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012 Michigan Protests, XenoPhobia & The Red Scare
Pop Tops: Seeing beyond Our anger over the Michigan protests to reopen the country
Callie takes the lead on this week’s Pop Tops section to talk about how we need to see beyond our rage at the Michigan protests where citizens are clamoring for the government to reopen the country – some of whom are doing dangerous shit like blocking hospital entrances and threatening health care workers with their cars.
Equating them to Trump voters, we dissect our complicated feelings around these actions while recognizing that some of these protestors are people who, just like all of us, are not being taken care of by the government and think the only way to care for their families is to reopen the country. How can we reach these people instead of lumping everyone together and vilifying them, “basket of deplorables” style?
Timenergy Information
theory pleeb’s Timenergy Theory Playlist (YouTube) – this is a formalized theory of “timenergy” as developed by the person behind theory pleeb’s channel over years of research. Check it out to get a deeper exploration of the concept!
Help The Show
Fundraising Efforts: Nichole is trying to raise money for transcription services to offer transcriptions on all episodes, if you want to help, you can donate on Patreon or PayPal <3
YouTube: We will start live streaming and publishing educational videos on our YouTube channel soon; we’re trying to get 1,000 subscribers so sign up if you’d like to follow us there!
Joke
What concert costs $0.45?
Bonus Joke:
Main Topic: Racism, Xenophobia and Red Scaring In How We Talk About Other Countries
Nichole then takes lead on the main topic to explore the way that we talk about other countries in our media and politics, and how this ties into Callie’s topic with Michigan protests screaming about “if you want communism, go to China!” The media in the U.S. usually criticizes and villainizes other countries by their name, as a whole, instead of specifically criticizing the leadership or government specifically as corrupt.
This is a clear way to continue the long, nasty tradition of “red scaring” in the U.S. where we have economic systems conflated with brutal dictatorships in other countries, and those countries themselves become emblems of tyranny and corruption (rather than being seen as victims of tyranny and corruption). This increases nationalism in the U.S. to fervent heights, facilitating brutal policies on immigration, sanctions on other countries, and an understanding that to question capitalism or the U.S. government will brand you a traitor and put you in direct conflict with the government and other patriotic citizens.
We use a vicious cycle of this rhetoric to increase racism and xenophobia in the U.S. while also linking socialism, communism, and anarchy to brutality, terrorism, and being a traitor to your country. We talk about how people say socialism and communism lead to tyranny and yet claim that capitalism is equivalent to democracy, if only we make a couple of tweaks to it, it’ll be the most perfect and free system ou...
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By Nic
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Pop Tops: Seeing beyond Our anger over the Michigan protests to reopen the country
Callie takes the lead on this week’s Pop Tops section to talk about how we need to see beyond our rage at the Michigan protests where citizens are clamoring for the government to reopen the country – some of whom are doing dangerous shit like blocking hospital entrances and threatening health care workers with their cars.
Equating them to Trump voters, we dissect our complicated feelings around these actions while recognizing that some of these protestors are people who, just like all of us, are not being taken care of by the government and think the only way to care for their families is to reopen the country. How can we reach these people instead of lumping everyone together and vilifying them, “basket of deplorables” style?
Timenergy Information
theory pleeb’s Timenergy Theory Playlist (YouTube) – this is a formalized theory of “timenergy” as developed by the person behind theory pleeb’s channel over years of research. Check it out to get a deeper exploration of the concept!
Help The Show
Fundraising Efforts: Nichole is trying to raise money for transcription services to offer transcriptions on all episodes, if you want to help, you can donate on Patreon or PayPal <3
YouTube: We will start live streaming and publishing educational videos on our YouTube channel soon; we’re trying to get 1,000 subscribers so sign up if you’d like to follow us there!
Joke
What concert costs $0.45?
Bonus Joke:
Main Topic: Racism, Xenophobia and Red Scaring In How We Talk About Other Countries
Nichole then takes lead on the main topic to explore the way that we talk about other countries in our media and politics, and how this ties into Callie’s topic with Michigan protests screaming about “if you want communism, go to China!” The media in the U.S. usually criticizes and villainizes other countries by their name, as a whole, instead of specifically criticizing the leadership or government specifically as corrupt.
This is a clear way to continue the long, nasty tradition of “red scaring” in the U.S. where we have economic systems conflated with brutal dictatorships in other countries, and those countries themselves become emblems of tyranny and corruption (rather than being seen as victims of tyranny and corruption). This increases nationalism in the U.S. to fervent heights, facilitating brutal policies on immigration, sanctions on other countries, and an understanding that to question capitalism or the U.S. government will brand you a traitor and put you in direct conflict with the government and other patriotic citizens.
We use a vicious cycle of this rhetoric to increase racism and xenophobia in the U.S. while also linking socialism, communism, and anarchy to brutality, terrorism, and being a traitor to your country. We talk about how people say socialism and communism lead to tyranny and yet claim that capitalism is equivalent to democracy, if only we make a couple of tweaks to it, it’ll be the most perfect and free system ou...