Audio From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

Listen. Danielle Moodie and I came in hot today. We’ve both had it with not only the fascists but the enablers who made fascism possible in the first place. Today we talk about how many Americans are refusing to give up their comforting delusions and self-soothing lies and are, both consciously and unconsciously, ensuring that authoritarians will continue dismantling everything. I can’t tell you how badly I needed this conversation today.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State seriously needs your help. I have no corporate backing and independent media only survives with the financial support of readers. Please, if this resonates with you or helps you, consider becoming a paid subscriber

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Danielle Moodie is back and so is The Check-In. In this episode we discuss the embarrassment and shame of the fascist regime and get into the fairytales and stories that have held up capitalism, white supremacy, and that got us into this mess. Finally, a discussion of the difference between being active politically and questioning the powerful and finding comfort and catharsis in participating in a consumer cult where you just accept whatever scraps you’re fed.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State desperately needs your support. This is an independent venture with no corporate backing, it continues due to the support of paid subscribers. If this has resonated with you, or helped you, please become a paid subscriber today

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

When I read Jon Greenaway’s piece on the horrors of Jimmy Fallon in Common Dreams last week, I knew I needed to get him in front of a microphone and talk. Then, I worked my way through Greenaway’s excellent book Capitalism: A Horror Story: Gothic Marxism and the Dark Side of the Radical Imagination and I couldn’t wait to record this conversation.

Here Jon and I discuss, first, our thoughts on the disturbing experience of acts like Fallon, who are so thoroughly corporatized, and who play jester inside a studio as the world burns outside, as to radiate an energy that repels the soul. From there, we discuss the secret horrors of capitalism that have always been just below the surface and hidden from full view, but the feeling of how they are bursting from the seams now as class consciousness and precarity grow. We turn to popular pieces of horror that voice a lingering sense of dread and horror and how they are often reflections, intentionally or not, of the unconscious guilt and trauma we all carry as capitalism manipulates and exploits us. I can’t recommend this conversation enough.

Jon is over at TheLitCritGuy and the podcast is Horror Vanguard. Give Jon and his work a look. You won’t regret it.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State has no corporate sponsorship and it never will. This project is made possible with your support. If this work has meant something to you or resonated with you, please consider becoming a subscriber today

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Danielle was traveling, so no Check-In this week (no worries, we’ll be back next week), so I held the time space and did another one of these Dispatches Mailbag Live episodes. I usually keep these mailbags for subscribers, but I want to open them up a bit. In this episode, I discuss the idea that there are no “good billionaires” and that they’re perpetuating systems of exploitation and hurting democracy, the lack of an actual Left in the United States, I answer questions about organizing the workplace, how to talk to people who don’t actually know what’s going on, the prison complex as a political gulag, and so much more. Thanks for everyone who shows up and supports this project. If this has helped, please considering becoming a paid subscriber.

Dispatches From A Collapsing really, desperately needs your support. I have no corporate backing because corporations do not support actual critiques of capitalism and power. If this work matters to you, please become a paid subscriber

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Education is a lamp, Jai C. Porter🇨🇦, Laura A. Drury, Skutt Hope, CO, and many others for tuning into my live video with THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali! Join me for my next live video in the app.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone coming out today for another episode of The Check-In with me and my friend Danielle Moodie. Today we got in-depth about the feelings of rage emanating from living in a time of fascism and unvarnished white supremacy. I really needed this talk and it went everywhere, which, how could it not? Come out every Wednesday at 12pm eastern to watch live and if this resonates with you and there are people you know who need to hear it, please share.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State depends on your support and it needs that support now. If this work helps you, please become a paid subscriber today

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Thanks to everyone who came out live. I’m still experimenting with doing some of these Dispatches Mailbags live onstream when they’re usually for paid subscribers. Good questions today from you, the readers, spanning the gamut from the betrayals of the Neoliberals and members of the lanyard / political class, the real material motives and allegiances of the political parties and how the Democratic Party has found itself in an absolutely terrible and untenable position, the link between trauma suffered personally and through capitalism and the rise of fascism, and finally a brief conversation about guns and this dangerous environment. Appreciate the kindness and support. If you ever want one of your questions or topics to come up on one of these livestreams or mailbags, feel free to reply or send me an email. Once more, please send these things to people who might need them.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State desperately needs your support. If this work resonates with you or has helped you, please become a paid subscriber

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of The Check-In, Danielle Moodie and I go over the recent white supremacist actions of the wealth class and get in touch with the need to carry on the fight of our ancestors who fought and died for the rights that are being taken from us. We discuss the needed dismantling of the exploitative capitalist, fascist system, the lessons we can take from the past, the dangers of the white moderate mindset, and the growing sense of revolutionary energy that’s accompanying living in these times.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State needs your support. This project has no corporate backing, only subscribers who chip in to help keep it afloat. If this work matters to you, if it’s helped you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

Thanks for everyone who came out for this livestream version of the Dispatches Mailbag. I usually do this for subscribers, but wanted to try it out in this venue. In this livestream, I answer questions from you on the topics you want me to cover. I discuss the preparations I’m taking as the economic crisis starts to really hit, the end of Knowledge Fight and the toll of studying extremism and fascism, whether we’ll ever really learn the truth behind the lies the administration is telling us, including suspicions of conspiracies to stage assassination attempts, the Democratic Party’s disastrous platform heading into November and their corporate relationships, the state of my current book project, and more.

Appreciate everyone who asked questions and who tuned in. Hang in there.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State desperately needs your support. If this work has resonated with you, if it has helped you, please become a paid subscriber

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe

I was so happy to welcome Rev. Angela Denker of I'm Listening to Dispatches From A Collapsing State. Here, Denker, author of Disciples of White Jesus, and I discuss the recent turn towards Christian Nationalism by the Far Right, as well as the general heresy being used to destroy democracy, oppress women and minorities, and fuel the ongoing rise of fascism. I always enjoy our conversations and I think this one of those must-listens in the face of what has both been happening and the future threat that is beginning to coalesce. As we discuss, you don’t have to be interested in religion for this stuff to matter to you. It’s best to understand what we’re up against.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State desperately needs your support. If this work has resonated with you or helped you, please become a paid subscriber today

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jaredyatessexton.substack.com/subscribe