He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion… Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them…he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
- John Stuart Mill
I can’t help but agree with you, most conservative media is so smug and smarmy, it’s insufferable. “Don’t Walk, Run!” is an example, same with Piers Morgan. Like, can’t these guys say their piece without acting like fucking Ben Shapiro? It’s rare you find a regular, lucid guy just talking about political news or having discussions with the other side.
I’m fascinated by Anna Kasparian’s political evolution over the past year, and I’m almost tempted to see what TYT are up to these days.
Yeah, I fell off of TYT in 2017 or 2018 for a lot of the same reasons I can’t stand listening to right-wing pundits; a lot of smug and little information (mostly from Cenk). I hadn’t heard anything about Ana Kasperian. What happened with her?
There are some leftist podcasts that I like, but they are kinda just angry and unproductive, like The Insurgents; I only listen to them when I’m deeply angry or they have a good guest. The Lever is probably the best new left-wing podcast I’m listening to right now, and the Majority Report is always great.
Ana seems to have become a lot less radical/“everyone I disagree with is a Nazi” than she used to be. Not to say she still isn’t far-left, but that she’s now more willing to talk to and be friends with, say, Trump voters. She has been going on more moderate and right-leaning podcasts etc and having healthy debates and not just screeching like she was famous for doing in 2016.
That’s why like Emma Vigeland. She’s calm, cool, and pretty open minded, and when things do get confrontational, it’s Tim Pool that’s screeching, not her.
She went on some rants about taking offense to the term ‘birthing person’ and got expressly angry that Cenk’s nephew got rich off Twitch so she kinda put out there she’s willing to grift for money. Which sucks.