Initial disclaimer: I’m very much a progressive person.
Recently listening to podcasts like Heavyweight, Reply All, Invisibilia, Underunderstood etc, I noticed that while the episode - or podcast overall - is investigative journalism lite, something incidental but progressive might happen (using the correct pronouns for a trans person, for example.) I also recently rewatched the Some More News episode on why conservative comedy is so awful, which sparked my pondering.
So… while I’m not interested in veering to the right, this did get me wondering what content might be out there that I’ve not been exposed to at all. Are there (relatively) apolitical podcasts out there that mirror those lite journalism examples above?
Sounds like you believe right wingers are better at persuading people than left wingers 🤔
In my experience–and I’m definitely on the far left–they are.
Right wing people are often more than happy to sit down and explain–with charts and (bullshit) references why their beliefs are the only morally and ethically correct ones. People on the left tend to say things like, “I don’t have to do your emotional labor”, or “you need to educate yourself”, or reply with image macros of pigs shitting on their own balls. Yes, I know that these are broad generalizations, but this is how I’ve more often than not observed things. People on the right tend to be evangelical about their beliefs. People on the left tend to treat socially/fiscally conservative ideas as though they are contagions that need to be quarantined or removed.
This isn’t always the case; I’ve definitely seen circular firing squads in alt-right circles (see also: Moms For Liberty melting down over their leaders’ sex lives and sex harassment), but I’ve seen it far more often in leftist spaces, and far more purity tests with leftist groups.
Oh I am well aware, I just wanted to call out this bullshit behaviour because it’s frankly the major reason why the right keeps gaining support.
The left looks weak, disharmonious, and more preoccupied with adventist “after the revolution” bullshit than with actually explaining their ideas and more importantly their policy positions.
The average rightoid has very quick and snappy numbers and policies they can rattle off at a moment’s notice, with (often simplistic or even incorrect) explanations as to how and why they will work.
Meanwhile I have seen so much fucking economic illiteracy about UBI and the labor theory of value and their relationship to scarcity and actual economics on this site it makes me want to jump out of a window.
Right wingers are at least able to explain a leftist point of view. Their explanation will probably be unflattering, but it will be more or less accurate. I have not seen a single leftist (and this is why I decided to poke here) being able to do the same. When faced with an unaligned or questioning person their only recourses are shaming/cautioning (like in this case) or condemning as already an enemy anyway.
I am a liberal, so depending on how far left you are, I am either already a fascist, or I’m a fascist in potentia. Believe it or not, I am neither, and would much rather the left do its part in contrasting the rise of fascism rather than enabling it by being a terrible at opposing it, which includes winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the people, which y’all are doing really poorly at right now.