The Culture We Deserve

Cancel Culture Is Over, If We Want It

It's cancellation season again, although it's not really working the way it used to. Joey Swole, Sydney Sweeney, Anthony Fantano, a mother in New York who died in a mass shooting, have all been deemed by the collective as unacceptable. Is it the Trump effect that is preventing the cancellation from taking hold, or something else? Have we as a society progressed past the need for cancel culture? Ha hahaha ha haaaa hahaha.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

We're Talking About the Christian Nationalists Again

Following our earlier discussion of the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics, Jessa and Nico get into the spread of Evangelicals in power -- not only in the United States but also where missionaries have established bases overseas. Like every other truly terrible contribution the US has made, this is all about the Cold War.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Revolution and Ruin Book Club: Honore de Balzac's Lost Illusions

Welcome to the creative economy, which is built to strip mine from your body and soul any glimmer of talent, skill, or genius you might possess and exploit it. Our unlucky men, Lucien and David, a poet and an inventor, are looking to make their riches in pre-1848 France, only to find the world is not built to tolerate, let alone celebrate, people like them. They try their luck. It doesn't go well. But at least Balzac spends a lot of time telling us about what kinds of velvet they were wearing along the way. Joseph and Jessa discuss why Marx loved Balzac, why a fool makes a frustrating character, and why one shouldn't read about a failed poet while on book tour. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Video Killed the Journalist Star

We are all pivoting to video. Podcasters, journalists, editors are getting out their ring lights and their botox and they are staring intently into the camera to talk to YOU about what's going on. Is the human and tactile being offered as the antidote to the artificial AI slop? Or is this just surrendering to the influencer economy? Jessa and Nico make a solemn pledge, never to show the listeners what we wear or what our hair is doing while we are recording, and discuss the implications of a news media that wants to make stars and influencers out of reporters. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Taking Up Arms

With the expansion of ICE and the flood of untrained, unprepared, un-uniformed officers on the street, things are likely to get confusing and potentially violent. Nico and Jessa discuss the Trump admin's embrace of militia culture, why Colombia doesn't have militias, and what Jessa's weird obsession with Timothy McVeigh is all about. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com