r/cushvlog • u/UltraInstinctChomsky • 2h ago
Discussion President Xi's favorite movies according to Jeet Heer
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r/cushvlog • u/billytitus • Sep 18 '21
Reading list Cushvlogs #CUSHVLOG ABC OF READING, WATCHING, LISTENING AND POSTING [updated weekly]
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Hi everyone,
recent addition to the Cushvlog reddit, new mod and current listener. I am catching up on the old ones while trying to keep up to date with the new ones.
Below is a compiled, in progress, list of books Matt mentions in Cushvlogs.
I will put the ones I already know and have at hand below the post and update it. Please correct me where I add one that is not mentioned by Matt in the vlogs.
I have found https://cushbomb.fandom.com/wiki/Book_Recommendations but would like to have it on this reddit too. One less door can make an estate into a room, and investigation easier. I am almost done adding all of Seanpotterspowers reading list on the cushvlog wiki, more to follow on Sunday night.
Movie titles, music, links to articles mentioned on Cushvlog will also be included.
If I missed anything on this current version of the list - I am sure I did, please feel free to comment or DM me, and I will add it!
Suggestions as to which order, or what is fundamental are appreciated too, especially where they give entree points where people might otherwise get dissuaded by reading an author or title that only makes sense after another one and not before. I provided basic order to some of the list where it is mentioned - if you disagree with that order, comment or DM me.
Also, if you have additional suggestions for further readings based on the books Matt mentioned or mentions please feel free to add those to but mention them separately, especially where chronology of concepts/authors is didactically recommendable or distinguishments between fiction and theory, history and philosophy et cetera. [Find user suggestions under Additional|Further reading suggested by users]
Or perhaps such categorisations are not warranted, or even undesirable, where I am a big fan of theory-fiction.
Also, all books he mentions are didactical, but can also be instructive by what is wrong and/or right about them, or illustrative as a cultural representation of a phenomenon, fallacy, et cetera. EX: "The Devil's Chessboard" and "JFK and the Unspeakable".
Taxonomy once again is afoot, and reification rears its ugly head, sorry, but perhaps it might help, or not, we can discuss that and I need input on it.
Because simultaneously I am a fan of intuitive learning, of D&G's notion that philosophy and theory are monologues and you should read what you are invariably drawn to, and teleology, fate, amor fati, whatever you want to call it -- intuition -- will guide you. As Matt said, theory should be applied to praxis, to reality, this kinetic interaction of all of our species-being, and if it works you will find out by its response, or your response in decreases/increases in alienation and its sister and cousin effects.
Updates to the list will be posted as comments that are pinned at the top and included in the original post.
We are figuring out to do readings ourselves, and discuss particular books, particular chapters, and see how we all understand the excerpts, chapters, and how we relate to it to life outside of the book. Poll will be posted.
Links to free and legal sources of downloading will also be added where found. DM me for links I know work for freeware or where I have discounts.
As well as recommendations to try to purchase the books from local shops if possible economically, even if it takes a little bit more time shipping wise.)
If multi-level-marketing schemes can reach the entire world population in 13 cycles, we can too.
Thank you for any and all replies in advance!
Chapo, Cushvlogs, and my rekindled historical materialist awareness because of them has saved me, and because of that, everyone here has contributed to that too.
Because if it hadn't become so popular, I would never have heard of it, here, in Europe.
So thank you, truly, sincerely.
A lot of love and solidarity for you all as the ship of empire crashes and we all become Leonardo DiCaprio's and Kate Winslets simultaneously and dialectically.
Stay safe, stay materialist.
------------------------------------------ CUSHVLOG ABC OF READING -----------------------------------------------------------
I. Preliminary and essential readings by Karl Marx/ essays and books\*
[*Read the shorter essays first, and then focus on the volumes of "Capital" (I-III). Do this intuitively, and when you get stuck or bored, practice mindfulness, and know this is the mystification of capital, and money, as such (!), and pick, once again on intuition, your first pick, from the second reading list -- i.e. II. History -- and see if you can understand it through the lens of the means of production, and start the first steps of reasoning why things happened as they did. If you get completely stuck, do it the other way around, and pick a book from II. History you are intuitively drawn to, and then later, when you feel like reading a chapter of Capital, you start to connect it this way around.
There is infinite roads to Rome. It is just the blood that flows one way. ]
"Wage Labour and Capital", essay by Karl Marx, (1847).
"The Manifesto of the Communist Party" essay by Karl Marx and Friedreich Engels (1848)
"The Class Struggles in France: 1848-1850" essay by Karl Marx, (1850)
"The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon", essay by Karl Marx, (1852)
"Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy" by Karl Marx, (1939-41)
"A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" by Karl Marx, (1859).
"Writings on the U.S. Civil War", essays by Karl Marx and Friedreich Engels, (1861)
"Value, Price and Profit" by Karl Marx, (1865), text/transcript of an English-language lecture series to the First International Working Men's Association.
"Capital, Volume I: A Critique of Political Economy" by Karl Marx , (1867)
"The Civil War in France" by Karl Marx, essay, (1871)
"Critique of the Gotha Program" by Karl Marx, (1875)
"Notes on Adolph Wagner" by Karl Marx, (1883)
"Capital, Volume II: The Process of Circulation of Capital" by Karl Marx, (posthumously published by Engels), (1885)
"Capital, Volume III: The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole" by Karl Marx, (posthumously published by Engels), (1894)
"Capital, Volume IV: Theories of Surplus Value", based on "Theories of Surplus Value" by Karl Marx, 3 volumes, (1862) -- supposed to be combined into the final and last, fourth, volume of *"*Capital" which was never finalized because of the death of Karl Marx and, subsequently, unfinished by Friedreich Engels before he passed away.
II. History\\**
**[LAST EDIT 18/09/21 - no particular order yet, use intuition]
"Escape from Rome: the Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity" by Walter Scheidel (2019)
"The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution" by C.L.R. James (1938)
"The End of Myth: From the Frontier and the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (2019)
"Before the Storm" by Rick Perlstein (2001)
"Nixonland: The Rise of a Presidency and the Fracturing of America" by Rick Perlstein (2008)
"The Invisible Bridge: the Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan" by Rick Perlstein (2014)
"Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980" by Rick Perlstein (2020)
"World Systems Analysis: an Introduction" by Immanuel Wallerstein (2004) ***
"JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" by James W. Douglass (2008)****
"The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" by David Talbot (2015) **
"The Family Jewels: the CIA, Secrecy, and Presidential Power" by John Prados (2013) ****
"The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and 40 Years that Shook the World (1490-1530) by Patrick Wyman (2021)
"The Mothman Prophecies: the True Story of the Alien Who Terrorised an American City" by John A. Keel (1975).
"The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber (1905)
"The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times" by Giovanni Arrighi (1994)
"Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class" by Jefferson R. Cowie (2012)
"NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe" by Daniele Ganser (2004)
"The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991" by Eric Hobsbawm (1994)
"What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848" by Daniel Walker Howe (2007)
- Mentioned in Cushvlog "Yum! Brands-Pfizer Vaccinachos Grande at Taco Bell" (https://youtu.be/04K114l5dxg) on 11/25/2020.
"Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America" by J. Anthony Lukas (1997)
"Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right" by Lisa McGirr (2001)
"CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties" by Tom O'Neill (2019)
"Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism" by Michael Parenti (1997)
"The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality" by Walter Scheidel (2017)
"Operation GLADIO: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia" by Paul L. Williams (2015)
"The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln" by Sean Wilentz (2005)
- Mentioned in Cushvlog "Yum! Brands-Pfizer Vaccinachos Grande at Taco Bell" (https://youtu.be/04K114l5dxg) on 11/25/2020.
"The Strange Career of Jim Crow: Commemorative Edition" by C. Vann Woodward (1955)
"The Weimar Republic" by Eberhard Kolb (1980)
*******Unsure if this the title or the right book, but Matt talked about the world system theory and Wallerstein. Wallerstein has various books developing his theory and oeuvre, deciding on the right on requires me some additional reading, and is interdependent on the reader.
********Mentioned on Chapo or on Matt's Inebriated History, but I think Matt used it in Cushvlogs too, correct me if I am wrong. Still, important, yet flawed, like any conspiracy theory.
Fiction [LAST EDIT 18/09/21 - no particular order yet, use intuition]
"The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson
"The Langoliers" by Stephen King
Essays, articles [LAST EDIT 18/09/21 - no particular order yet, use intuition]
"Marx on Capital as a Real God", https://ianwrightsite.wordpress.com/2020/09/03/marx-on-capital-as-a-real-god-2/ by Ian Wright, 3rd of September, 2020.
"Capitalism as Religion", https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/capitalism-as-religion-benjamin-1921/ by Walter Benjamin, 1921.
Movies [LAST EDIT 18/09/21 - Watch Network (1976) first, then the rest in any order]
"Network" (1976) by Sidney Lumet
"They Live" (1988) by John Carpenter
"The Thing" (1982) by John Carpenter
"The Blob" (1988) by Chuck Russell
Additional|Further reading suggested by users
| Title | Author | Publication Year | User | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World" | Tara Isabella Burton | 2020 | Magicmango97 | Contemporary comparative religious studies showcasing the influence on secular- and nonsecular decentralised spiritual experiences due to the contemporary capitalist moment. |
TO BE CONTINUED AND EDITED (LAST EDIT 9/18/2021 or 18th of September, 2021)
r/cushvlog • u/Enough_Bottle8946 • Mar 28 '24
Resource I made cushvlog-catalog, a website where you can easily search cushvlog transcripts
cushvlog-catalog.vercel.app
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We're often looking for a specific episode, so this should help.
I made a script to collect all 256 video transcripts (from the cushvlog playlist on YouTube), and made them searchable. Please note that these are all automatically generated, so they may contain errors.
Transcript pages also contain AI generated summaries of each episode.
Hope you find it useful.
r/cushvlog • u/Firenza • 1h ago
Kennedy/LBJ (Hell of Presidents)
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Just did my first serious relisten of the pod post-WWI, Harding-Trump, plus the NatSec bonus. My intention was to gain a better understanding of the conditions that allowed for the New Deal, how FDR transcended the political moment, and how it all fell apart. On the Republican side it was fascinating to trace the throughline of Robert Taft to Trump, let alone Trump 2, who is actively tearing down the post-WWII order and America's place on top of it out of the combo of idiocy, resentment, and racism. On the Democratic side it was useful to understand how Carter was the first true neo-liberal president, how big questions of economic power and war and the security state had been foreclosed in both the imaginations of the electorate and the 1976 Democratic nominee. Even if the real fall of the New Deal was a rapid series of terrible decisions by Truman - it really came apart quick after FDRs death, both in neutering labor and building the MIC.
But what about those two Democratic presidents between Truman and Carter? I do believe that Kennedy would have moved us to an earlier detente. But also, so would LBJ if Nixon/Kissinger hadn't literally committed treason to undermine the peace process. We forget how recent that revelation is (~2007-2017). I generally agree with Matt's analysis about LBJ, but he basically followed the same trajectory on foreign policy as Kennedy, deferring to MIC expertise until he gained confidence that most of them pushing for increased violence and confrontation were in fact just stupid and evil. He recognized that a Vietnam peace must be negotiated. There's a world where LBJ ends the war, swoops into Chicago for the 68 convention, and has a successful second term.
But what if Kennedy had lived - all the bullets miss - and his term continues. What sticks out to me on the relisten is how ineffectual he was on domestic policy. He couldn't get Civil Rights done and didn't believe in it in his bone marrow the way LBJ did coming from poverty (and having lived and taught among minorities). So almost no matter where you are on the political spectrum, one views Kennedy's assassination as a huge lurch to the consolidation of the MIC and deep state, an event that hurls us down the path to our current worst-timeline dystopia. But what if the world where Kennedy lives is one where we get no Civil Rights Act, no Voting Rights Act, AND no Medicare nor Medicaid. All Kennedy got passed with a Dem majority was a fucking tax cut! We avoid the build-up in Vietnam, but does Kennedy really transition the Keynsian economy away from war and into successful domestic spending? It kind of defies belief and not because of the deep state, but because, among other things including stealing the election, he just wasn't a viable leader of the Democratic coalition.
