May 06, 2022

EP56: Don’t Look Left (ft. David Sirota)

42 minutes

Why does the democratic establishment always avoid turning left, even when it might mean a political win? Gordon asks David Sirota. Sirota is behind the smash-hit Netflix movie Don’t Look Up! He is also host and co-writer of an excellent podcast series called Meltdown, which documented how Obama’s lacklustre response to the financial crisis set the stage for Trump. We cover a range of topics: from the limits of technocracy, the political co-option of science and expertise, the critical reaction to Don’t Look Up, and whether or not Ideocracy (2006) has bad politics.

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Some things we talked about: From Sirota, we talked mostly his work on Don’t Look Up! and Meltdown. We also talked about the Lever, which Sirota runs (it was formerly called the Daily Poster). From there, check out his article on how Biden is Jokerfying America.

More good stuff: check out Champagne Shark’s episode with Sirota on Meltdown, Luke Savage’s coverage on Jacobin, the Useful Idiots’ episode on Don’t Look Up! at the Oscars, and especially Nathan J. Robinson’s essay on why critics of the movie totally missed the point.

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