Mechanical Freak

Greg & Brian see what is the latest outrage that has conservatives shitting their pants before diving into some statewide measures that are on the ballot this February.

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Make sure to check out Ending the Myth before history ends for good!

Munya and Brian get together to expand on some of the ideas covered in episodes 22, 23, & 24 as well as answer some listener questions. They talk Richard Nixon, foundational Marxist concepts, where healthcare went wrong, the antiwar movement, and why the Left disintegrated.

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Up Next: We have a special bonus episode for you where we will be discussing the movies M*A*S*H (1970) and Southern Comfort (1981) and the impact that the Vietnam War had on cinema.

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl

We talk a little football before asking if a car really needs a steering wheel to drive? Then we discuss the murder of Tyre Nichols at the hand of the police and go over the idiot reform ideas that are being proposed to soothe people conscious until the next murder… which has statistically already happened! Then we talk New York real estate and entertain the idea that maybe landlords lie sometimes.

Definitely read the article on rising rents in the NYC housing market here

Check out our interview with Jerry Lembcke on Ending the Myth

We welcome esteemed sociologist Jerry Lembcke to talk about how the memory of the Vietnam War was both recreated and used in the 1980s and 1990s to unify public sentiment against the liberatory movements of the 1960s. Lembcke reminds us that even in the creation of memory, there is a political struggle for the future that needs to be waged.

Jerry Lembcke is the author of many important books about Vietnam and memory, including:

The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam (2000)

Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal (2010)

Dissenting POWs: From Vietnam’s Hoa Lo Prison to America Today (2021)

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Up Next: We will be discussing the episodes 22-24. We’ll go a little deeper into what allowed capital to turn the tables on the American working class and tie some strings together from these episodes.

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl

Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/77857911

The guys discuss the process of deindustrialization and corresponding financialization of the economy that took place in the 1970s. Was it a market-determined fait accompli? Or a political choice?

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Up Next: We have an amazing interview with sociologist Jerry Lembcke about the politics around the memory of the Vietnam War

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl

The end of an era. This week we bid farewell to Kshama Sawant who will not run for reelection to the Seattle City Council. She’s the greatest to ever do it, but after a decade on the council, there may not be another Kshama walking through that door.

Read her own words in the Stranger.

Brian and Munya discuss the means by which the capitalist class in the United States was able to put the brakes on the Left in the 1960/70s. That’s right, it’s time to talk some COINTELPRO!

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Up Next: We continue our discussion of the 1970s with a discussion of neoliberalism: What is it? And how was it forced down our throats?

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl

The boys discuss the recent MAGA redux in Brazil before discussing the “surprising” decline in larceny theft and murders on Fury Road.

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Check out Ending the Myth every Sunday on Mechanical Freak!

Munya and Brian conclude their discussion of chapter 12 of Greg Grandin’s The End of the Myth by discussing the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr’s 1967 Riverside Speech, and MLK’s evolving legacy.

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Up Next: We take a detour from Grandin’s book to discuss the counter-revolution of the 1970s and try to answer: Why are things so awful now and why will they never get better?”

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl