The Propaganda opus resumes with Ellul's take on psychic "dissociation". Includes more on wordknapping, how righteous and simplistic propaganda narratives silence the self and numb natural cognitive dissonance, replacing reality with the electronic eyes of the "verbal universe", the effects of disconnecting a person's personal opinion in favor of an acceptable "public" opinion, and how opposing propagandas affect the target. ALSO: Democratic Socialists: as ridiculous during Occupy as at their "c...
Aug 15, 2019•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 40
Todd, Chris and Rich discuss the Dayton shooter's leftist leanings being swept aside, poking the Crackerbear and how a real conflict between Woke Island and Trumptown might resemble an episode of "Lambs to the Wolves", Los Tíos Tom Blancos and their own dignity, informational chum agitating swarming ideological sharks, how suppressing a defeated ideological Holy War enemy might look in the 21st century, and we revisit "reparations" just to, you know, lighten things up. (Send the bill to Boris!) ...
Aug 10, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 39
After more shootings, Chris & Rich rejoin the show to discuss our "news" (propaganda) consumption, and the predictably tribal response. We're malleable psychological adolescents and clearly unprepared for this informational responsibility. Also, the same recycled arguments with a few new propaganda twists, did you know the Dayton killer was a self-proclaimed Leftist? Is it coincidence that most "news" coverage is in El Paso? Remote rhetorical assaults and the usefulness of "physical accounta...
Aug 08, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 38
How propaganda acts as an informational virus to destroy critical thought and alienate the person from himself. More on data overload, the uninformed Current Events Man knowing a little about everything and a lot about nothing, mistaking feelings for thought, having to accept or reject an entire doctrine in total, losing intellectual autonomy, and how artificial tensions are often accompanied by dubious solutions. ALSO: Artificial solutions to real needs Real solutions to artificial needs "Influ...
Aug 06, 2019•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 37
The conclusion of Ellul's "Psychological Crystallization" featuring the makeup of its slogans & how they're used to replace thought. Also, collective belief and obsessions, self-justification/rationalizations and how they spawn the self-righteous Puritan, the closing of the crystallized mind, propaganda's religious personality, and the bizarre media phenomenon: monetizing your mind rape. ALSO: - Marianne Williamson: The New Trump? - Introducing the father of American propaganda: Edward Berna...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Begins with a takedown of "white privilege", self-flagellation vs. self-interest, and the asinine/futile demands of our Social Vengeance Warriors; beware the boomerang, Moonbeam. From there, I move on to Ellul's dissection of how propaganda hijacks the political cultist's mind. The first of two parts, this episode focusses on the distinction between doctrine and critical though as well as homogenous thought, codifying social, political, and moral standards, exploiting latent pre-existing prejudi...
Aug 01, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Propaganda isn't what you may think. Ellul's ideas on pre-propaganda, propaganda's conditioned reflexes, myths, and "orthopraxy". Including the triggering of active and passive action (activists, influencers, collaborators), widespread participation by "committed" zealots, the separation between thought and action, exploiting the abyss between what we say and what we do, mobilizing men for action counter to their own values, and being unable to reverse ourselves once "action" has begun. ALSO: Ex...
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 34
More on agitation propaganda and the psychological effects of propaganda including: loss of individuality, suppression of critical thought, creation of the mob and how critical thought is literally impossible as part of a group, the creation of a fanatically self-righteous social "conscious" leading to the demonization of the out-group, and more on the sphere of the sacred. Then, how propaganda partitions society (identity politics) via verbal fiction creating sects of victims who only speak "to...
Jul 28, 2019•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Congressional grandstanding for the cameras, Mueller's testimony: viewed and spun in parallel universes, deciding whether to read the report, voting your own self-interest (Yes! Do it!), the Current Events Man, asking the right questions, when boutique news becomes fatal, and the sacred Golden Calves. Also: Leaving the mob Evolution lurks Mythology and the Devil within *Like it? SPREAD IT! F **k The Zuckerbeast & Twitter. YOU are my marketing team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and ...
Jul 25, 2019•50 min•Ep. 32
The extreme left's totalitarian purity test and its search for Utopia's messiah; self-righteous moral certainty and the narcissistic narratives of the secular humanist religion. Then, agitation propaganda creates armies of proselytes and militants while unleashing an uncontrollable and destabilizing primal hatred for "the evil other." No one's immune; would you even know if you're devouring propaganda? ALSO: Silent Collaborators The Sunday School of political insemination Political missionaries ...
