The Carousel Podcast

On episode 22 of The Carousel podcast, social media expert Nathan Baker (@NateyBakes) joins me to discuss the recent Balenciaga controversy, various World Cup virtue signaling, NHL trans fixation, Tampax, and his experiences representing Twitter advertisers.

Here’s the tweet that launched the Balenciaga controversy, pointing out various ways the company seems to be sexualizing children and hinting at pedophilia.

The mainstream media’s “response” story, calling the whole thing absurd, which is a bit strange given that Balenciaga has already apologized and removed the campaigns: https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/balenciaga-child-ad-conspiracy-theory

Various World Cup virtue signaling at team country anthems:

England kneels “because inclusion is important”: https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/why-england-players-kneeling-world-cup-2022-games/blt8b8180acc7d4638e

Germany covers its mouth:

Iran doesn’t sing album: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/22/fears-grow-iran-players-may-face-reprisals-for-not-singing-national-anthem-world-cup-2022-qatar

NHL trans tweet:

Controversial Tampax tweet:

Calvin Klein Creepy Banned Ad (Mistakenly referred to as Levi's on the cast):

YouTube link to show!

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On episode 21 of The Carousel podcast, I’m joined by Pavel Fuksa, an award-winning Prague-based art director and illustrator who’s worked at Saatchi, J Walter Thompson, and Y&R. He now runs his own design studio.

We cover the European advertising world and how it’s handling the woke takeover, particularly with regard to the World Cup which starts on Sunday.

Islamic theocracy Qatar remains infamous for just the kind of human rights abuses involving women, homosexuality, and slave labor that woke global brands/agencies supposedly stand against. Thus we see teams taking actions, like Denmark kit maker Hummel reducing its nationalist branding because “Denmark doesn’t want to be seen” in Qatar, or USMNT switching from American colors to the rainbow flag, which is, in my view, the perfect symbol of globalism’s triumph over nationalism.

However, the gay flag won’t actually appear on US jerseys. It will “merely be displayed at U.S. Soccer controlled areas, such as at night-before parties,” perhaps an even better symbol for the emptiness of World Cup virtue signaling. Not a single country or brand was willing to go beyond fidgeting with its logos or letter writing to boycotting the event, which could be just as much a globalist calculation (an opportunity to further indoctrinate the global South) as a capitalist one.

Pavel and I also discuss generally terrible woke campaigns like this one for Mercedes.

You get it, right, because the Mercedes is named after a woman…the founder’s daughter.

Pavel’s work on Instagram

Pavel on Twitter

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On episode 20 of The Carousel podcast, I’m joined by Dan Baltic, author of the new novel Nutcrankr, released just yesterday by Terror House Press. He’s also the host of the fantastic New Write podcast and a hell of a shitpoaster in his own right.

Dan and I have quite a bit of overlap, being both trained lawyers and lapsed progressive half-Jews raised secular, who found our way to dissidence after a few sad attempts at professional writing via appropriate channels.

Nutcrankr is satire. It tells the tale of Spencer Grunhauer, a pathetic frog whose reality never quite seems to match up with what’s going on in his mind. I’ll leave most of my review to the episode, besides to say that I found it to be a unique, titillating, and thoroughly readable cultural artifact. A mirror of today’s clown world—even when the biggest clown is the protagonist himself.

Nutcrankr on Amazon

Dan Baltic on Twitter

New Write Podcast

Terror House Press

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**NOTE: This podcast contains a recorded Twitter Space conducted outside in Southern California, and thus the sound quality is far from perfect.

On Episode 19 of The Carousel podcast, I’m joined by writer/director Propane 2001 to discuss an unauthorized brand video for Salomon we created together. It’s inspired by Julius Evola, the controversial vitalist philosopher whose work has recently resurged among young men seeking meaning and purpose in their lives.

Specifically, the video draws from Evola’s Meditations on the Peaks, a series of essays about finding heroism and transcendence in mountain climbing published between 1930-1942. In his script and direction for the video, Propane 2001 built on Evola’s thinking to answer the question of what sort of peaks provide heroic potential today.

I write much more about it in a separate Substack post here:

And here is the video!

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On episode 18 of The Carousel podcast, I’m joined by The Prudentialist, a highly-respected YouTuber and Substacker known for his meticulous-research and his calm, professional presence in the dissident sphere.

For the centrists and rationalists among you, The Prudentialist provides an accessible entry point for serious alternative discussion of the ideas and issues of the day. The already-initiated may view him as a based warrior shoring up the flanks with solid, consistent work and total knowledge not just of the scene, but of its source materials.

Topics include:

* Tactics for sounding professional

* Institutional capture and the misery porn propaganda of institutions.

* The meaning of “manipulating procedural outcomes to get desired results.”

* DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard move and Saul Alinksy.

* The factors that differentiate this hegemony different from any before it:

* Women

* Abundance

* Connectivity

* Globalization

* Lack of war

* Modern man finding happiness only in the avoidance of death.

* The impotence of political entry-ism.