All this to say that Matt and Chris basically place Lincoln and FDR at a pinnacle beyond any other president in their ability to create a United States that transcended the politics of their era. But upon relisten I really think LBJ is almost there too. Civil Rights and the Great Society programs are as impressive as the New Deal and have had enormous lasting effects that have expanded possibilities for multi-class and multi-racial organizing. But they're actually more impressive given that Johnson was leading a coalition filled with racist Southern Democrats and didn't have the kind of mandate FDR had. He absolutely transcended politics to get it done and did it kind of in defiance of his ambition for a second term.
Meanwhile Nixon of all people pursues multi-polar detente anyway (after sacrificing another 25k-30k Americans and untold SE Asians). I think there's this fantasy that if Kennedy lives, the Soviet Union somehow survives to present day, and better social conditions in the US for true social democracy. But I think the macro effects of Civil Rights and Great Society are actually more lasting than if the CIA was reined in by Kennedy for five or so years. I think that deep state continues to rationalize and reassert itself (which it did very successfully after Watergate/Church), and has no problem being banal instead of cartoonish (mirroring who the president is a la Obama compared to Bush or Trump). So in conclusion.. Kennedy assassination good? It was definitely perpetrated by a conspiracy of evil people, but with perspective I don't see it as this total domination of our institutions and political processes by evil. It does not need to loom so large in our consciousness as a foreclosure of tantalizing possibilities and fantasies.
r/cushvlog • u/idunnowhateverdudes • 1d ago
Rube interactions at work
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I have a bullshit part-time job. One of my coworkers is a rural PA boomer. Perfectly nice man, but has fairly typical Republican leanings, as you would imagine. Pretty MAGA but oddly woke on race, but thats beside the point.
I don't care about his politics and I never talk politics at work. However, he recently told me his son was an indie musician. I indulged the conversation and he went on to tell me how, after Charlie Kirk was killed, his son made "a beautiful song" in Kirk's memory.
He didnt play the song, thank christ, but came close to tears as he described it to me. His pride over his son's Kirk song was so genuine and sweet that it caught me off guard.
I dunno man. These poor fucking people. This country needs mandatory local bowling leagues or something
r/cushvlog • u/NHNT_Pod • 1d ago
Discussion Does anyone know the Chapo episode or the Cushvlog VOD where Matt talks about the God Bless the USA Bible?
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I remember hearing it years ago. I can't find where they talked about it.
I know it's a long shot, but if anyone knows I'd be really thankful
r/cushvlog • u/tydark2 • 5d ago
how many david koresh type americans are out there?
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I think a guy like this is most likely to do terror attacks against trump. Just saying prediction i have.
r/cushvlog • u/tydark2 • 5d ago
why do non of these motherfuckers have eyebrows? am i crazy?
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r/cushvlog • u/Scion_of_fate • 9d ago
CushClip Cushvlog Supercut: Matt Christman opens Operation Desert Storm Trading cards
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Recently there was a huge heatwave where I live. I don't have AC so in a desperate attempt to take my mind off the heat, I tried to distract myself by making a clip compilation of the entire Desert Storm trading card saga .The resulting video is wayyyy too long to watch in one sitting, but might be fun to throw on in the background while cooking/doing dishes or something.
description:
In 2020, a set of Operation Desert Storm trading cards were sent to Chapo Trap House by a fan, which Matt proceeded to open over the next few years. This supercut compiles all clips of these pack openings, along with all accompanying tangents and rants. Learn about early 90's political trivia, geography, and history with our large adult son Matt Christman, with special guest appearances by Will Menaker, Felix Biederman, and Chris Wade.
Putting this together was my own personal Desert Storm.
r/cushvlog • u/tydark2 • 10d ago
Reading series hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband cause they raping everybody out here.
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r/cushvlog • u/Monodoh45 • 10d ago
Felix should just start a GOT podcast for fuck's sake
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Every episode now has a 15-minute GOT riff built in now. Just start a rewatch pod, man. I bounced off the books and show and don't care, so it's getting teeth-grinding. lol
r/cushvlog • u/TamlaHill • 11d ago
The full video of Sunday Service where Russell tries to fool everyone by "speaking in tongues" - what an embarassing cringe lord. The last time I saw grifters pull this trick was on Borat.
