Season 7 premiere of the official pod of hexbear.net
This was a good episode that mostly focused on American healthcare, but it also gives a good primer on the false scarcity of many aspects of life under neoliberalism that is then used to launder the dichotomy of bad choices we’re presented in the media
This seems like a good one and a much needed conversation besides.
...I realize that I've never listened to this pod before.
Should I start from the beginning? Ugh, I like completing pods from start to end but I guess I'll make an exception...
They’ve got a big back catalogue so I’d recommend just looking through and seeing what sounds interesting. They’re focused on how media is used to launder neoliberal and fascist ideas; some of my favorites are the always stumbling U.S. empire (14), whataboutism (66) and the two-parter on thought-terminating enemy epithets (137 & 138). These ones are obviously more about foreign policy, but they dig into a ton of topics.
It’s a really good podcast though, and I’ve had decent luck recommending it to libs and baby leftists as the host have a sort of NPR aesthetic so people aren’t immediately turned off the way they would be with more explicitly communist material. They also have transcripts for all(?) of their episodes, they get good guests, and their material is really well sourced.
One warning, I often find myself getting angry while listening. It’s not quite at the level of blowback which makes me completely unironically wish death to America, but it’s close.
I’ve had decent luck recommending it to libs and baby leftists ...
That was me circa 2020 when I started listening. I can definitely say it helped me examine my worldview and therefore partially responsible for my continued leftward shift in ideology... It does have a tendency to make ya wanna walk into the sea, doesn't it? Worth it though.
Those favs are also some of my favs. Definitely the ones I also recommend though I've never seen them written out like this.
I know there's a lot of ironyposting about this pod and Adam is overly fond of referencing his substack IMO but I genuinely like it. I always knew the corporate media was full of shit but their critiques really helped me understand the methods and materials behind the bullshit.
Same, I’m a bit of a broken record with always recommending the pod, but it really helped me learn to ask questions about why policies and historical/current events are presented the way they are in liberal media
In addition to the other recommended episodes, I like the one on Common Sense (101) and the “porch pirate panic” (97).
The whole false scarcity thing is the thing that drives me into Lovecraftian madness. The sheer amount of normalization of the phrase "access to care" drives me up the wall. Or how we have replaced "healthcare" to "insurance" as the goal is just so damn wrong. I'm very lucky/blessed/fortunate to never really have any real need for physical healthcare or mental healthcare, however always deeply troubled by the ceaseless parade of nightmarish stories of people trying to get care. From people who are uninsured to folks who supposedly had "good" insurance, everyone seems to have a terrible time accessing their "access to" their care. I
Capitalists have convinced the liberals of the world that something very much not real is very much real. For the record, you are not crazy for not buying into the "Catastrophe or Ruination" dichotomy they false create. You are in fact cool and normal for proposing a third mystery option of "What if we didn't have to pick between those two?"
Neoliberalism/Late Stage Capitalism/Hellworld is all about buy into this idea of false scarcity when there is in fact abundance were there the political will. The current Media machinery and apparatus does so much of the heavy lifting for these MEGACORPS too.
WOOOO NEW CITATIONS NEEDED DROP