Prudent Perceptions on Substack

The Prudentialist YouTube

The Prudentialist on Odysee

The Carousel is a reader-supported publication.

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On Episode 17 of The Carousel pod, I’m joined by most-interesting-woman-in-advertising Åsk Dabitch Wäppling to chat about ad-world contrarianism.

Åsk is founder and publisher of Adland, current CTO of Brown and Red studio, and former art director at Saatchi, BBDO, and Publicis. She presents a fearless independent perspective on our occupied industry and other issues. She is for example an outspoken TERF, although the label doesn’t necessarily fit.

Topics include:

* Stalkers and Faraday cage purses.

* Being banned from awards juries for speaking out against chemically castrating children and womanhood erasure.

* Her own terrifying experiences with Lupron.

* The right’s terrible design prowess, Mike Ma as a glimmer of hope.

* Being a woman on Twitter.

* Rare good current campaigns like this Dole/St Luke “Malnutrition Labels: Nutritional Ink” and Postmates/Mother LA “When all you can food is think about…”

Links for Åsk:

Adland: https://adland.tv/

Newsletter: https://dabitch.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dabitch

VIDEO FOR THIS EPISODE:

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Recurring guest Astral joins me for a joint episode (Episode 16) of The Carousel podcast. Recently-Twitter-banned Astral wonders how and why Twitter advertising impressions relate to Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform. Also covered:

* Why Musk balked on the Twitter deal—all just a negotiating tactic?

* How selling social media impressions to advertisers—the backbone of the entire internet—is a fake enterprise.

* Why Twitter is so much worse at monetizing ads than Facebook and Google.

* Is Musk the Red Caesar that will conquer America?

* Whether Cambridge Analytica actually helped Trump win.

* Caesarism, Rome, and the power of the president.

Follow Astral on Telegram.

Astral’s Substack.

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On episode 15 of The Carousel, I talk with Federalist writer, Arkansas resident, and fellow marketing guy Rich Cromwell. Topics include:

* Bourdain’s last days and Cromwell’s incisive take on Asia Argento.

* Walmart going woke.

* Voting for Obama.

* Outing yourself as a conservative.

* Raising girls in a world with trans propaganda.

* Food as propaganda.

* Women in the workplace.

* Utilitarianism.

* Desantis.

Rich on Twitter.

Rich at the Federalist.

Rich’s podcast Coffee and Cochon.

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On episode 14 of The Carousel Podcast, the creators When We Were Wizards podcast tell the story of the founding of Dungeons and Dragons. Why is it so fascinating?

Because for millennia, there were only six types of tabletop games: dice, miniatures, boards, tiles, cards, pen-and-paper. In 1972, a group of oddballs sitting around a table in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin gave birth to a seventh type: the role playing game. Not only did it change gaming—and later video gaming—forever, but its fantasy-fandom ecosystem defines global popular culture today. It’s almost impossible to understate D&D’s impact on the world.

Yet somehow, the story of how Dungeons and Dragons came to be—and how it blew up the lives of the nerds who created it—has never been properly told in the mainstream. That’s what screenwriter/director Adam Turner and games historian Paul Stormer seek to remedy with their addictive new podcast When We Were Wizards.

The story begins with a down-on-his-luck shoe cobbler (yes really) named Gary Gygax. His charisma and dedication cultivated a center of gravity for the tiny community of experimental board gamers in the 1960s. Two decades later, he’d be living in the “Playboy Mansion for Nerds” in Beverly Hills amid an all-out war for the ownership of D&D…

When We Were Wizards on Apple Podcasts

When We Were Wizards on Spotify

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Matt Forney. A name you’ve probably heard before. A dabbler in thought crime since 2012, Forney has been canceled many times including by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a mark of certain distinction.

Today, he’s largely disavowed his past and re-dedicated his life to more serious literary pursuits. He runs Terror House Press, a top publisher of dissident writing. He publishes sordid poetry about his adventures; a chapbook Sex Pest is forthcoming.

Many talk of escaping the American disaster, but Forney is one of very few who’s actually done it. Supporting himself through copywriting—hence The Carousel connection—he’s lived in Hungary, Georgia, the Philippines, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, and now Mexico.

This episode covers his adventures as a remote freelance copywriter in these places in great detail. Topics include:

* Getting trapped in Albania during lockdown and only being able to leave his apartment one hour a week, with only eight hours of running water a day.

* The difference between Georgia and Armenia—why young people publicly cross themselves in both places.

* North Macedonia: nation as truck stop.

* Why Serbian women only like guys who play sports.

* The hybrid tattoo parlor/restaurants of Budapest.

* Mexico City sucking; Guadalajara the true cultural hub of Mexico.

* His origination as a dissident thinker. His immersion alongside today’s big names like Curtis Yarvin, BAP, Delicious Tacos in early sites like 2 Blowhards, Roosh, Heartiste.

* Pax Dickinson and the beginnings of cancel culture.

* His first books Do the Philippines and Confessions of an Online Hustler.

Forney’s Twitter

Terror House Press Twitter

Terror House Press Website

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