TRASHFUTURE *PREVIEW* No Child WEF'd Behind feat. Dan Boeckner
Jan 23, 2026
Dan Boeckner, musician and cultural commentator, joins to chat Canadian politics, military planning, and media narratives. Short takes on Davos aesthetics and political justification. Spite as a driving political force. Skepticism about AI and mockery of absurd Arctic invasion scenarios.
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Episode notes
Aestheticizing Politics Normalizes Violence
- Davos and similar elite forums aestheticize politics to make horrors feel acceptable and pleasurable.
- Dan Boeckner and Riley argue that this lets powerful actors rationalize dehumanization while maintaining a fiction of moral purpose.
Spiteful Governance Forces Reckoning
- The Trump administration openly embraces violence and spite as policy tools rather than hiding them.
- Riley says that shift forces formerly complacent elites to actually articulate and act on what they truly believe.
Junior Partners Lose Ground When U.S. Turns
- Close ties to the U.S. leave junior partners like the UK and Canada politically unmoored when U.S. policy shifts.
- Riley argues domestic elites struggle to respond when the U.S. abandons previous implicit protections or priorities.