This Machine Kills24 Apr 2025

Patreon Preview – 402. Crypto Empire of the Sons

We return to an old enemy of the show by discussing the latest developments in the crypto industry. We trace how crypto has evolved from a grift largely focused on defrauding retail investors into a grift now focused on creating financial infrastructure to facilitate very direct and obvious forms of political influence peddling. Of course, the Greater Idiot Theory still holds as many investors still think that bitcoin is a hedge against the stock market and a reservere of stable value in a volatile economy, but the crypto industry is now driven by the needs of the greatest idiots of them all: Donald J. Trump and Family. Also, here are links for the pictures we were joking about in the beginning: https://x.com/captgouda24/status/1913254322864894178 and https://x.com/luke_d_ismas/status/1913406583188369497 ••• Crypto Crime is Legal | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-81/ ••• Trump’s Newest Grift: Building a Cryptocurrency Empire While Destroying its Regulators | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/trump-crypto-empire/ ••• TMK in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

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Episoder(492)

469. The Maniacs are Running the Asylum (ft. Nikhil Suresh)

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Patreon Preview – 468. Vibes Make the World Go Round

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30 Jul 9min

467. Industrial Policy by Other Means (ft. Matt Haugen, Jesse Goldstein)

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24 Jul 1h 25min

Patreon Preview – 466. I’m Evil as Shit

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18 Jul 10min

465. Malcolm X1 Technologies

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10 Jul 1h 25min

Patreon Preview – 464. Pep Rally

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2 Jul 7min

463. The Abuse is the Point (ft. Ben Somers)

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26 Jun 1h 33min

Patreon Preview – 462. Somebody’s Really Gotta Do Something

If every billionaire is a policy failure, then the world’s first trillionaire is a far more serious omen of collapse. We spend this episode talking about Muskism, reflecting on an economy that is raci...

19 Jun 7min