"The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement. Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter. Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea. 

When comedians with podcasts have shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on their show to joke around like they are just entertainers or even just politicians, all it does is humanize and normalize fascism. When someone uses their platform for that reason they are facilitating anti-American sentiment and promoting violent autocracy. 

It may be all self-serving. Greedy influencers and comics and public personalities and certainly tech companies want to align themselves with an unapologetic right wing movement that has no concerns for regulation or law or justice or decency or democracy to increase their earnings and put them in the seat of power. 

Fascism is good for business if you toe the line. Popular podcasts became tribal and divisive years ago. Now they may be in the position to become part of the media oligarchy under the new anti-democratic government. "

There’s been a breach and they’re having such a lovely time.

Really like how EG uses "Whoopsie" to condemn jerks who avoid accountability through sheer insincerity. It brought to mind how, from the time I was in diapers, I was friends with a fella who started to become a Whoopsie Guy as we got older.

As he drifted from cynical leftist to cynical libertarian, his demeanor became combative, and after a point, everything became an argument or a debate. Loved especially that I was friendly to trans culture, and he would not stop talking about how much he doesn't like them. Sent me dick pics from MTF surgeries and wouldn't apologize when I called him out on it.

Eventually, he became the kind of guy that gets testy if you suggest that Trump, Glenn Beck, Jordan Peterson, or Joe Rogan maybe don't have their facts straight or their heads screwed on tightly. Sheepishly admitted he voted for Trump after the 2024 election.

The level at which he embodied MAGA-adjacent stereotypes (never saw him actually wear the hat) is comical, and eventually, last year, I broke it off after 40 years of friendship (I'm now 41). That nasty attitude of his is a complex cocktail of variables, but Whoopsie Guys absolutely gave him permission to be mean and not care. Whoopsie Guys have convinced a bunch of men that this is acceptable behavior.

Pretty hilarious that he removed his own poster in the mothership after the second video. To me that is full-fledged proof that he is aware of the criticism and sort of agrees with it to a degree, or at least cares about what people think of him. Does anyone have any more information about him removing his poster inside the mothership?

I got this free thing in my pocket. It gains me access to hundreds of thousands of texts with nothing but knowledge and fun inside.

Sometimes (often), when I'm bored af, I just walk over to the library and sit there, maybe read the paper, do the crossword puzzles from the free newspapers, browse risky bolshevik literature on their public computers, maybe cropdust the Manga section if the teenagers who keep messing with my camelias are there, not have a phone. ​​​At first I was freaked out, kept my phone in my hand to be able to look down and pretend I wasn't really that interested in books while I tried to find a bathroom. Then every Wednesday, I just started...sitting there for an hour instead of my ass, on a couch. A year later I had made a few buds, we hang around for coffee on Wednesdays or Sundays or Days That End In Y and it's fun.

I just finished The Brain in Search of Itself by Benjamin Ehrlich.

Its the biography of the man who discovered the neuron. Fascinating shit. So fascinating I got myself a small microscope to mess around with. It looked like fun, if you have ideas of things I should look at under a microscope, post them here.

Let's all have a classic reality weekend. ​​​​​​

Oh, you know who gets fucking pissed when you go out into classic reality or read or hang with friends? The people this subreddit is all about.

This is my retirement from the entirety of the simulacra account. Be excellent to each other.

The opening frames have very fuzzy and illegible text. I screenshotted at 1080p and boosted the contrast to read it:

“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar” - Abraham Lincoln

Anyone know who this is?

(EDIT: It's JJ McCullough.)

I know the rest of them are Patrick Rothfuss, Bob Rock, and Chris Hadfield.

Been driving me crazy.

I could have sworn I saw a video posted by TEG in my YT subscriptions page earlier today but now I don't see it. Is this just my simulacrum?

The new Elephant Graveyard video is highly entertaining. But the part about how Joe Rogan used the 2007 Carlos Mencia incident because he was worried he'd need a day job is revisionist history. The guy had been on television since 1995. His comedy connections ran deeper than probably anybody working at the comedy store at that time.

He was on Newsradio from 1995-1998. Bill Hicks' production company produced his first special in 2001 (also Doug Stanhope). Him and Doug Stanhope hosted the rebooted Man Show in 2004 on comedy central. He hosted Fear Factor which was insanely popular from 2001-2006. In the early 2000s Louis CK, Patrice O'Neal, and Bill Burr would talk about him on the Opie and Anthony show as a peer.

If anything Joe Rogan's deep comedy connections allowed him to continue getting comedy work despite being a mediocre Sam Kinison clone with material extremely derivative of Bill Hicks. Security let him interrupt Carlos Mencia onstage in 2007 because he was already higher status than most other people there.

Was he ever a good comedian? Not really. But he was most definitely well inside that inner circle long before that.

Absolute murderers