Welcome back to another week of Krystal Kyle & Friends, bringing you conversations with the thinkers, writers, and organizers bringing rich political and economic discussion to the American and global left. We’ve got a special show for you this week: we’re bringing on Matt Christman, of Chapo Trap House fame and also a commentator, author, and Twitter known quantity. While the biting humor and sharp insight of shows like Chapo helped us make sense of the political terrain over the past two presidential elections and continue to do so in this post-Bernie 2020 moment, we’re also hoping to bring a little attention to something that might not get enough airtime in leftist political discussion: optimism.
Yes, the American left has been dealt truly unbelievable cards following and including Bernie’s defeat in the 2020 election, an election that seemed to unite different tendencies and personalities on the left that have since had a hard time finding such common ground. With the austerity and broken promises of the Biden presidency, the unprecedented challenges faced by working people during the COVID pandemic, and the economic squeeze on everyday Americans that has only continued to tighten its grip in recent months, it’s often a challenge to consider the role that optimism might legitimately play in our political forecast. But, with Matt, we mean to think about and talk through whether this is a moment to indulge our bleakest and most pessimistic tendencies — or whether we have good cause to look forward with hope to what it’s possible for the still-surviving left to build.
Of course, that’s not all: we’ll be digging into the hot-button current events at the fore of this week’s news. If you can’t wait until the show releases on Friday for paying subscribers (Saturday for everyone, in audio format), check out Krystal and Saagar’s coverage of the massive crisis that’s left Jackson, the capital city of Mississippi, without drinking water indefinitely — a story that should be consuming domestic news cycles, but has (like the crisis in Flint) gone largely ignored in mainstream media. And on Secular Talk, Kyle discusses whether impeachment is on the way for President Biden. We hope to see you on Friday.
I have been listening to you both for a long time. And Kyle, frankly, you’re a lucky (and very deserving) guy! Thank you both for your intellect, scrutiny and devotion to a coherent post left populist framework that strives for intellectual honesty and consistency with passion! I love how Kyle insists on digging into where the disagreement lies between you and guests as well as celebrating the overlaps in the ven diagram. I feel like Krystal has taken some of that fire back to Breaking Points in recent months and made that show even stronger as a result. You’re a joy to listen to and I’m finally done free loading and becoming a subscriber. Thank you both so much!
So I already watched the episode, and these were my thoughts BEFORE watching the episode:
I hope there is a time for the political optimism, but for the time being, I don't see any political optimism. Because, it seems as though everyone has gone back to brunch, as soon as Biden was sworn into office. Among them include, people stopped voting in primaries for anti-capitalist leftist candidates; the movement that was amassed throughout the Trump era has been dissipated; people stopped consuming news, because they feel they are going to lose their minds if they are overwhelmed with countless negativity the world; and it feels like people are just giving up and accepting that there is no hope for the future of this country, that it might as well as just enter the abyss and do noting about. Because they think, 'we thought it had a chance to put it towards a bright future', but they were wrong. So what's the point for being optimistic? The easy solution is to just check out of politics and just move on with your day.