Citations Needed1 Des 2021

Episode 150: How Economic Jargon and Cliches Make Cruel, Anti-Poor Policies Sound Sterile and Science-y (Part I)

"Supply and demand." "It's just Econ 101." "Most economists agree..." "There's always trade offs." Over and over, media and policymakers spew the same tired recitations meant to convey the seemingly natural, immutable laws of economics. "The economy," we're told, is thriving when business owners and job creators are making record profits, and failing when investments in social programs have simply grown too high — and that's the way it is and will, and should, always be. These terms, phrases and sentiments are part of a lexicon of economic euphemisms, cliches, and other forms of business-school speak designed to blur class lines and convince us that our economic system — entirely a result of policy choices largely designed to further enrich the wealthy at any the expense of the broader welfare — is a function of cold, hard science, with rules and principles no more pliable than those of physics or chemistry. But why should we be expected to just accept that a news report that "the economy" is on the upswing means the average worker is doing any better, when all evidence is to the contrary? Why should our media's economic so-called "experts" come from a pool of elite economics departments beholden to corporate donors and right-wing think tanks? And why must "the economy" be defined in terms of whether the Dow is up or down, instead of whether people have food, housing, healthcare, and job security? On this episode, part one of a two-part series, we examine the first five of our ten most popular clichés, jargon, and rhetorical thingamajigs that economists, economic reporters, and pundits use to sanitize, obscure, and provide a thin gloss of Science-ism to what is little more than power-flattering, cruel, racist, austerity ideology. Our guest is writer Hadas Thier.

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Episoder(383)

Ep 242 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 2: US Empire as Mysterious, Teleological Force

In this episode, we discuss how circular "inevitability" arguments have been used for centuries to justify war, expansionism and perpetual hostility — most recently against China. Our guest is organiz...

19 Aug 1h 16min

Ep 241 - The Disempowering Politics of 'Inevitability' Part 1: Data Centers and LLM as 'The Future'

In this episode, we breakdown the popular "inevitability" argument AI companies are using to bulldoze over democracy and how the "inevitability" line has been used to sell everything from Manifest Des...

12 Aug 1h 28min

News Brief: Very Serious New Yorker Article Launders Biden Officials' Responsibility for Gaza Genocide

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29 Jul 41min

News Brief: Why US Media Has Evoked Israel's "Right to Exist" 1,001 Times vs Only 6 For Palestine

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15 Jul 28min

Ep 240: How the Media's "Burden," the "Straining Resources" Framing Manufactures the Expendable Other

In this episode, we discuss the ideological work done by our media's default frame of immigrants, poor seniors, homeless people, and those with disabilities as "burdens" and "strains" on our limited r...

8 Jul 1h 34min

News Brief: Despite 9-Figure Infusion from Silicon Valley, Abundance Still Seeks Popular Support

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1 Jul 38min

News Brief: The ADL's Bogus Origin Story and Its Rise as Ideological Enforcer for Empire and Israel

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24 Jun 42min

Episode 239: The Vague, Capital-Serving Co-Optation of "Affordability" Politics

In this episode, we detail the long history of generic "affordability" discourse and how, post-Mamdani, it's become the go-to establishment buzzword justifying tax breaks for developers, deregulation,...

17 Jun 1h 20min