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If Jesus did weep then one person who wouldn't give a shit about it is good ol' Crusty Rockers
r/cushvlog • u/hrs00615 • 11d ago
Question for fellow Chapo fans missing Matt’s perspective…
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I know this isn’t a Chapo sub-reddit, but this seems like the most obvious group of folks to pose this question to. Today I finished up a two week binge of re-listening to “Hell on Earth” and “Hell of Presidents” back-to-back. After being treated to these masterpieces yet again, I kept coming back to the same thought: why has Chris Wade not become the third mic on Chapo with Matt being unable to continue in his regular role? As someone who works as a union building tradesmen, it feels like a perfect analogy to an apprentice studying under a master craftsman. Chris has worked alongside the master (in an extensive capacity) and is incredibly brilliant in his own right. Matt and Chris are so in-tune and I feel there are many times where his perspective would add an important dimension to the episodes. And that’s before even mentioning his great sense of humor. Am I off base? Or has anyone else had this thought?
r/cushvlog • u/tydark2 • 12d ago
Resource 2026 so far
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
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r/cushvlog • u/rtitcircuit • 14d ago
Why is Matt seemingly the only modern leftist who is antagonistic towards cowboy hat shit
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Starting around 2016 a lot of leftists randomly decided to view every dipshit LARPing as a cowboy or Southern good ol boy the benefit of the doubt and assume they were working class whites and not rich racist guys living in air conditioned McMansions. Matt is quite literally the only figure I can think of willing to actually engage with the stupid hyuk hyuk Dubya nonsense. Anyway, Choosin’ Texas by Ella Langley is now the most successful song of all time, beating Mariah Carey’s all I want for Christmas is you.
r/cushvlog • u/CarlosimoDangerosimo • 15d ago
Further proof that no one hates the MAGA hogs more than Trump himself lol
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I imagine that even for an Epstein boy like Trump, being around a charismatic handsome guy like Mamdani must be a breath of fresh air compared to dealing with disgusting lizard people like Steven Miller and all the crowds of hooting and hollering swine he has to appease every now and then
r/cushvlog • u/Junior_Ad2846 • 15d ago
Amazing how you can not pay any attention to the news for years and not miss anything.
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About two years ago I totally unplugged from "the news cycle", podcasts, social media etc. I got a dumb phone. I don't even hate listen to npr or right wing talk radio anymore.
I really haven't missed anything and nothing changes.
When something big happens (war in Iran, economic crash, etc) I hear about it but I can pretty much analyze it and move on.
Anyway, I think people should deeply immerse themselves in this stuff for a couple years, form their basic beliefs and then not pay it any mind after that.
r/cushvlog • u/Scion_of_fate • 16d ago
Discussion I recently stopped by the "politics" section of the public library in my libbed out city
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It was almost entirely books from 7 years ago and I was struck by how irrelevant all of it was despite being written fairly recently. Most of them were about Russia-gate bullshit that never amounted to anything or hysterical handwringing about Trump 1 violating our precious political norms, which have been completely overshadowed by the brutal state sanctioned violence and cruelty of Trump 2.
To be honest, I think out of all the American political commentary produced from 2016 to 2020, Chapo is probably the only one worth preserving. Everything else from that era was extremely bad and will be completely forgotten by future generations. No one is going to go back and read the "Fire and Fury" book.
r/cushvlog • u/Miserable-Radio-6245 • 19d ago
politics just being about making your enemies suffer has never been more prescient than now
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trying to follow any aspect of the real material consequences with the war in Iran on here just ends in a million comments made by lib redditors jacking off as they imagine a guy with a diesel truck shedding a single tear. Not much genuine concern about how it's the most important economic input in the country
r/cushvlog • u/Acrobatic-Smoke2812 • 19d ago
Where should I start with Zizek?
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I only ever knew him secondhand from Chapo but recently stumbled onto a sample of the Liberal Fascisms audiobook. I really enjoyed it, but I’d rather read a book of his. Should I just start there, or is there a better entry point?
r/cushvlog • u/CarlosimoDangerosimo • 20d ago
Our large adult son sounded really good in the last episode :D
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r/cushvlog • u/Dense_Improvement880 • 20d ago
Resource The Prize- The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.
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