come from like the intercept rather than something more entertainment focused than chapo.
Well, exactly. Do we not have enough commentary from "progressives"? Is that missing from the podcast space?
I think BJG is further left than your giving her credit for. She's very talented at communications and I'm glad that she has a podcast with more edge than feel the bern. Virgil is a very good co-host for her.
The podcast space is already oversaturated though, I would've preferred them have a daily news show that would take viewership away from rising.
She's not a Marxist, which in my book is kind of the minimum to be called a leftist in any true sense.
The term leftist, per my understanding, purely means anti capitalist and has nothing to do with other tendencies. It's a term that exists to create a united term for all anti capitalist tendencies.
Marxism has often been the only successful anti capitalist ideology, but the formerly ML parties in Europe that now mostly operate as demsocs are still leftist.
Those former ML parties have devolved into liberalism too
You're not going to see social democrats put a multi year moratorium on rent increases for all properties in a major city like Die Linke did in Berlin. That's still an anti capitalist action even though it still operated within the constraints of the capitalist constitutional government.
This is just how left politics since the fall of the USSR has operated. The logic you're applying would label Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez as liberals because they worked within their existing institutions.
I don't know if Die Linke is explicitly Marxist, but it's basically made up of a mix of old former GDR communists and young radicals. And Chavez and Morales are nationalists first and foremost. Third-world nationalism is always difficult politics to decipher. It's not liberal in the western sense. But nationalism is a key component of liberalism. Eh, the point of the thread is about Virgil's new podcast so this convo is getting sidetracked anyway.
They're like DSA in that they both have a Marxist caucus but that isn't the whole org.