COVID-19: the media sounds like the Weather Channel sensationalizing a hurricane. They'd better get it right or the Aftertruth Age fully arrives. " There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. " Why doesn't matter. Also: -Competing incompatible "realities" -Personalized Informational Warfare -Informational becoming literal anarchy. "ToddzillaX" on most social media. LIKE, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjdLR140l--HufeRSAnj91A htt...
Mar 11, 2020•25 min•Ep. 70
The Michigan primary is here. Which will it be? The invasive ideology or the country? An extremist biopsy and how they're using our own poorly guarded institutions and exploiting hatred to hijack the political parties. "The fascists seize power to forestall the communists; the communists seize power to forestall the fascists": choosing between authoritarians and totalitarians means we all lose. Also, "Lizzie was sunk by sexism!" Was she? Was she really? --Don't settle for imitations! Be sure you...
Mar 06, 2020•41 min•Ep. 69
Super Tuesday Politics Dump. How did Biden revive himself? It's simple, really. Fighting extremism with extremism is suicide. Also, fanatical ideological religions, the UK canary in the colony's coal mine, our own wokeflake tumor, the Youthquake fantasy, and your righteous revolution: who's actually buying? --Don't settle for imitations! Be sure you're subscribed to an authentic Escaping The Cave feed! --Also check out www.escapingthecave.com --F*ck Twitter!...
Mar 05, 2020•51 min•Ep. 68
How will the for-profit boutique/reality show/agitation news media model affect how we respond to the virus? Have a drink. Make sure it's not bleach. Includes a quick introduction to Matt Taibbi's book Hate Inc. and material from Your Undivided Attention on the reality apathy and the abandonment of trust in public institutions and each other. "ToddzillaX" on most social media. LIKE, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjdLR140l--HufeRSAnj91A Rachel Botsman's Book: https://www...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 67
"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." Genuine courage is required to stand apart against the deafening conformity of the cowardly mob. Ask Andrew Sullivan! People are inherently tyrannical. Shared secular delusions: our 21st century religions. God needs the devil; Sapiens need an enemy. Lippmann, the fragility of free speech, and democracy's Achilles Heel: an ignorant "public." https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjdLR140l--HufeRSAnj91A https://toddzillax.substack.com https://www.t...
Feb 29, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Social validation & conformity: the evolutionary default setting. Why choosing intellectual autonomy over the herd is nearly impossible. Also, standing apart in self-reliance, the drifter, and mending holes in the firewall. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjdLR140l--HufeRSAnj91A https://toddzillax.substack.com https://www.twitch.tv/toddzillax https://www.escapingthecave.com/ Music by Yellow Pills! https://open.spotify.com/artist/7rDvBzvGcNPV3BYZ1n5VdZ...
Feb 27, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 65
"Whoever owns social validation..." Performance addiction and how the masses have become junkies gorging on validation's dopamine stream. How various influencers, including podcasters, have monetized validation in the name of "brand building". Propaganda, validation, dopamine, and Ellul's "conditioned response." How social momentum works: Tony McAleer on Your Undivided Attention. Also, how ideological boldness is a surefire sign of a propagandee. Listen to "Your Undivided Attention" here: https:...
Feb 26, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Of course Putin's playing both sides and assisting Bernie in the Democratic primary. It's about agitation, discord, and eroding the public's already fractured belief it itself, not ideology. This is the perfect insurgent agitation storm: who in this country are more divisive than Bernie, AOC, and Trump? The Russians aren't to blame. We are. Also, why Informational Education programs aren't coming, the simple and cynical reason our for-profit media outlets and political "leadership" won't help us...
Feb 24, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 63
On independent thought, authenticity, social momentum, and permitting redemption. Also, You're not the Elephant Whisperer, let Dumbo feed! Detecting doctrinaires, the Warm Glow of the Herd's Fellowship, manipulative monkeys dancing for their lunch, and a mask, the core, and the id walk into a bar. A format change is underway. Make sure you're subscribed to an Escaping The Cave feed!* More at www.escapingthecave.com .
Feb 21, 2020•29 min•Ep. 62
Toddzilla's latest Message of Hope formally introduces the loyal listener to Mr. Lippmann: a Man of the People! Touched on are Lippmann's "The Phantom Public", his iconoclastic thoughts on technologically pre-historic data overload, emotional detachment, objective reality, the presumed wisdom of We the People™, and democracy's fate. Have a drink first. Also, institutions and trust are dead, less-not-more is the answer, a defense of the "elites", a need for collective humility, and generalists vs...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 61
The Iowa Boner, The Rips Heard 'Round the World, and impeachment fails. All by Wednesday. This is the alternative? ALSO: Scripture, agitation, and The Herd Mind, Democracy implodes without the public's consensual trust, The means, ends, and Salem Witches, Romney, Amash, Manchin, and the Principled Pit of Hell, Howard Dean says Democrats will challenge November's election, * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net...
