Standing Athwart History, Yelling "Slop!" (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.

On Monday, Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo posted this: "The Right's collective brain is getting melted in a vat of slop, conspiracy, and algorithm-chasing. An intelligent man will guard himself against all of it." Given that Rufo was, after J.D. Vance, perhaps the most prominent Haitians-are-eating-pets-in-Ohio conspiracy theorist in the country, his complaint generated many, many responses rightfully calling him out for his lack of self-awareness and his own role in mainstreaming such a politics. As our friend John Ganz wrote, "Is this hypocrisy, stupidity, or unabashed malevolence? Try all three: it’s politics. Specifically, it’s the politics of the American Conservative Movement. People cry out for a new William F. Buckley. Give the title to Rufo, I say; he’s doing the job already."

In this episode we talked to Ganz about how the dynamic Rufo identified has always been a feature of the postwar conservative movement, stretching back at least to William F. Buckley, Jr. and Brent Bozell's defense of McCarthyism; what's distinctive about the Right's present slop era, especially the alignment of conservative movement propagandists, the Republican Party, and the state; populism and the "Madisonian model"; and more!

Sources:

John Ganz, "I Told You So..." Unpopular Front, Feb 24, 2026

— "Finding Neverland: The American right’s doomed quest to rid itself of Trumpism," New Republic, Feb 17, 2020

Olivia Bellusci, "Candace Owens Drops Trailer for Investigative Series About Erika Kirk Months After Charlie’s Death," Yahoo, Feb 24, 2026

Matthew Sitman, "Riding the Trump Tiger," Commonweal, Aug 7, 2015

Nathan Taylor Pemberton, "Is ‘Slopulism’ Shaping Our Politics?" New York Times, Feb 13, 2026

Ruby Cramer, "You Don't Know Bernie Sanders," Buzzfeed, Dec 16, 2019.

Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, (1982)

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(266)

Project 2025 Implodes (w/ Mary Harris)

An extra episode for you: Sam went on Slate's What Next podcast (hosted by Mary Harris) to discuss the rise and fall of the Heritage Foundation's Trump transition project — Project 2025. Is it dead?...

5 Elo 202423min

Trump Survives, Biden Doesn't. Where Are We? [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemyIn the week-and-a-half since we last offered you, our beloved subscribers, the highest quality election punditry a...

23 Heinä 20245min

Yoram Hazony’s Israeli Model (w/ Suzanne Schneider)

Last week, as Israel continued to prosecute its eliminationist war against Palestinians in Gaza, an eclectic group of right-wing bigwigs gathered in Washington, DC for the fourth iteration of the Nati...

19 Heinä 20241h 6min

If Joe’s Cooked, What Now? (w/ Ettingermentum) [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemyJust about two weeks ago, we gave a nearly real-time reaction to Joe Biden's catastrophically inept performance in...

12 Heinä 20244min

The Wolfe in the White Suit (w/ Osita Nwanevu) [UNLOCKED]

We took the holiday week off, so we're sharing an episode from behind the paywall. Coming soon: new episodes on The Biden Problem, SCOTUS, and Israeli illiberalism as an inspiration for the global ri...

5 Heinä 20241h 34min

Joe's Gotta Go [Teaser]

Subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to listen to this premium episode, and all of our bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/knowyourenemy We watched it, and you probably did too. Here is our anal...

30 Kesä 20244min

Has the Far Right Won in Europe? (w/ David Adler & David Broder) [Teaser]

We're joined by two experts on European politics to explain the EU parliamentary election results: David Adler, general coordinator of the Progressive International, and David Broder, historian of Ita...

28 Kesä 20243min

When the Clock Broke (w/ John Ganz)

Something happened to America — and to American conservatism — in the early 1990s: an unspooling, a coarsening, a turn from substance to symbol and from narrative to fragment; prevailing political myt...

24 Kesä 20241h 31min