In this sprawling and questionably improvised episode, your slightly medicated and possibly menstruating host discusses everything from subject-matter-futility to contemporary colonizers attacking native temples. How is life in the jungle different from the zoo? What happens when propaganda is simply met with boring ol' truth? Social media is propaganda's plutonium. What's the relationship between moral imperatives and political violence? Enjoy the silence, Trump: The Second Season starts soon. And what about that search for lost or missing significance and meaning? Is there something more to it that we shouldn't ignore?
Monday, February 1, 2021
Monday, January 18, 2021
1/18/21 - American Zapatistas, Saboteur in Chief, The Lone Boogaloo
With troops flooding DC, Trump's term ends in two days time. Why doesn't it feel certain that it will? Was a nation of "patriots" suddenly afflicted with insurrectile dysfunction on Sunday? Is Donald Trump a foreign agent? Who cares? He performed like one. What lies at the confluence of technology & idiocracy? Also, letting escaped cultists find their way home, When Stories Attack: factional storytelling is propaganda, and Toddzilla stalks Telegram! How did this thing make it to 100?
https://toddzillax.substack.com
Monday, January 11, 2021
1/11/21 - Trump's Rebellion & The New Gatekeepers
Trump's insurrection and the religious mind: why are so many Americans committed to faith before facts? Were they rioters? Protesters? Activists? Terrorists? That's decided by propaganda's very peculiar perspective effect. Is this the end of Trumpism or the beginning of something even worse? When it comes to free speech, where's the line between "liberty and license? If people ignore free speech's responsibilities, should social media accounts be licensed? Should Silicon Valley be in the gatekeeping business? Also, what's the relationship between likability and demonization?
For Future Reference: https://toddzillax.substack.com
Monday, January 4, 2021
1/4/21 - All You Need Is Doubt
Fresh off his first motivational speaking tour, Todd returns to discuss uplifting topics such as why it's not necessary to conquer a democracy when a just little doubt'll do ya. Also, it's been relatively quiet on the streets lately. Is The Trump Militia all hat and no cattle or is something else at play? How can a nation avoid inevitable conflict when each half of the country functions according to different rules of factual physics? Is there a relationship between likability, deplorability, & disinformation? What's with the December Dead Zone? And, your host's persistent sense of existential hopelessness an argument for ending all digital political "discourse." Book those children's parties now!
For Future Reference: https://toddzillax.substack.com
Monday, November 2, 2020
11/2/20: 2020 Election: The Nero Referendum & Defending The Electoral College
Todd & Brian reflect both on where we've come from and where we're going as this electoral reality show finally ends. We explore the side effects of direct democracy's mob rule and why the Electoral College is absolutely essential. Also, how do we "rehumanize" ourselves and each other? What's the best case scenario to avoid post-election chaos and violence? Is it inevitable? How will our various factions perceive President Harris if Biden wins only to resign? What are the wider effects of our burgeoning "no compromise!" culture? Pre-election anxiety and fatigue: is it universal outside the fanatic's camp? What's the relationship between one-issue voters and Haidt's Elephant? Our media celebrities and influencers: are they simply clever fiction writers and talented performance artists? Winter: is it finally here? We'll know in a week.
"Safeguard" documentary: https://www.amazon.com/Safeguard-Electoral-College-Trent-England/dp/B08H6KH9QVLike it? Share it!
Monday, October 12, 2020
10/12/20 - The Whitmer Plot, Michigan's Militias, Socialism's Facade
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MUSIC: The Limbos & Paul Vernon
Monday, October 5, 2020
10/5/20 - The Trumptober Surprise; Leo Ryan & The Dennis Doctrine
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Monday, September 21, 2020
9/21/20 - Steinbeck, Murrow, and The Social Media Disease
Continuing the Social Dilemma theme, Todd and Brian delve further into the social, psychological, and personal effects of more than a decade of social media, including meeting members of their direct families for the first time directly via Facebook. Also, Todd's argument against monetization, digital reunions and the bizarre new expectation that, somehow, everyone from every epoch of our lives now deserves a seat at our virtual table. We also discuss the failed utopian vision of "informational democracy" and the essential nature of gatekeeper, learning how to both use these platforms as tools and sabotage the Zuckorithm, as well as possible macro and micro solutions. Is this a triage situation? The show closes with a surprise appearance by Edward R. Murrow and why informational anarchy and intellectual autonomy, not climate change, is the crisis of our time.
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Murrow's Text: https://www.rtdna.org/content/edward_r_murrow_s_1958_wires_lights_in_a_box_speech
Music by Paul Vernon
Monday, September 14, 2020
9/14/20 - The Social Dilemma: War of the Virtual Worlds
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- Reserve your seat on Toddzilla's 2021 Motivational Speaking Tour now!
