The general frustration of watching the "alternative" media in action is the same as that earlier and more intense frustration of watching cable TV or reading "The Atlantic" magazine. The frustration is compounded by the fact that the vast majority of what is called "communication" is not meant to express any political argument at all. Rather, vast arrays of mumblings occasionally punctuated by selective cherry-pickings of fact eventually congeal themselves into _talking points_ which function to reinforce connections with designer audiences. The equivalent of this militarized, commodified communication in the entertainment world is called "fan service."

But, occasionally, actual argument does breach the perimeter now and then, and so here we have Briahna Joy Gray's interview with Matt Karp:

Two hot points stand out:

Bri: "the existence of the Democratic Party is to create the perception of democracy and legitimacy to a system that is fundamentally bankrupt." Let me help Bri out here. The Democrats are there because the ruling class needs two parties to maintain the pretense of democracy. Otherwise the Party which opposed Obama in 2014 would suit them just fine.

(The consolidation of the present-day ruling class in the West was established in histories of Kees van der Pijl: oh, hell, just read his stuff but yeah especially The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class. But, yeah, they're ideologically consolidated now and so their fingerprints are on everything.)

Matt: "to find that issue today, it's not just general resistance to the status quo..." Dear Dr. Karp: you want a moral issue? How about genocide? Rule by billionaires has brought us a world that is offing populations here and there -- first Ukraine, then Gaza, afterward Lebanon and Syria, and, you know, since offing populations will not establish full spectrum dominance, more populations must be offed. Rule by billionaires will eventually destroy the US Dollar with the active assistance of the two parties and the greedhead spirit that will grind the world into nothing for the sake of making a few quarterly reports look good. And the world is already becoming nothing now, as we speak.

Eventually we will have to confront the politics of "don't talk about politics." Why don't we talk about politics? The fact of the matter is that "divisive issues" were invented to make political discussion toxic. But there are clearly ways of talking about politics that do not entertain divisive issues.

NB: Moon of Alabama has apparently discovered Wolfgang Streeck. This is good.