Feb 07, 2020•46 min•Ep. 60
"Imitation is suicide." How independent thought gets smothered in infancy, the need to belong: why standing apart from the impaired herd is not only hard, it runs against our social and evolutionary grain. Also, collective and self-delusions protecting us from unpleasant discoveries that might destroy our notions of being special, divine, or even "good." ALSO: -Tending to personal and commercial attachments -How political and marketing swine manipulate attachments via identity -Meditation and Bu...
Feb 01, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 59
The next great war: intellectual autonomy. The bold certainty of the herd, the challenges of independent thought and why seeing someone who is genuinely their own Man is so rare, the media has supplanted the church, disengaging from the ideological Holy War in favor of political atheism, and Toddzilla's Paradox: the conflict between intellectual independence and the desperate human need to belong. Still available for children's parties! Now doing bat mitzvahs! ALSO: A quick impeachment fart You ...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Hilary's flared up again, this time on Bernie's groin while Tulsi sues to find out if Valtrex is right for her. Also, It's time for the Democratic Socialist's Red Tea Party to get off the DNC's guest couch, pack their stuff, and find their own place. Go be a dragon, Daenerys. Also, Toddzilla didn't kill himself. * Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck * Also check out www.escapingthecave.com...
Jan 23, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Wokeflake Twitter was apoplectic when the Richmond pro-gun rally turned out to be peaceful while the rest of world asked, "What? No Antifa? Do they not believe in their holy crusade against Fascismo de Naranja?" Not really. No one asked that. I discuss Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, how it affected Gandhi and MLK, and how that's an unexpected and possible path for gun advocates to reclaiming the narrative. Also: The Invasive Species has a name The Democrat's fracture has gangrene Daenerys and the...
Jan 21, 2020•59 min•Ep. 56
Todd discusses collective human boredom in relation to the need for a sense of purpose, struggle, and the addictive rush of just feeling alive. How a dormant survival instinct comes alive during a crisis and how, absent that, we'll manufacture one just to have something to endure, battle, and survive. Also, some some predictions for the 20's. Book those children's parties now! Also: San Agustin, The Special Tour, and an evening with Pablo Escobar's "chemist" A naked man kills a fer-de-lance Men,...
Jan 15, 2020•55 min•Ep. 55
Happy 2020! Are we ready? After a 2-month hiatus spent illegally hunting rhinoceros and snipe in the wilds of the West Michigan wilderness, Todd welcomes the 20's with a quick episode discussing apocalyptic thinking, the coming electoral season, where to find balanced news coverage, and the rarely-used technique of actually listening to "opposition" media simply to understand where they're coming from. Eureka! *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.n...
Jan 13, 2020•32 min•Ep. 54
This episode focusses mostly on disinformation and interference in the 2016 election and includes selected audio clips from the Your Undivided Attention podcast episode "From Russia With Likes" (#1) featuring disinformation expert Renée DiResta. Her expertise connects incredibly well to my Propaganda series. Topics include: the seemingly innocent methods used by the Russians exploiting personal identity to create online communities that can be manipulated via agitative identity politics later on...
Oct 30, 2019•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 53
Trump's not actually retarded, is he? Pray with me, won't you? Also: Quitting smoking: it sucks Nicholas Carr and the "influencer" Goebbels ❤️'s Bernays My poor defenseless podcast is attacked by a zombie Happy Halloween? Fu*k Twitter *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net www.escapingthecave.com...
Oct 24, 2019•50 min•Ep. 52
Are you stuck trying to build a well-reasoned, impartial, and detached impeachment snowman from competing piles of steaming cable news shit? Yeah. Me too. The only lens that works: the wide-angle agitation propaganda lens. First, a virtual colon cleanse in the form of a micro-pod. ALSO: Fcuk Twitter Twice Hard *Like it? Share it. You are the "marketing" team. *Subscribe on any podcatcher that doesn't absolutely suck. *Also check out www.christophermedia.net www.escapingthecave.com...