- Children's parties: 50% off for a limited time!
Friday, September 11, 2020
9/11/20 - The Illusion of Knowledge & Democratized Opinion 2.0
Are we creating the democratic utopia many naively envisioned at the Internet's birth? Or, are we descending into hell on Earth unleashed by informational anarchy and the freed, and anonymous, human beast? A prelude to my deep dive into Ellul's Propaganda, this episode begins with a description of the DIKW pyramid then moves on to how Plato's Illusion of Knowledge fable applies to the digital Matrix dominated by Social Media, Google, and ostentatious sophists posing as "influencers."
Also: a discussion ofDr. Elias Aboujaoude's stellar book Virtually You and a one-sided examination of the God-Devil duality lurking inside each of us. Like it? Share it!
The Social Dilemma: watch It! https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224
Dr. Eli: http://www.eliasaboujaoude.com
His book: https://www.amazon.com/Virtually-You-Dangerous-Powers-Personality/dp/0393340546
Thursday, September 10, 2020
9/10/20 - Cyberspace Monkeys & The Boiling Caldera
Thanks for your patience, subscribers and new listeners. Like it? Share it! Then prepare yourselves. ;)
Thursday, June 18, 2020
6/18/20 - A "Real Conversation"? Allow Me to Retort...
Also: supporting lockdown protests and the 2A while mocking militia stalkers at the capitol, burning heretics and blasphemers at the free speech stake, influencers exploiting and monetizing catastrophe and chaos, electoral Ground Hog Day, and why Biden's VP choice is maybe more important than anything. Like it? Share it!
More: www.facebook.com/escapingthecave.com
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
6/16/20 - Activist Media, Dogma as God, Marrow of Humanity
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Beware the airlock: www.facebook.com/EscapingTheCave
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Propaganda or Education; Patriot or Traitor; Riot or Protest?
In one of many examples of how he knew the herd better than it knows itself, Edward Bernays, the man who took "propaganda" and rebranded it "public relations,"pointed out in the late 20's that whether you perceive something as "propaganda" or "education" depends upon what you've adopted to explain the world for you: your belief system; which god you worship. That's shamefully self-evident and explains why most are, almost literally, physically unable to consume "their" "news."
Whether you would have seen our 18th century mobs as "patriots" or "traitors" depended upon the same thing: chosen identity and an adopted perspective skewed by subjective "faith." Stampeding herd dynamics functioned the same in Boston and Philadelphia as in Paris, Moscow, Havana, and Berlin. The difference between these four and ours is that our founders understood and feared the mob. They attempted to straddle saddling a temporarily useful but snarling and unpredictably dangerous beast with long-term stability and "liberty."
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
3/24/20 - Incompetent Negligence and Economic Eugenics
Sacrifice yourselves at Mammon's Altar, proles! As coronavirus cases spike, your president holds a FOX News rally, decides the public health experts are wrong, and that the social distancing guidelines are "too extreme." Re-election trumps public health. Criminal negligence, the Dennis Doctrine, and our vulnerable healthcare workers. Where's Fauci? We're history's lab rats.
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--More: www.escapingthecave.com
Friday, March 20, 2020
3/20/20 - Informational Anarchy In A Pandemic
ALSO:
- Media exhaustion & anxiety
- Governmental malpractice
- Trillions in revenues sacrificed to a "hoax?" Really?
- Coronavirus & 9/11
- You can't be in a play and watch it at the same time
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020
2/26/20 - Social Media Disease: The Dopamine Drip
Listen to "Your Undivided Attention" here: https://humanetech.com/podcast/
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Friday, February 21, 2020
2/21/20 - Authenticity, The Mask, and The Beast Unleashed
A format change is underway. Make sure you're subscribed to an Escaping The Cave feed!
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
2/11/20 - Unimpressed Sobriety & Sanity's Touchstone
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* Also check out www.escapingthecave.com and www.christophermedia.net
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
10/30/19: Disinformation '16, Weaponized Truth, Hillary The Halloween Zombie
Listen to Your Undivided Attention here: https://humanetech.com/podcast/
ALSO:
- Hillary: probably right about Tulsi Gabbard
- Hillary: definitely right about Jill Stein
- Hillary: absolutely a Trump asset
- Hillary: continue your role as a public servant. Retire. Quietly.
- Americans subsidize European entitlements
- Trump's "foreign policy" could lead to universal education
- Media and Information Education: stat!
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*Also check out www.christophermedia.net www.escapingthecave.com