Jul 22, 2019•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Todd, Chris, and Rich discuss how the left always inadvertently triggers heated nationalism with its self-defeating renouncement of patriotism and Zinnification: exploiting idealistic naiveté; how Zinnified agitation propaganda attacks national unity by destroying symbols and cohesively fictitious myths. Also: “Racism” isn’t a "white thing" nor exclusively an American trait The ridiculous notion that propaganda-farting fleshbots are “changing minds” The slow crawl of social progress Paying Grand...
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 30
Chris & Rich sit in on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. We discuss the achievement, the courage of those undertaking it, and how subsequent generations were cheated of their signature crowning moment in history. ALSO: -Data overload, informational suffocation, and how the compulsive "current events man" is actually less informed. -Are we "really" evolving? -Patriotic appreciation vs. copycat anti-Americanism *Like it? SPREAD IT! F **k The Zuckerbeast & Twitter. YOU are my marketing tea...
Jul 17, 2019•53 min•Ep. 29
"He who defines is your master." More on twisting definitions as a malicious propaganda tool, how institutional propaganda systems affect a population, and where a species oblivious of its own shortcomings ultimately ends up. Also: -Communing with the organic dead -There's no such thing as collective critical thought -Intelligence as a handicap -Foreshadowing a Walter Lippmann re-think *Like it? Share it! F **k The Zuckerbeast & Typhoid Jack. YOU'RE the marketing team. *Subscribe on your fav...
Jul 08, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Definitions, journalism as a euphemism for propaganda, Amash goes rogue, Antifa gets played by Patreon's punching bag, I have a creative reparations solution, FOX gets savvy and begins filling a void. Part two coming soon. Also, -What happened to our Nuremberg rally? -More on these ridiculous Democratic debates -Justice isn't real -Is the extremist worm turning? *Like it? SPREAD IT! F **k The Zuck & Twitter. YOU are my marketing team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and your favorite ...
Jul 05, 2019•57 min•Ep. 27
A digital detox update and re-connecting with the organic world, Trump's 4th of July spectacle and the predictable "outrage", why I'm rooting against the US women's soccer team, the ridiculous debates, and half as many young people consider themselves "gay allies." Why? Beware the boomerang! Also: -Social media is the new talk radio -Visceral emotive manipulation and monetized propaganda -Algorithms as propaganda delivery systems *Like it? SPREAD IT! F **k The Zuck & Twitter. YOU are my mark...
Jul 03, 2019•57 min•Ep. 26
Are we representing ourselves accurately via these one dimensional social media avatars? I update the digital detox progress and talk about my over-amplified virtual projection, Toddzilla, destroying meaningful relationships, how the tweet is in the eye of the beholder, missing a funeral for a friend, and maybe a faint glimmer of not-so-Sausage Party Hope. *Like it? SHARE IT! F **k The Zuck & Twitter. You are the marketing team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and your favorite podcat...
Jun 27, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 25
How does someone whose life is based online digitally detox? Good question. Let's find out; here's how it's going to start. Should be a hoot! *Like it? SPREAD IT! F **k The Zuck & Twitter. YOU are my marketing team. *Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and your favorite podcatcher. Missing one? Tell me! *Check out www.escapingthecave.com & www.christophermedia.net...
Jun 25, 2019•34 min•Ep. 24
Hi New Zealand! Find yourself logging onto to the LaBrea Twitter Pit or Facebook and suddenly you've lost far more time to it than you intended? Me too. More on Digitally Enhanced Avatars, Digital Detox as a treatment for a distorted virtual perception/socialization as well as depression, anxiety, cynicism, and generalized anger. Also, -The universal nature of both our inner and shared stories -Propaganda is a story. -What happens when conflicting propagandas collide? -Social Vengeance Warriors ...
Jun 21, 2019•56 min•Ep. 23
Wrapping things up with Chris & Rich, we discuss how public relations is, literally, a euphemism for propaganda, manufacturing opinion, euphemisms and twisting words to fit the propagandist's purpose, informational overload creating political non-entities, and partisanship rotting political, cultural and social institutions. Also: -Abandoning basic American principles; Patriotism's vicious backlash -Social upheaval or an authoritarian police state resulting from the governed revoking their c...
Jun 17, 2019•53 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Todd, Rich, and Chris discuss the unwiring of social evolution, totalitarian tribes spawning skittish clones, and an exhausted "center" with nowhere to land that's not infested by puritans. Also: the outright refusal to see our own team's propaganda, the "wisdom" of youth, and more on thoughtless opinions and how "branding" affects Social Media Political Influencers. Like it? Share it. F**k Twitter. You're the marketing team. More: www.escapingthecave.com...
