Give Them An Argument

Will Cooper, op-ed columnist and author of "How America Works ... And Why It Doesn't," joins Ben Burgis for a friendly debate on how much economic inequality is too much. In an article for Newsweek, Cooper argued that America is much too unequal but he also said that:

"And, importantly, there's nothing necessarily wrong with some people getting rich. A relatively large amount of inequality should even be encouraged. Hard work and ingenuity should be rewarded, as wealth first needs to be created before it can be redistributed. And business success stories motivate others to innovate and take risks that improve society at large. Innovation would plummet if entrepreneurs had severe caps on their income."

As a socialist, Ben has a different perspective! So, lots to talk about.

Before that, Ben and the crew look at the spiraling insanity coming out of Trump and Vance signal-boosting insane racist urban legends about Haitian refugees, and look back at the taste of the virulent anti-Haitian racism on the contemporary Right that Ben got two years ago when he debated Curtis Yarvin. Finally, Mean Djene Bajalan joins for the postgame for patrons. A good time all around.

Order Ben's "Four Essays on Palestine":

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Read Will's Newsweek piece:

https://www.newsweek.com/there-too-much-inequality-america-opinion-1900008

Get his book:

https://www.amazon.com/How-America-Works-Why-Doesnt/dp/1802472061?dplnkId=54bafbb6-a95d-4ab0-9465-bbfca4be83a7

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

Stormin' Norman Finkelstein joins us in the first half of the show to talk to Ben Burgis about the rise and fall of Robin DiAngelo. Then for the second half we switch to examining the other side of the aisle with a conversation with Matt McManus about his very funny review of Charlie Kirk's latest....let's just say "book," "Right-Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West." Last but not least, Matt's sticks around the postgame for patrons, where we may look into Matt Walsh's thoughts about movies.

Read Matt's Kirk review:

https://sublationmedia.com/beating-the-woke-by-friendly-deception/

Order Ben's "Four Essays on Palestine":

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Read Norm's Substack:

https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/

Follow Norm on Twitter: @normfinkelstein

Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattpolprof

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

Do Palestinians have the same rights as everyone else, or have they collectively forfeited these rights by being "criminals"? In an article for Merion West, libertarian economist Walter Block argued the latter:

https://merionwest.com/2024/06/07/yes-to-a-palestinian-state-just-not-inside-or-right-next-to-israel/

Ben Burgis responded:

https://merionwest.com/2024/06/10/in-reply-to-walter-block-relocation-should-be-off-the-table/

...and Walter responded to that:

https://merionwest.com/2024/07/06/why-i-stand-by-relocation-a-rejoinder-to-ben-burgis/

Now here's the debate.

Link for Andy's fundraiser so he can keep making art for this show!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-j-andrew-world-replace-his-ipad

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

The people's econ prof, Rob Larson, joins us to talk about his new book, "Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do With Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More." Before that, Ben and the crew talk about the highlights and the (sadly more numerous) lowlights of the DNC. In the postgame for patrons, they watch Tim Pool be very confused about labor unions.

Contribute to Andy's GoFundMe so he can continue making great art for this show, for his own show, the Substack, etc.:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-j-andrew-world-replace-his-ipad

Preorder Ben's pamphlet "Four Essays on Palestine" from Everyday Analysis:

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Order Rob's book:

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2215-mastering-the-universe

Follow Rob on Twitter: @IronicProfessor

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson joins us once again to talk about Peter Thiel's favorite "populist," J.D. Vance, the (sadly inaccurate) hysteria from Trump, Musk and the New York Post about Kamala Harris being to the left of Bernie and possibly even a revolutionary communist, and his "anti-socialist bingo" card. Before that, Ben and the crew take a moment to remember Michael Brooks, whose 41st birthday would have been last Tuesday. No postgame this week--sorry about that, it's Ben's neighbor on Podcast Street Jason's birthday today so Ben promised to wrap things up by 7 West Coast time--but we'll make the main show worthwhile.

Read Nathan at Current Affairs:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/author/nathan-j-robinson

Preorder Ben's pamphlet "Four Essays on Palestine" from Everyday Analysis:

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Follow Nathan on Twitter: @nathanjrobinson

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

Matt McManus and Daniel Tutt join Ben Burgis to talk about Marxist theoretician Georg Lukács's analysis of right-wing thought in his book, "The Destruction of Reason."

Preorder Ben's pamphlet "Four Essays on Palestine" from Everyday Analysis:

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Read Daniel's article on Lukács:

https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/02/the-question-of-worldview-and-class-struggle-in-philosophy-on-the-relevance-of-lukacss-worldview-marxism-and-the-destruction-of-reason/

Read Matt's article on Lukács:

https://jacobin.com/2023/09/georg-lukacs-irrationalism-right-wing-thought-philosophy

Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf

Follow Daniel on Twitter: @DanielTutt

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

This is Revolution host Jason Myles joined Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew to chat about his new essay "This is What You Want, This is What You Get," which uses the classic Eddie Murphy "We've got McDonalds at home" bit to talk about the election and the overall state of American politics at a moment when hope for anything substantially better than what we've got is rapidly leeching away.

Preorder Ben's pamphlet "Four Essays on Palestine" from Everyday Analysis:

https://everyday-analysis.sellfy.store/p/four-essays-on-palestine-by-ben-burgis-print-and-digital-edition/

Read Jason's essay on TiR's Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/crisis-papers-1-109535204

Follow Jason on Twitter: @J_Myles_TiR

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

Prof. Richard Wolff came back on the show after a too-long absence to talk about his (as you'll see, apparently quite dangerous) new book "Understanding Capitalism." We talked with him him in the first hour and then our friend RM Brown came by to chat about the election in the second hour and into the postgame for patrons. 

Follow Prof. Wolff on Twitter: @profwolff

Follow RM Brown on Twitter: @xrmbrownx2

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

In the first half hour of the show, the GTAA crew takes a look at the insanity at the RNC and Biden dropping out. Then director Kavitha Chekuru chats with Ben about her very good but extremely disturbing Al Jazeera documentary, "The Night Won't End: Biden's War on Gaza."

Watch the documentary here:

The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza

Follow Kavitha on Twitter: @KaviChek

Follow RM on Twitter: @xrmbrownx2

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com

[Note: This episode was recorded before the coconut dropped on Biden actually dropping out.]

We had something else planned but between the assassination attempt, the JD Vance pick, the RNC, and Biden continuing to do his best impression of an extra from Night of the Living Dead, it seems like the universe really wanted us to just talk about the election tonight. So fine. You win this one. Guest is the one and only Deep State Kuba.

Follow Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2

Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPolProf

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis

Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show

Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monday night to our undying love and gratitude for helping us keep this thing going:

patreon.com/benburgis

Read the weekly philosophy Substack:

benburgis.substack.com

Visit benburgis.com