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| I'll review political several podcasts/youtube shows because why not? by MM 12/16/2017, 11:47am PST | ||||
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| I only got into these last year when it was clear the mainstream news was boxing Bernie out and the only place you could see him interviewed was on the Young Turks. Since then I've been bouncing from show to show. Here are the shows I've watched rated in order worst to best.
Jimmy Dore show/Aggressive Progressives Jimmy Dore pissed me off during the election spinning fantastical rationalizations for wasting your vote on Stein that Buster friends IRL were citing to me in the lead up to the election. After the election I got into him for a couple months because he gave vent to my frustration at the 3rd way Dems and occasionally had great interview guests. But he was always dropping little turds that let you know he wasn't nearly as informed as he pretended to be, always was a hair-trigger away from shitting on Keith Ellison for the tiniest little thing (including things Jimmy COMPLETELY misinterpreted), then finally lost me when he started echoing conspiracy theories from alt-right land ranging from "Hillary has Parkinsons" to "Hillary had Seth Rich killed (using fox news as a source, you moron!) He's entertaining but I also think he's actively harmful to the left (there's a difference between saying MSNBC talks too much about Russiagate and saying that there's nothing to find there). Favorite clip: I hope Chapo Trap House will be able to bring this kind of mockery to the 3rd Way Dems without going off the rails. Humanist Report In retrospect I must have been SUPER pissed to have listened to this guy. His commentary is like diet Jimmy Dore and his lisp is incredibly distracting. I rate him above Jimmy Dore only because he isn't actively pushing right-wing conspiracy theories. Favorite clip: I don't really have a favorite clip of his, but he made some funny youtube thumbnails. I think he missed his calling as a political cartoonist. Secular Talk Stands out for having the ugliest set of any political talk show. He kind of teeters between pragmatic progressivism and Jimmy Dore land. I really liked him at first with his angry election postmortems, but pretty soon I got tired of the fact that EVERY SINGLE VIDEO ended with a shouting fit. I also didn't like the hypocrisy of complaining about PC outrage culture one minute, then complaining about the corrosive cultural impact of "atheist-shaming" the next. Favorite clip (in the older and much less ugly studio): David Pakman Getting into smarter territory here. Unlike the previous hosts, Pakman has never said anything that made me facepalm. Unfortunately I can only take him in small doses because his delivery is so incredibly boring. Then again he could be boring like a fox because he can get interviews with skittish people like Dave Rubin and give them enough rope to hang themselves. Favorite clip: I guess The Dave Rubin interview, I wish he'd clipped that up into smaller chunks. The Young Turks I got a serious love/hate relationship with this show. I like most of the older hosts like Cenk and Anna and Michael Shure, but with the exception of Nomiki Konst I DESPISE their "hip" younger hosts, especially Brett Erlich and Cenk's goddamn nephew. I really appreciate them bringing attention to stories ignored by the mainstream press like DAPL or a failed Project Veritas sting BEFORE the Washington Post made those cool, but I hate that they give equal time to Jimmy fucking Dore's wading pool-deep political analysis. Favorite clip: Thom Hartmann Super smart, super informative, but super pessimistic and his pessimism is infectious. The moment when I first realized Jimmy Dore was massively misinformed was when he said offhand that he heard Thom Hartmann was bashing Bernie supporters. NOBODY in independent media, not even TYT, has done more to advance Bernie Sanders and his message than Thom Hartmann. Unfortunately he's been so depressing lately that emotionally I just can't take his show except in small amounts and only if the clip's title looks promising. Favorite clip: The Majority Report/The Michael Brooks Show This has been my favorite show for the last several months. It's as informative as Thom Hartmann with some great guests, but they sprinkle in humor to take the edge off. They also have some really smart regular callers. Some people say Sam Seder's a dick, but when he gets into a debate with a Jimmy Dore or a Tim Black or The Rational National and exposes how hollow their understanding of politics really is, what other people see as dickishness I interpret as exasperation at people ostensibly on your side who are enabling Trumpism. It seemed weird that I never got into his show back on Air America, but a couple weeks ago he had Janeane Garofalo as a guest and her constantly talking over everyone just got on my nerves even though I was on her side of the argument. Like I said earlier, I think Michael Brooks is a great impressionist and it's interesting to hear commentary from an actual real-life marxist instead of a center-leftist who's just called that by the right. Favorite clip: |
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