We return! Backer-only episode in which we chat about our recent lengthy hiatus, our lengthy journey to IDSG, the lengthy rise of fascism, our favourite lengthy YouTube videos, and, by way of contrast, Chris Cantwell's penis. Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper/posts Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618&fan_landing=true Content Warnings. Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay independent. Patrons get exclusive access to one full extra episode a month. IDSG Twitter: https://twitter.com/idsgpod Daniel's Twitter: @danieleharper Jack's (Locked) Twitter: @_Jack_Graham_ Jack's Bluesky: @timescarcass.bsky.social Daniel's Bluesky: @danielharper.bsky.social IDSG on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-speak-german/id1449848509?ls=1
I know more about Cantwell's dick than any reasonable person should know.
So, I stand behind that tweet.
This is I Don't Speak German.
Here, we talk about the far right, their fellow travellers, and what they say to each other when they think we're not listening.
The show is hosted by Daniel Harper and me, Jack Graham.
We're both he-him.
Be aware, we cover difficult, sometimes nasty subject matter, so content warnings always apply.
You know, 2022 was rough for you and 2023 was rough for me, And hopefully 2024 will be better for both of us, until Donald Trump gets re-elected.
And then, well, then we just get to rake in the money.
That's when we've got to come back.
We've got to get back in the game for November, when everybody starts to panic again.
We're on it, don't worry, we're here.
What we need to do is, you know, we need to get on the whole, you know, every time he makes a speech and says something stupid, we release a separate five-minute YouTube video with, you know, Donald Trump has total meltdown, Donald Trump unhinged, Donald Trump comes apart at the seams in unhinged rant, you know.
And just, you know, get the old Skillshare.
Yeah, no, that'll do it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely, yeah.
God.
Clearly the way you do it.
Clearly the resistance.
Just to milk the resistance libs for everything they have, you know?
I mean, 2016 was eight years ago now.
know yeah people i mean 2016 was eight years ago now like it's that's just it means i've been listening to these shitheads every day for like eight years now like yeah yeah That's crazy.
Because it's longer than that as well because the Trump thing was going on for a year before he became the president.
So really it's, you know, it's getting on for a decade.
A decade this shit has been going on now.
Yep, yep.
I mean, and the Manosphere stuff was, I mean, you know, obviously that was, that goes back even further than that.
And, you know, the kind of the Reactionary stuff with the new atheism.
I mean, you know, it's like, but the, I feel like 2015 is sort of the, like this online toxic subculture, like fed into the mainstream for the first time.
And I feel like that's where, uh, you know, there does seem to be like a clear dividing line.
Everything that we were talking about in 2014 and 2015 in these circles and everything that we've been talking about in terms of like these like truly toxic online communities, all of that is completely mainstream now.
When we started talking about James Lindsay and he started the groomer thing, I remember the first couple of times he was saying, okay, groomer to people, I remember you saying, oh, this is going to take off.
This is going to take off.
This is going to be everywhere.
And lo and behold, Well, it's like it it's such a it was such a like potent weapon and it was weaponized by people who Rufo and Lindsey Rufo in particular knows exactly what the fuck you know, there's absolutely and he's like That's the thing is like everybody comments like everybody who's paying attention comments on like he tells you exactly the move He's making he says it out loud.
He mocks people and then does the thing and then it works and And there's no amount of explaining this to people, because ultimately, the point is that the people in positions of authority want it to happen.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
You hear that all the time.
You hear people commenting on Rufo, and it's like, oh, he just admits what he's doing.
And it's like, yes, that's the point!
He's telling you what he's doing and it's still working.
You're not owning him by pointing out what he's doing.
You're not owning him by pointing out that he's telling you what he's doing.
None of that is owning him.
He has comprehensively won.
He has evolved beyond the Twitter dunk, you know, ultimately.
There is no Twitter dunk big enough.
to reduce his power, because ultimately he is paid by powerful people to do this.
And, you know, anybody with any kind of institutional power on the other side has no interest in combating him on the levels that they need to combat him, you know?
So it's just, it's... There is a social movement.
There is a social movement that all this finds a comfortable bed in.
