Listen now | This week on Krystal Kyle & Friends, we chat with Matt Taibbi about being deported from Uzbekistan for criticizing its president, staying at a monastery, and playing professional baseball in Uzbekistan and professional basketball in Mongolia — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As a regular viewer of Rising I know that Krystal is enthusiastic about Hate, Inc. I find it Taibbi's least convincing work for a number of reasons.
First, if MSM sells hate of one-another for ratings, terrifying everyone about their neighbors, the gift that keeps on giving, as Krystal put it, how come the ratings halved when Trump went away? I think what we see shows that the product was not hate but Trump.
Second, the Internet and social media developed the advertising model of hysteria as a driver of online and in-app engagement in the 15 years prior to 2015. They learned very early that angry people click and their algorithms naturally optimized and the result was the hysterical echo-chambers that we already knew well by 2010. Legacy media (newspapers, TV news) were in a death spiral until they discovered in 2015/16 they could use Trump to provoke hysteria and drives ad and sub sales.
Third, if the legacy media product were simply hysteria/hate, as it was already in social/new media, then there would be no coherence to its ideology, as is the case online. But what we see instead is a very coherent ideological support of status-quo/centrism. CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo all support a very clear pro-status quo political agenda and the central Hate, Inc. story cannot explain that.
So while Hate, Inc. documents important shifts in legacy media since 2015, I think we still need political economy and the propaganda model to understand it as part of a larger system of power.
Great interview. I'm at the part where you're talking about 2008. I'm getting outraged again just listening to it.
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END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
Corporate personhood is a license for crime. If a corporation commits a crime, who goes to jail?
One very important point that I think so many people miss is that there is no such thing as a corporation, there are only people. People working for these corporations are shielded from personal liability for outright malfeasance; they get their golden parachutes and walk away unscathed. Crimes get committed, no one goes to jail. Corporations have the rights of a person with none of the responsibilities or personal accountability. Without personal accountability it's an invitation to very bad behavior, which is exactly what we see in so many cases.
We need to change the rules so that if someone is guilty of deliberate malfeasance or criminal negligence, they are held personally responsible and personally can go to jail.
Corporate personhood is not a sexy topic and most people don't even know what it means but it has a huge effect on our lives. You might want to have Thom Hartmann on to talk about it.
Krystal, I don't know if you have thought through just how big a deal Corporate Personhood is and how much it underlies so much of the screwing of the American public. I think you need to start making a big point of highlighting all the inherent corruption and bad behavior that results from no personal accountability.
The discussion about inflation is missing something. There is inflation, namely asset price inflation. How much of the billions that Bezos's wealth increased during covid is due to inflation? Nobody knows because asset price inflation is not measured in the same way as inflation of goods and services. This in itself is interesting. Why is the inflation of financial products exempt from scrutiny? Anyway, what was missing from the discussion was that asset price inflation is indeed harmful because even if asset price inflation does not increase ordinary inflation it does increases the power of the billionaire class over politics and ordinary people.
I watch very little cable programming...will tune into Al Jezeera to find out what is happening internationally and go online to read US news....cable news appeals to the lowest common denominator trying to capture eyeballs with bursts of news following the time honored tradition "if it bleeds it leads" of journalism...if you think and analyze you won't find much on cable TV...I stream foreign detective movies which are designed to be intriguing without commercials
Also I am retired and have social security and a pension, not much ($2,000/mo.) Still, before pandemic I was able to volunteer with food bank and soup kitchen plus I help out with caretaking my grandkids. I love this. The money is not the point.
Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition is a good book on the history of work/life balance going waaaaay back. Taibbi is lucky they didn't put him to work in the cotton fields like most Uzbeks though it does sound like he might have enjoyed it for a spell.
I guess when Matt says that he doesn't know anybody in the US it ain't true, but I admitted that he didn't want to continuing consuming since we have plain censoring of the private Life this days but I that don't depend of writing I can say that I write better with gear.
Congrats on getting Taibbi to talk about his colorful past.....very entertaining.
love the show, thanks guys. subscribed.
As a regular viewer of Rising I know that Krystal is enthusiastic about Hate, Inc. I find it Taibbi's least convincing work for a number of reasons.
