The Culture We Deserve

Why is everyone so worried about the Antichrist again? After 9/11, the Evangelicals were afraid the Antichrist would take over the United Nations. Now Peter Thiel thinks this demon of destruction might be Greta Thunberg, but it's possible he just took psychedelics while watching Constantine and got scared. Jessa and Nico discuss why we're afraid of the apocalypse again, and whether Trump will ever give us a good Mamdani nickname. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

America doesn't really make things. Even in its financial system, the highest rewards go to those who speculate, making bets on things that other people have created but creating nothing real or tangible in itself. Jessa and Nico discuss the difficulty in reversing the trend toward service and virtual production as well as the effects that working in the spectral rather than material realms has on a human. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Indiana is married to a brutish man who bullies and abuses her. She is followed around by her cousin Ralph, who loves her but remains a loyal friend to the man who stomps her on the face and kills her dog. Then there is Raymon, the scoundrel, who loves Indiana but is also sleeping with her maid Noun. It's a love pentagon, and somehow no one is having a very good time. George Sand's Indiana is a story about how women have adapted to and managed their lack of rights or ability to leave terrible husbands, but it's also a comedy about the impossibility of love under patriarchy. Join the book club discussion: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Greg Grandin, author of the new book America, América, said in an interview this week, "You don't beat fascists by calling fascists, fascists. You beat fascists by offering an alternative and a broad vision of social democracy." But that vision is stalled or mired in nostalgia. Nico and Jessa consider how people on the left from Chris Murphy to Gustavo Petro seem stuck in a 20th century leftism instead of envisioning 21st century solutions. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The day that Nico arrived in Colombia this week a presidential candidate was shot, reigniting old fears of perpetual chaos and instability. Meanwhile, Marines are on the streets of Los Angeles. When the Menswear guy gently suggested on social media that if people really cared about immigrants they should spend their time on real immigration cases and policy instead of burning cars, he was swiftly denounced as insufficiently revolutionary. In a time (again/always) of political violence, Jessa and Nico discuss the desire to complain over the desire to change and the provocation of empathy. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman wants to start a new brain drain -- starve industries like finance and consulting from the world's genius by redirecting Harvard grads into "good work." His new book is Moral Ambition, and in it he pleads with those who have a bit of talent, a bit of smarts, to use it to solve social problems rather than create them. Jessa and Nico go through the recent history of Elites Solving Problems, from Effective Altruism to Christian Missionaries to the Nonprofit Grift. But also ask, why does everyone start squirming when you suggest that perhaps you should actually live by those lofty ideals you have? Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The story of a young man, filled with fiery ambition, twisted political ideology, and resentment toward everyone and everything and utterly lacking adequate paternal guidance.... gee, I wonder why this might resonate in the age of incels, aspirational fascists, and Elon Musk reply-guys. The Revolution and Ruin podcast gets into 19th century France, manic pixie goth girls, misdirected rage, and why orphans have all the fun. Join the discussion: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

AI is hallucinating whole genocides now, our influencers are at war with the bots, and the only beacon of truth and ethical journalism is.... Jake Tapper? Good luck! Jessa and Nico get into the Tapper/Thompson book Original Sin about the cover-up of Biden's decline and why the press is largely ignoring some of its bombshell revelations. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

All our animals are going to die of bird flu, but at least we'll have raw milk cocktails to take the pain away. Casey Means was suggested for the Surgeon General post the same week that the sex cult/mindfulness startup OneTaste did their media redemption tour and the New York Times invited the wealthy and the celebrated to talk about their skincare regimens and if ruling the world stresses them out. We will all be so very well! We're all carrying flame retardant in our tissue but we are glowing from all the powdered collagen. (Justice for Marianne Williamson!) Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Are the jiu jitsu men radicalized? Are gyms a white nationalist training camp? Is protein a masculinist conspiracy? Will the swole take up arms in their big meaty arms and overthrow the government? There has been a lot of fear of the swole and the ripped, with Ezra Klein calling UFC a gateway drug to rightwing radicalization and the New York Times referring to Hasan's physique as a "MAGA body." Jessa and Nico dig into this fear of jocks, and whether rolling around on the floor with other men, your face in a sweaty crotch, turns you fascist. Shownotes and references (and join our Revolution and Ruin book club!): http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com