Yes, okay, Donald Trump is not doing as well as he thinks he is, or as well as he'd like to be.
Okay, that doesn't mean the social movement hasn't gone away.
A bit of it that is comprised of the Republican base is wobbly on their figurehead.
That's all we're talking about here.
The social movement that we told you was building is still there.
I would hate to refer to them in any way connecting to the wobblies.
I know what you mean, really.
Sorry, just had to tell the terrible joke there.
For me, I think there's the institutional Republican backing or the right-wing conservative
Backing like all the money stuff, you know the Manhattan Institute when we're talking about Rufo and you know that sort of thing and then there's kind of the broader social movement and it's a reactionary social movement, you know, like the you know, the The response to like trans children getting proper health care is not Based on any kind of like material need in the lives of the people who are protesting it it's not based on any it's based purely on this like reaction to like
The untouchable suddenly being given, like, the slightest modicum of, like, personal respect within institutional power structures.
Like, the tiniest bit, the one moment of, like, maybe after two years you can have, like, some kind of healthcare.
And it's like, you know, reach for the smelling salts.
And of course, It is kind of like the, you know, like the gay marriage issue.
Like, you know, you know, it was like once people, a whole lot of people, once they like met a gay person and it was just like, no, I just want to get married so I don't have to like not see my partner when they're on the deathbed or whatever, you know, like, oh yeah, no, that makes sense.
You know, once it becomes like a humanizing element, And I think that the same thing kind of happens with trans people is that it's, it's, you know, it's very easy.
And a lot of people for, for a lot of people to just sort of like demonize the, the, the terrible, you know, the terrible drag queens who are like grooming your kids.
Oh yeah, there's no overwhelming majority social mandate for this stuff.
Right.
No, absolutely.
And that's kind of what I'm saying is like this question of, I feel like a lot of the analysis that I see publicly kind of lacking on this stuff is about that sort of like, that this is like purely reactionary, that this is not like built on any kind of material politics, right?
Yeah.
And I mean, not that this is any news to you or if we put this out to our listeners at all.
But it is it is, I think, important to note that it is important to, you know, kind of keep that in mind as we kind of think about this in the future.
And something like I just always come back to is like, what is the actual thing?
Is there an actual thing that these people are complaining about?
And like, what is what is the way that we could, you know, kind of solve that?
You know, what is the way we can do something with that?
I think the meeting point between the movement from above, if you like, the big conservative movement, the big conservative donors, the think tanks, the institutes, all this shit, the meeting point between them and the fascist movement from below, or we should say from the middle, because it's largely from the middle, because they always are, is the hatred of democracy, is the fear and the hatred of democracy.
That's the fundamental thing.
And you always have to be careful when you're talking about things like this, because I don't want to make it sound like I'm saying The transphobia, organized transphobia, and organized queerphobia and stuff like that.
I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's nothing to do with bigotry.
Obviously it's to do with bigotry.
There's a hell of a lot of bigotry.
Trans bigotry is the animating principle of the modern fascist movement.
It's just, it's bread and butter.
But the fundamental meeting point, I think, is the mutual hatred of democracy.
And the thing that increased rights and increased visibility and increased dignity and equitable treatment in culture and society and language and medicine and all this stuff, For trans people, just like increased access to equality of legal rights for gay people, it's all fundamentally from an expansion, or an attempt to expand, democracy.
Because these things wouldn't be happening if there weren't some little victories being made towards greater democracy.
greater representation of people because you know that's that's why it's getting to these people because people are fighting for and struggling for greater access to democracy and they're getting it so democracy is expanding so it's within the reach of more people and that's why you have things like the the the increased ability of trans people to be visible and to demand rights and demand medical care and stuff like this that they need and that is absolutely anathema to those two
It's anathema, obviously, it's obvious why it's anathema to Big Capital and their ideological representations in the organized political and ideological right.
And it's also anathema to that middle, that fascist movement middle layer, because they don't want to get rid of the system that their prosperity is based upon, but they want to keep and increase their prosperity.
They can't, therefore, get rid of the people above them.
What they have to do is keep the people below them squashed down.
And I'm afraid that's all you're getting of that, at least for the time being.
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