First, if MSM sells hate of one-another for ratings, terrifying everyone about their neighbors, the gift that keeps on giving, as Krystal put it, how come the ratings halved when Trump went away? I think what we see shows that the product was not hate but Trump.
Second, the Internet and social media developed the advertising model of hysteria as a driver of online and in-app engagement in the 15 years prior to 2015. They learned very early that angry people click and their algorithms naturally optimized and the result was the hysterical echo-chambers that we already knew well by 2010. Legacy media (newspapers, TV news) were in a death spiral until they discovered in 2015/16 they could use Trump to provoke hysteria and drives ad and sub sales.
Third, if the legacy media product were simply hysteria/hate, as it was already in social/new media, then there would be no coherence to its ideology, as is the case online. But what we see instead is a very coherent ideological support of status-quo/centrism. CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo all support a very clear pro-status quo political agenda and the central Hate, Inc. story cannot explain that.
So while Hate, Inc. documents important shifts in legacy media since 2015, I think we still need political economy and the propaganda model to understand it as part of a larger system of power.
Great interview. I'm at the part where you're talking about 2008. I'm getting outraged again just listening to it.
--
END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
Corporate personhood is a license for crime. If a corporation commits a crime, who goes to jail?
One very important point that I think so many people miss is that there is no such thing as a corporation, there are only people. People working for these corporations are shielded from personal liability for outright malfeasance; they get their golden parachutes and walk away unscathed. Crimes get committed, no one goes to jail. Corporations have the rights of a person with none of the responsibilities or personal accountability. Without personal accountability it's an invitation to very bad behavior, which is exactly what we see in so many cases.
We need to change the rules so that if someone is guilty of deliberate malfeasance or criminal negligence, they are held personally responsible and personally can go to jail.
Corporate personhood is not a sexy topic and most people don't even know what it means but it has a huge effect on our lives. You might want to have Thom Hartmann on to talk about it.
Krystal, I don't know if you have thought through just how big a deal Corporate Personhood is and how much it underlies so much of the screwing of the American public. I think you need to start making a big point of highlighting all the inherent corruption and bad behavior that results from no personal accountability.
Corporate Personhood needs to go
The discussion about inflation is missing something. There is inflation, namely asset price inflation. How much of the billions that Bezos's wealth increased during covid is due to inflation? Nobody knows because asset price inflation is not measured in the same way as inflation of goods and services. This in itself is interesting. Why is the inflation of financial products exempt from scrutiny? Anyway, what was missing from the discussion was that asset price inflation is indeed harmful because even if asset price inflation does not increase ordinary inflation it does increases the power of the billionaire class over politics and ordinary people.
When women became part of the workforce, they should have cut work time by 50%.
Great interview!You two work well together.
Best interview yet ! What an incredible story Matt has to tell.
This is great. I always wanted to know how he ended up playing basketball in Mongolia. Is there an awkward pause at 37:50, or an editing skip?
I watch very little cable programming...will tune into Al Jezeera to find out what is happening internationally and go online to read US news....cable news appeals to the lowest common denominator trying to capture eyeballs with bursts of news following the time honored tradition "if it bleeds it leads" of journalism...if you think and analyze you won't find much on cable TV...I stream foreign detective movies which are designed to be intriguing without commercials
Also I am retired and have social security and a pension, not much ($2,000/mo.) Still, before pandemic I was able to volunteer with food bank and soup kitchen plus I help out with caretaking my grandkids. I love this. The money is not the point.
Acts 16:31, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 1 Peter 1:17-21, Revelation 22:18-19
Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition is a good book on the history of work/life balance going waaaaay back. Taibbi is lucky they didn't put him to work in the cotton fields like most Uzbeks though it does sound like he might have enjoyed it for a spell.
Recently published my own take on this idea of working to live. Love the show keep it up!
https://itsnotjustyou.substack.com/p/why-are-we-sold-the-idea-of-a-dream?r=e6d4z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
I guess when Matt says that he doesn't know anybody in the US it ain't true, but I admitted that he didn't want to continuing consuming since we have plain censoring of the private Life this days but I that don't depend of writing I can say that I write better with gear.
The Greek rice pudding reference: Whenever you go into an american greek diner, you will find rice pudding on the menu.