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Ep 218: The Siren Song of Rallying Around a 'Common Enemy' to Promote Progressive Causes

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Release Date: 04/16/2025

News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature "Antisemitism" Scandal to Discipline Mamdani

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In this News Brief, we break down recent bad faith attacks on Zohran Mamdani, the ADL's DO YOU CONDEMN extortion racket, and the broader "antisemitism scandal" playbook to derail moderate social democratic policies and any meaningful criticism of Israel.

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News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza show art News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza

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In this News Brief, we are joined by Ashley Bohrer and Ben Teller of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago to discuss media indifference to the US and Israel-imposed starvation of Palestinians, how sectarianism is central to the ADL's strategy, and why six JVP activists have decided to hunger strike to draw more attention to the Israeli and US-made famine in Gaza.

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News Brief: Pundits Speed-Run 15 Months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Day show art News Brief: Pundits Speed-Run 15 Months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Day

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In this News Brief, we break down the insta-talking points to sell war with Iran––from Ticking Time Bomb '24' plots to cherry-picked, dubious anecdotes of Iranians supposedly begging for Israeli bombs. 

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News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran show art News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

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In this public News Brief, we detail how the NYT, Washington Post, and CNN reinforce every faulty premise of Israel's attack and how top Democrats in Congress and former Harris aides either ignore Trump and Israel's massive escalation or openly support it, showing once again the scope of debate in our politics and media ranges all the way from A to B. 

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Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — ‘Abundance’ Pablum as Counter to Left Populism show art Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — ‘Abundance’ Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

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“Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?,” wonders Samuel Moyn in the New York Times. “The Democrats Are Finally Landing on a New Buzzword. It’s Actually Compelling,” argues Slate staff writer Henry Grabar. “Do Democrats Need to Learn How to Build?,” asks Benjamin Wallace-Wells in The New Yorker.  For the past few months, news and editorial rooms have been abuzz with talk about a new, grand vision for the Democratic Party: abundance. Abundance, according to its media promoters—chiefly NYT’s Ezra Klein and The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson—is a political agenda that...

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Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves show art Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

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In Ep. 222, "The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves," we detail how our media allows the same party flacks who got the Dems into this mess, control over the narrative of how to get them out. With guest UC-Berkeley professor Jake Grumbach.

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Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism show art Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

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In this episode we detail demagogues' favorite faux populist schtick of taking scientific studies out of context and mocking them, often with help from mainstream media. with guest Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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News Brief: NPR Asks Starving Palestinian Living On Rubble to Denounce Hamas, Co-Sign His Own Ethnic Cleansing show art News Brief: NPR Asks Starving Palestinian Living On Rubble to Denounce Hamas, Co-Sign His Own Ethnic Cleansing

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In this News Brief, we we break down an object lesson in racist US-Israeli national security state toadyism, double standards, and runaway condescension.  

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News Brief: Baltimore Uprising 10 Years on: PR Co-option vs Genuine Reform show art News Brief: Baltimore Uprising 10 Years on: PR Co-option vs Genuine Reform

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In this News Brief we are joined by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis of The Real News Network to discuss their new documentary, "Freddie Gray: A Decade of Struggle" about the lessons, pitfalls and genuine reforms stemming from the 2015 Baltimore Uprisings. You can watch the documentary here: 

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Episode 220: The Power of Thought-Terminating Bad Guy Labels show art Episode 220: The Power of Thought-Terminating Bad Guy Labels

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"American Extremists Aiding Radicals Across Border," trumpeted the Detroit Free Press in 1919. "707 Illegal Aliens Arrested in Checkpoint Crackdown," reported the Los Angeles Times in 1987. "87 Bronx gang members responsible for nine years of murders and drug-dealing charged in largest takedown in NYC history," announced the New York Daily News in 2016. "'Top secret' Hamas documents show that terrorists intentionally targeted elementary schools and a youth center," claimed NBC News in 2023. Each of these headlines includes a label for a certain type of Bad Guy. Whether it’s the "Extremist,"...

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More Episodes

"Senate Weighs Investing $120 Billion in Science to Counter China," trumpeted The New York Times in 2021. "A New Economic Patriotism Can Help Unite Our Divided Congress," argued Newsweek in 2023. "US cedes ground to China with ‘self-inflicted wound’ of USAid shutdown, analysts say," cautioned The Guardian in 2025.

In recent years, we’ve been exposed to the latest version of a centuries-old geopolitical message: We all have a common enemy, and we all need to unite to fight it by making our own country stronger. That enemy—most commonly China—is threatening to outpace, if it isn’t already outpacing, the US in infrastructural investment, educational programs, technological development, and elsewhere, and we need to devote millions, billions, even trillions of dollars to restoring the vitality of our institutions in order to reverse this trend.

But why must defeating an "enemy" be the justification for policy that has the potential to benefit the public? Why should we just accept the premise that there must be an "enemy" to compete against and defeat? Why can’t policy be enacted for the sole purpose of improving people’s lives? And how does this messaging about the threat of a looming adversary serve the ruling class?

On this episode, we detail the timeworn trope of the common enemy as a "unifying" device, looking at how increasingly so-called progressives are appealing to feel-good sentiments of unity and to the genuine needs for sound infrastructure, robust social safety nets, corporate regulation, and functional institutions in order to sell the idea that there is, and always will be, a shadowy bad guy that must be vanquished. 

Our guest is historian, professor and author Greg Grandin.