Literate Machine

Lanterns is a superhero TV show that's really about the US war in Iraq and US imperial policy

Get Your Copy of The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization! Order now at https://mdsh.io/gxywsbjxoy and use code LITERATE10 for a 10% discount. This episode is sponsored by Hungry Minds.

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Text: https://literatemachine.com/2026/10/23/lanterns-is-a-show-about-us-imperialism/

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/10/23/lanterns-is-a-show-about-us-imperialism/#bibliography

What if they were already giving us the tools we need to beat them?

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Video version: https://youtu.be/QaDtAOWgKdQ

Text version: https://literatemachine.com/2026/10/08/the-technofeudal-roadmap-to-socialism/

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/10/08/the-technofeudal-roadmap-to-socialism/#bibliography

I hit 50k subs! Here's some questions and answers!

Join my Discord server: https://discord.gg/sfHRjccnt9

Support this channel at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, bonus essays, and more for only $1/mo.

Bibliography: Video about the problems with DeleteMe and Incogni: https://youtu.be/iX3JT6q3AxA

Video about the problems with VPNs: https://youtu.be/mIwfNw5UaHA?si=oi065lcla5vGw_0Y

How Meta used a VPN to spy on people: https://twinsilos.substack.com/p/zuckerbergs-120m-spy-app-how-meta

How the advantage of centrism on "electability" has disappeared: https://www.ms.now/opinion/study-moderate-progressive-turn-out-abdul-el-sayed-mike-rogers

Megastudy about how undocumented immigrants don't increase crime rates: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02542-0

How immigrants increase economic activity: https://govfacts.org/immigration/the-economic-case-for-immigration-what-the-data-shows-about-americas-workforce/

Police don't solve crimes: https://theconversation.com/police-solve-just-2-of-all-major-crimes-143878

Prisons increase recidivism back making the transition back to society difficult: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.095931

Trump wants to skip FDA inspections for meat: https://newrepublic.com/post/214909/trump-beef-fda-inspections-america-sick

With the economy getting more technofeudal, work is getting more medieval. What if this could play into the hands of creating a more cooperative economy that's better for everyone and not just the rich?

Text version: https://literatemachine.com/2026/09/07/the-medievalization-of-work-and-the-cooperative-cure/

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/09/07/the-medievalization-of-work-and-the-cooperative-cure/#bibliography

Audio version on your favorite podcast app.

Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for early, ad-free videos, exclusive authors notes, and bonus material for only $1/mo.

Apologies for the sound quality: I normally don't do hand-held and the mic is usually farther from my mouth, so I forgot to turn the gain down before recording and as a result there's more distortion/clipping in the sound than I would like. I used a bunch of filters and even overdubbed some bits to mitigate the problem, but it's not perfect.

There's some evidence this was done on purpose

Text: https://literatemachine.com/2026/08/16/is-ground-news-a-right-wing-psy-op/

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/08/16/is-ground-news-a-right-wing-psy-op/#bibliography

Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for early, ad-free episodes, exclusive authors notes, and bonus material for only $1 a month

Discord: https://discord.gg/sfHRjccnt9

Ground News bills itself as a way to evaluate bias in the news, but the way it does so plays into the hands of those who have a reason to make you think all news bias falls into a simple left-right spectrum

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/07/29/ground-news-and-the-war-on-reality/#bibliography

Text version: https://literatemachine.com/2026/07/29/ground-news-and-the-war-on-reality/

Support this channel at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get early, ad-free episodes and more for only $1, including the bonus chapter to this episode about Walter Lippmann ("The Manufacture of the Manufacture of Consent"): https://www.patreon.com/ericrosenfield/posts/manufacture-of-164895857

Thanks to all my patrons!

Support some journalism coops: * 404 Media: https://www.404media.co/ * Defector: https://defector.com/ * Aftermath: https://aftermath.site/ * RANGE Media: https://www.rangemedia.co/ * Hell Gate: https://hellgatenyc.com/ * Flaming Hydra: https://flaminghydra.com/

Here's the 25k subscriber Q&A! Passion Project vs. Ambition, Democratic Socialism vs. Market Socialism, Predictions for 2028, 3 Crises that worry me, and the story of the channel.

Relevant links:

• How Can I Save You?

• Gravity's Rainbow Over Palestine

• Mooks

• Clip of Hasan Piker saying Fox News is making the DSA look good

Innovation and the stars will not be enough to give us infinite growth in a capitalist economy and all you have to do to know why is look at the evidence

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Support via one-time donation at: https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine

Text Version: https://literatemachine.com/2026/06/21/no-infinite-growth-is-not-possible/

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/MLhhlgB59mY

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/06/21/no-infinite-growth-is-not-possible/#bibliography

It seems like the entire economy is being sucked up into the realm of the ultra-rich. Let's explore why this looks like the beginning of the end.

Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, and other extras for only $1.

Text version: https://literatemachine.com/2026/05/26/anti-life-or-how-capitalism-will-die-with-math/

Video version: https://youtu.be/M-_W1qVE9Ks

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/05/26/anti-life-or-how-capitalism-will-die-with-math/#bibliography

Let me challenge your assumptions

Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield where you can get early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, exclusive content and more for only $1.

Full text: https://literatemachine.com/2026/04/30/mooks/

Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/04/30/mooks/#bibliography