Oct 09, 2019•31 min•Ep. 51
An introduction to LeBon, his ideas on mobs, and The Psychology of Revolution--specifically: hatred. The forthcoming electoral reality show, 2020's prepared script, how the spinoffs will be cast, and what happens when our Matrix Avatar Superheroes stumble into the Desert of the Real. ALSO: Unrealistic expectations inside the steaming pile of Twitter Was it your childhood dream to be Saul Goodman? More on pseudo-environments and internal narratives Fcuk Twitter. (Not a big part of the episode. Ju...
Oct 01, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 50
Institutions fail and democracy descends into mob rule when representative are paralyzed and terrorized by fear of their voters. Trump, Ukraine, and 2020's year-long electoral reality show disguised as an idealistic impeachment. Informational sectarianism and how it's easy to see "their" propaganda. Yours? Never! Their demagogue is your savior. There may be a way for a detaching informational unicorn treat that. MSNBC, CNN, and FOX are Pepsi, Coke, and Dr. Pepper; when everything is spin and pro...
Sep 27, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 49
"The fiction is taken as truth because the fiction is badly needed." A quick introduction to Walter Lippmann and the commonality between him, Ellul, Bernays, Haidt, and Harari. People can't personally perceive the world beyond their own sliver of firsthand experience. Therefore, the Current Events Man is beholden, dependent upon, and therefore exploited by the propagandist and his digital distortions. If democracy is demands an "enlightened citizenry", it's likely doomed from the start. Paradoxi...
Sep 26, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 48
A rare ETC podcast: one topic. The stage that was once the playground of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, and even Andrew Dice Clay has been stormed by a mob of Social Vengeance Warriors hell bent on using comedy as a delivery mechanism for textbook sociological and agitation propaganda, complete with its own version of the Ten Commandments (now in print!) and a handy scapegoat Satan. When does the "Thank You, Comrade!" showcase start? ALSO: Controlling speech is controllin...
Sep 24, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 47
Agitation propaganda doing its work, speechcrime taking root in the form of virtual media mobs enforcing cancel culture and its point-of-view authoritarianism, the Wokeflake Messiah will arrive soon, Newton's Third Law of Extremism, slave's spirituals and frightened children scrambling to the ideological church to be soothed by visions of a future Heaven on Earth. ALSO: Toxic Compromise The Election Won't Matter At all. Wokeflakes Becoming Trump We The Authoritarian People *The Propaganda and So...
Sep 18, 2019•47 min•Ep. 46
Social validation, dopamine, and social media's Walter White; the predictably ridiculous reaction to Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special and how comedy has evolved from truth telling to Wokeflake proselytizing; more on how people are more willing and eager than deceived when it comes to swallowing fiction and disinformation; choking on data leading to confused gullibility; honestly in a crisis; Sausage Party Hope: children demanding their happy ending. Where's the spring of genuine hope? ALS...
Sep 11, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Agitation and Integration: two often closely related but very different types of propagandas: one used to provoke internal conflict the other to shape members of a population into a mold. Agitation: The propaganda of insurgency and revolution. Includes how internal enemies are used as scapegoats to manufacture then exploit hatreds as means to an insurgent's end, Mao's view on "the enemy residing in every man" and fitting him into the "Socialist Mold", Hitler's internal agitation, spontaneous vol...
Aug 29, 2019•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 44
This quick primer episode is the uncomfortable preface to Jacques Ellul's agitation propaganda. I explore how our Matrix Avatars themselves act as agitation propaganda and the way the informational cyber-swamp has actually managed to monetize it. Also Ellul on the dangerous effects of suppressing innate drives and human nature, the Ideology of Happiness, the universal violent human instinct, the devastating effects of dissolving human domestication to unleash and exploit primal hatred, and the s...
Aug 28, 2019•51 min•Ep. 43
Propaganda's ambiguity and contradictions including: creating tensions while relieving others, the Outrage Media Complex and introduction to the companion propagandas: agitation and integration and how they overlap; self-justification and imposed guilt; attachment and ostracizing oneself to join the "enemy; politicization and privatization; " Why die for Danzig? ' and how political orphans benefit extremists and authoritarians. ALSO: Andrew Sullivan on the boomerang Post-Truth hatred and divisio...
Aug 22, 2019•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 42
On Ellul's "The Need For Propaganda." We've both developed a tolerance for and a psychological dependency on propaganda's certainty-stoking, justifying, and and self-worth generating narratives, social media is a propagandist's dream, desensitization and an increasing desire for the excitement felt from being immersed in the constant, and necessary stream of propaganda, how our addiction has allowed both traditional media and social media "influencers" to monetize the Outrage Industrial Complex,...
Aug 18, 2019•2 hr 25 min•Ep. 41