Jun 13, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Cyber Space Monkeys continued. In part 1-of-3, I'm joined by Chris & Rich to discuss the effects of social media on individuals and society as a whole. Propaganda kerosene and the disinformation detonator, the connection between road rage and net rage, much of the IDW: for-profit social media brands and "right adjacent" influencers producing "content" for handouts, Nicholas Carr and how the Internet physically changes our brains, good deeds done solely to post the selfie, and more. Like it? ...
Jun 12, 2019•53 min•Season 1Ep. 20
No Politics! Lots of drilling to the "get the f**k away from me!" meltdown core. -Bulls**t Jousting -The truth probably won't set you free -Sausage Party Hope and the fueling Audacity of Belief -How & why disinformation works: a first person play-by-play. More: www.escapingthecave.com Visit: www.christophermedia.com Also: www.christophermedia.net You found it. Now, subscribe, ya jerk. What's the matter with you?...
Jun 07, 2019•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 19
“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” -Lippmann. At 35:25: The difference between clever & smart and more on the DIKW pyramid and what happens when citizens ignore corrupt data. The first 35-minutes: - Justin Amash and the criticism from the left. - Mueller's fumble and the Democrat's ensuing demand that he star in their 2020 reality show/campaign ad. - To Impeach or not Impeach: just do it o...
May 31, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Technology enables, and social media perpetuates, informational anarchy and prioritizes the cheap appearance of knowledge over fostering knowledge itself. Also, how the Internet changes cognition and the abandonment of expertise to the holy opinion: "my ignorance is equal to your knowledge." Also: -The DIKW pyramid and drowning in data. -The Id on Parade, the natural state of man, and Leviathan. -What happens when reasonable voices abandon the public square to mindless mobs of roving avatars? -W...
May 23, 2019•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Unsophisticated media consumers and the failure to take personal responsibility for our own intellectual maintenance. The surrender of the individual's intellectual autonomy to the conformist mob. How mobs-cells no longer need to leave the couch and are now free to anonymously molest & terrorize the "other" via Twitter, Facebook, and their phones. Also: Social Media Influencers and how the Media 101 Model applies to them Emerson on independent thought, conformity, and consistency The abandon...
May 14, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Haidt's elephant and how it relates to our constitutional crisis, rising authoritarianism, and our likely dystopian future. "Evolution didn't end with opposable thumbs." The thin veneer of civilization Self-dehumanization Extremists v. Moderate The Social Media Disease
May 10, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Parties, their power-first representatives and constituents, fundamentalist ideologues, extremists, etc. are failing everyone. Government institutions are melting down and the faith of the governed along with it. Hey! What could possibly go wrong?!? Need more Toddzilla? 1) Seek help. 2) Click the links. You can listen on your way to therapy. More episodes/subscribe: www.escapingthecave.com My travel archives: www.toddzillaX.com...
May 07, 2019•59 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Confused as to why your righteous demands aren't being met? Behold! Narratives, mythology, religion, and how they bind us together The Grand Design & Ideological Religions Making Enemies of Allies Haidt's Elephant Intellectual refinement and allowing yourself (and others) to make mistakes and change your mind External Truth and Reason Authoritarian creep No Hitler references! www.escapingthecave.com https://soundcloud.com/toddzillax Use as directed....
May 04, 2019•58 min•Ep. 13
Are you wondering why every source of "news" and information sucks? It's because everyone from MSNBC to NPR to FOX to Alex Jones to Social Media "Influencers" operate according to the same for-profit model: drawing eyeballs to their product to sell someone else's. The re-resurrection begins by re-laying the foundation. More on the way. Need more Toddzilla? 1) Seek help. 2) Click the links. You can listen on your way to therapy. More episodes/subscribe: www.escapingthecave.com My travel archives:...
Apr 29, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 12
First Social Media Disease antibiotic treatment. Starting with an X-Pod flashback to 2014, Todd discusses Cambridge Analytica before turning to more recent effects of our collective addiction to social media on society and how a bilateral abandonment of a commitment to basic common facts--in favor of tasty propaganda--is having a dehumanizing effect and rapidly eroding the social contract. Also: cyber space monkeys, avatars showing off for each other in the Matrix, and the digital-organic hybrid...
Mar 24, 2018•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 11
